PhD | Queering the Museum: Contemporary Artists and Curators as ‘Critical Visitors’ and Their Creative Interventions

PhD-Candidate: Liang-Kai Yu | Leiden University | Supervisors: Kitty Zijlmans, Eliza Steinbock (LUCAS, UL) and Dirk van den Heuvel (TU Delft & Het Nieuwe Instituut)

Liang-Kai Yu studies contemporary art and critical museology, with a focus on queer artistic and curatorial productions. He is currently working on the PhD research project “Queering the Museum: Contemporary Artists and Curators as Critical Visitors and Their Creative Interventions”. The project investigates how contemporary artists and curators can intervene into Dutch, English and German museums in order to rethink the intersecting exclusions and inequalities within heritage institutions. It is funded by NWO and part of the consortium research project “The Critical Visitor” (2020-2025).
While Yu’s research focuses on queer artistic and curatorial interventions, his interests engage in larger issues such as the politics of display, institutional critique, critical theory such as intersectional feminist and queer theory, and radical museology. Prior to the PhD project, his MA thesis (cum laude) at Leiden University explores subversive display approaches of Fred Wilson, Henrik Olesen and the Schwules Museum in Berlin so as to open up queer imaginations in exhibition space. In addition, he curates exhibitions, writes for art magazines and delivers guest lectures on the subject of curatorial intervention and queer art.