International Curators coming to Backwater Artists Group

Backwater Artists Group are excited to announce that we will work with two International curators as part of our Artistic Programme for 2027.

The initial selection process will take place through the Backwater website.

Deniz Kirkali (UK/TURKEY) will curate a members group exhibition for The Punishment Block, Spike Island, in June 2027.

Deniz Kirkali is a curator and writer based between Istanbul and London. She holds an MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London and a BS in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. She has co-founded topsoil, a transnational curatorial and research collective, and Garp Sessions, a summer programme in Babakale, Turkey. She was the curator of Reciprocity Muscles at Cala, Berlin, My Dear Friends at Depo, Istanbul and Make it Hot, Cool it Down, Turn it Over in London; and the assistant curator of the 10th BACA Award Exhibition at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, the Pavilion of Turkey at the 58th Venice Biennale, and BAHAR, the Istanbul offsite project of Sharjah Biennial 13. Her writings have been published in international magazines and platforms such as AQNB, Flash Art, this is tomorrow, Art Rabbit, We are Europe, Cogito, Art Unlimited and Manifold. She is the co-author of Otomy, published in 2022 by Onagore and winner of Volumes Book Award 2022. She has edited Fire Walk, an artist book by Ulgen Semerci and Burcu Yagcioglu, funded by the European Union. She is currently working as one of the editors of Garp Sessions Book, funded by SAHA. She is also currently doing her PhD in Advanced Practices at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Antonio Cervera Fontenla (ALICANTE/CUBA/UK) will curate a members’ group exhibition in Studio 12, in November 2027.

Antonio Cervera is a cultural manager, curator and researcher whose practice is grounded in contemporary art as a space for critical knowledge production. He has worked as assistant curator at Factoría Diseño and Factoría Habana, the latter affiliated with the Office of the City Historian of Havana (OHC), and has experience in curating, cultural research and the management of artistic spaces, including C5 Colección, Factoría Compostela, A Chocolataría, Interview Room 11 (Edinburgh), Espai Bigueta and Espai Art-Kos.
He holds degrees from the University of A Coruña (Spain) and the Università degli Studi di Pavia (Italy). His curatorial and research practice focuses on the analysis of cultural identity, territory and memory from a situated, relational and decolonial perspective. Drawing on applied anthropological research and fieldwork, his work is particularly concerned with the contemporary reinterpretation of intangible cultural heritage at risk of disappearance, understood not as a remnant of the past, but as a living system of knowledge, practices and relationships in constant transformation.
Cervera regularly collaborates with Print and Art Edition Magazine (G&E) and Fundación Ankaria, and is currently developing site-responsive, collaborative projects in international contexts.