Sevie Tsampalla

Sevie Tsampalla is a Brussels-based curator, interested in intersections of art, activism, exhibition making and public space. She studied archaeology and art history (BA, MA) at the National University of Athens, cultural studies (MA) at KU Leuven, and holds a PhD in exhibition studies from Liverpool John Moores University. Her doctoral research investigated how biennials may be rethought by learning from commoning, collective practices for sharing decision-making and distributing power, that strive for sociopolitical relations and ecological imaginaries beyond capitalism.

Her experience spans projects with biennials, city-wide festivals, collectives and artist-led spaces.

She currently co-curates Bruges Triennial 2024, an exhibition which brings contemporary art and architecture in the UNESCO world heritage site of Bruges. Previously, she was assistant curator at Liverpool Biennial 2016, and cluster-curator of Track, a city-wide exhibition by S.M.A.K. Ghent (2012). In these capacities she oversaw new commissions by a.o. Celine Condorelli, Audrey Cottin, Denicolai & Provoost, Hemauer/Keller, Haerizadeh & Rahmanian, Samson Kambalu, Jumana Manna, Yorgos Sapountzis, Koki Tanaka, Superflex, Tercerunquinto…

With a long-standing interest in collaborative processes, she has been involved in collective initiatives and art projects where feminist situated practices set the tone for renewed relations in and with public space. She co-founded the artist collective Reconstruction Community in Athens and AAA in Brussels. Together with the collective Nomadic Architecture / Eleni Tzirtzilaki she initiated Home as Fabric, a series of gatherings on the experience of women, trauma and home, which took place in Athens and Sifnos (2017-2021). Together with artist Laura Viale, she conceived Common Fields (2022-), a series of field trips and co-creating sessions centering on the experience of nature in liminal urban spaces in Brussels. She worked with the production team of Bodies of Knowledge by Sarah Vanhee, a nomadic classroom for alternative pedagogies across public spaces in Brussels (2021). She led Judy Chicago’s Fixing a Hole, the artist’s largest artwork in public space to date, commissioned by Tate Liverpool (2017). 

Next to roles with institutions and collectives, she has conceived group exhibitions that were selected by artist-led spaces, cultural and community art centres: Mr House, Trophy Room, Liverpool (2016); Fabric Spaces [Make City], Pianofabriek, Brussels (2015); small change, AirSpace gallery, Stoke-on- Trent (2013); Some Misunderstanding (on mondegreens and pareidolias), Castlefield gallery, Manchester (2013), LINK/Green Days, Brussels (2011); Akousmaflore, Beursschouwburg, Brussels (2010); Extra Muros, Vrijstaat O., Koninklijke Gaanderijen, Ostend (2008); sitePARAsite, L’ecurie, Brussels (2008).