In Conversation: Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler with Christina Végh

Teresa Hubbard (Irish/ American/ Swiss, born in Dublin, Ireland 1965) and Alexander Birchler (Swiss, born in Baden, Switzerland 1962) have been collaborating as an artist team since 1990. They began collaborating as artists-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, in Banff, Canada and completed graduate degrees at NSCAD in 1992. Their work, primarily grounded in time-based media, aims to inspire sensorial interactions and explore connections between social life, history and memory. Hubbard / Birchler often seek engagement with adjacent fields of study that have more conventionally been considered the domain of the anthropologist, archeologist or historian.

Hubbard / Birchler represented Switzerland in the Swiss Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennial, presenting Florain the exhibition “Women of Venice,” curated by Philipp Kaiser. Hubbard / Birchler have also presented their work in the 48th Venice Biennial; Giacometti Institute Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Kunsthaus Graz; Mori Museum Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Reina Sofia Museum Madrid; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Tate Museum Liverpool and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Their work is held in numerous permanent collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; Goetz Collection Munich; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; Kunsthaus Zurich; Kunstmuseum Basel; Los Angeles County Museum of Art LACMA; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles MOCA; National Museum of Art Osaka and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.

Hubbard / Birchler are Professors in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin.

Art historian Christina Végh (*1970, Zurich) has been Director of Kunsthalle Bielefeld since February 2020. Previously, she was Director of the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover from 2015, and of the Bonner Kunstverein from 2004 to 2014. She studied art history, ethnology, and philosophy at the University of Zurich and spent a period at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her professional career began at Kunsthalle Basel, where she worked as a curator from 2000 to 2004.

Végh has curated exhibitions with artists such as Monica Bonvicini, Monika Baer, John Baldessari, Rita McBride, Haegue Yang, Charline von Heyl, Annette Kelm, James Richards, Franz Erhard Walther, and Christopher Williams. She has also overseen major group exhibitions, including “Where Art Can Happen: The Early Years of CalArts” (co-curated with Philipp Kaiser) and “Made in Germany Three”, and has contributed to the accompanying catalogues.

Végh is active in numerous committees and juries. She served as guest juror for the Wolfgang Hahn Prize at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, in 2017, and was a member of the Pro Helvetia Art Biennial Jury from 2015 to 2018. Since 2018, she has been part of the jury for the Justus Bier Prize. From 2008 to 2012, she served on the board of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine (AdKV). In 2010, Végh received an award for art and architecture education from the Swiss Art Commission of the Federal Office of Culture.