An exhibition is a format of AGORA in which each meeting is dedicated to narrating an exhibition project that has particularly affected the professional path of the invited curators.

Eva Fabbris recounts The Other Tradition, an exhibition curated by Gene Swenson at the ICA in Philadelphia in 1966, who was among the first to propose an anti-formalist perspective in the reading of Modernism. The critic and curator established a theory on spectatorship, based on new linguistics which speak of feelings and sensations. This exhibition – described as ‘radioactive material’ by Peter Schjeldahl in Village Voice, and as ‘so alternative, […] so samizdat’ by Robert Pincus-Witten in Artforum – was the apex of Swenson’s career who suffered from schizofrenia and became in the following years a pioneer of institutional critique.

Eva Fabbris (b.1979) lives and works in Milan, Italy. Exhibition Curator at Fondazione Prada, she is also active as an independent curator and art historian. In this capacity, Fabbris is curating the upcoming solo show of Alessandro Pessoli at Chiostri di S.Eustorgio in Milan (Spring 2021) and the 2021-21 cycle of the Milanese Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro’s Project Rooms, which includes the group show perfectly round, how we left them with Derek MF Di Fabio, Nevine Mahmoud and Margherita Raso, as well as a solo show by the Belgian artist Kasper Bosmans. 

Fabbris has curated exhibitions in many institutions such as the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco in Monte Carlo (2016), Triennale di Milano in Milan (2016), Fondazione Morra in Naples (2013–14) and galerie de l’erg in Brussels (2012–13). 

As a writer, she is a contributor for international exhibition catalogs, publications, and magazines. She’s co-editor of Yervant Gianikian/Angela Ricci Lucchi. The Arrow of Time, published by Humboldt Books. 

Her research focuses on the dimension of otherness, especially through the writings and shows by art critic Gene R. Swenson.