Richard Castelli (born May 9, 1961) is a producer, artistic consultant and curator of numerous exhibitions associated with art, science, performance, or new technologies.[1]
From 1982 to 2003, he started as producer of the French new music bandArt Zoyd,[2] for which he also designed the lighting of the shows and graphics of the LPs and CDs.
During this period, he wrote scripts and directed short and medium-length films with the music of the band, among othersDernière danse (1982) andCeremony (1984), Art Zoyd - Ceremonie with Philippe Blanc, Art Zoyd & VorgängeUpon the Heath (1988) with Christophe Jouret awarded Best musical film by theRio de Janeiro International Film Festival and First Prize of the Estavar Festival), and broadcast on several channels worldwide.
In the '90s, he became head of programming of two national theatres in France, Le Manège scène nationale inMaubeuge from 1990 to 2007 and Maison des Arts of Creteil from 1993 to 2007.[3]
During this period, he initiated the co-production of international projects with theatre directorsRobert Lepage,Peter Stein,Robert Wilson among others, and he specifically developed the Exit festival in Creteil and the Via festival in Maubeuge, as well as media art exhibitions[4] featuring Gregory Barsamian,Luc Courchesne, Du Zhenjun,Dumb Type,Masaki Fujihata,Ulrike Gabriel, Granular-Synthesis,Seiko Mikami,Christian Moeller,Gordon Monahan,Michael Saup,Jeffrey Shaw,Chiharu Shiota,Pierrick Sorin, Studio Azzurro,Time's Up, Mary Ziegler, among others.
He was Senior Curator ofLille 2004 - European Capital of Culture[5] (1999-2005), then Lille 3000 (2005-2007).
In 1995, Richard Castelli founded Epidemic (the name refers toLars von Trier's movie[6]), a production company supporting international artists in the field of performing arts and new media. The artists produced by Epidemic since its creation are theatre/cinema directors Jean Michel Bruyère (France) andRobert Lepage (Canada), new media artistsDumb Type (Japan), Du Zhenjun (China),Ivana Franke (Croatia), Granular-Synthesis,Kurt Hentschlager (Austria),Shiro Takatani (Japan),Ulf Langheinrich (Germany),Jeffrey Shaw (Australia) andSarah Kenderdine (New Zealand),The User (Canada), music composer and visual artistRyoji Ikeda (Japan), choreographersÉdouard Lock (Canada), Rihoko Sato andSaburo Teshigawara (Japan).
In 2005, Richard Castelli expanded the activities of Epidemic with the creation of an exhibition department[7] to present artworks of the leading new media artists in the fields of digital art, sound and light art, robotic art, etc. He curated several exhibitions in Germany (Licht! Ljus! Lumière! atHaus der Berliner Festspiele in 2005 andVom Funken zum Pixel atMartin-Gropius-Bau in 2007–2008,[8] in Berlin), and co-curatedThe Art of Immersion I withDennis Del Favero andPeter Weibel at theZKM - Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe in 2017-2018.[9] Recently he was appointed as chief curator of the exhibitionDimensions, Digital Arts since 1859 featuring about 60 artworks from the pioneers to contemporary artists in a space covering 10,000 square meters of a former factory in Leipzig in 2023. In 2024, he co-curated the exhibitionÀ la recherche de Vera Molnar in Budapest, an international tribute to the artistic legacy ofVera Molnar, a pioneer of computing art, who passed away shortly before her 100th birthday in 2023.[10]
He was also curator of five exhibitions for the Romaeuropa Festival in Italy, two of which in co-operation with theMuseum of Contemporary Art of Rome MACRO Testaccio (2010[11] and 2016),[12][13][14] and the last at thePalazzo delle Esposizioni in Roma (2017).[15][16]
In France, the curated two exhibitions commissioned by Bethune Capitale Régionale de la Culture[17] in 2011:Matière-LumièreandTransformer and also exhibitions in the national performing arts centres Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy, Maison des Arts de Créteil, Le Volcan in Le Havre, Le Manège in Maubeuge, La Filature in Mulhouse and le lieu unique in Nantes.
As part of the exhibitionRobotic Art,[18] which he curated for theCité des sciences et de l'industrie in Paris in 2014-2015, was inaugurated the 3D Water Matrix,[19] a computer controlled display of animated three-dimensional liquid artworks, he designed, from an original idea he discussed with artistShiro Takatani in 2000.
The 3D Water Matrix received the CODAawards Winner 2015[20] in the category "institutional".
He was also the artistic director of theFrancofffonies! Québec_numériQ event[21] featuring the Quebec avant-garde artists in digital arts atThéâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2006.
Outside Europe, he was invited to organise or co-curate several exhibitions in China, in the major museums of Beijing (NAMOC - Musée National d'Art de Chine in 2008), Shanghai (Zendai MoMA in 2006 and 2008, Sculpture Art Space[22] in 2007,Science and Technology Museum in 2008,Power Station of Art[23][24] in 2017) and Chengdu (inaugural exhibition of the new relocated A4 Contemporary Arts Center newly entitled LUXELAKES•A4 Art Museum in 2017[25]).
In 2010 and 2011, he curated the two exhibitionsMadde-Isik 1 andMadde-Isik 2 in Istanbul (Borusan Foundation[26]).
In Russia, Richard Castelli is the first and to date the sole foreign artistic director of Nikola-Lenivets Archstoyanie Architecture Festival,[27][28][29] located 200 km away from Moscow. For this 9th exhibition held in 2014, he focused on the notion of temporality in architecture.
Alongside his activities as producer and curator, he has participated in the publication of a number of books and exhibition catalogues.
He is author of several essays, includingRobots d'artistes ou robots artistes? in the collective bookRobots extraordinaires[30] published byFuturoscope FYP (2006),Hu Jieming, A World in Thickness, a monography of the Chinese artistHu Jieming, published by Li Zenhua, Shanghart (2010),[31]A Future where we are already in inRomaeuropa Digitalife 2010 2011 2012 - Human Connections.[32]
He has been invited to give lectures by the Universities of laSorbonne-Paris, Beijing, Créteil, Hong Kong, Saint-Denis, Shanghai, Sydney and by various institutions in Chengdu, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Prague, Reykjavik, Saint Petersburg, Shanghai, Taipei, Toronto...
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