Kathryn Weir is a curator, writer and art historian based in Paris. She lectures on artistic research and the social sciences at Sciences Po, Saint-Germain-en-Laye and was previously co-artistic director of the Lagos Biennial (2021-2024), artistic director of the MADRE museum in Naples (2020-23) and director of multidisciplinary programs at the Centre Pompidou (2014-2019), where she created Cosmopolis, a platform for research-based, socially engaged and collaborative practices. From 2006 to 2014, at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, she was head of international art and a co-curator of the 5th, 6th and 7th editions of the Asia-Pacific Triennial. She is currently working on the publication ‘Jimmie Durham: humanity is not a completed project’ (Skira, 2026) and on ‘Technologies of gender’ (co-curated with Paula Nascimento, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, 2027). Past exhibition projects include ‘Green Snake: women-centred ecologies’ (Tai Kwun Contemporary, 2023-2024), ‘Rethinking Nature’ (Madre, 2021-2022) and ‘Collective Body’ (Dhaka Art Summit 2020). Kathryn Weir’s curatorial and writing practice engages with critical thinking on technology, race, class, gender and political ecology. Her publications include ‘Clément Cogitore: Ferdinandea’, ‘The ephemeral island’ (2025), ‘Beauty and Terror: sites of colonialism and fascism’ (2024), ‘Rethinking Nature’ (2024), ‘Utopia Dystopia: the myth of progress seen from the south’ (2024), ‘Claire Tabouret: I am spacious, singing flesh’ (2022), ‘Cosmopolis #1.5: enlarged intelligence’ (2018), ‘Sculpture is Everything’ (2012), ‘The view from elsewhere’ (2009) and ‘Modern Ruin’ (2008).
