The Fillip Review

July 10, 2009 / The assessment of the state of criticism is traditionally defined by an anxious, dialectical, three-step process: a definition of crisis within the field, a nostalgic call to order, and a moment where a middle ground is sought between the crisis and the call to arms. Tirdad Zolghadr assess this critical foxtrot as a principal scheme through which criticism tends to stake its claims and define itself.

This talk was originally presented on February 27, 2009, as the keynote address of Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism, a forum and month long speaker series organized with Artspeak.

Tirdad Zolghadr is a freelance curator based in Berlin. He regularly writes for Frieze magazine and has contributed to Parkett, Bidoun, Cabinet, Afterall, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Straits Times Singapore, and other publications. Since 2004, Zolghadr has curated events at Cubitt, London; IASPIS, Stockholm; and Kunsthalle, Geneva; as well as various Tehran art spaces and other venues. He was co-curator of the International Sharjah Biennial in 2005 and is currently preparing a long-term exhibition and research project addressing social class in the art world that will take place at Gasworks, London; Platform, Istanbul; and Tensta, Stockholm.