Caroline Bourgeois, Chief Curator and External Advisor to the Pinault Collection
Caroline Bourgeois
Chief Curator and External Advisor to the Pinault Collection
in conversation with
Laura Bardier
Founder and Director, ESTE ARTE
By invitation only. In English without translation.
This program is in English and made possible through the collaboration of the Era Foundation and Las Musas.
A collection accumulates works. An institution builds meaning around them. Caroline Bourgeois has played a central role in shaping the Pinault Collection from a private collection into a cultural institution with a distinct curatorial identity and a public presence in Europe. At ESTE CHARLAS, Caroline Bourgeois, Chief Curator and External Advisor to the Pinault Collection of François Pinault, joins Laura Bardier, Director of ESTE ARTE, to discuss what it means to build an institution around a collection, through exhibitions, artists, architecture, and a sustained curatorial vision. Bourgeois has curated exhibitions including In Praise of Doubt, Marlene Dumas: Open-end, and Charles Ray, and has developed projects with artists including Bruce Nauman, Luc Tuymans, Albert Oehlen, Urs Fischer, and Danh Vo.
Caroline Bourgeois (b. 1959, Vevey is a Swiss-born curator and longtime artistic advisor to François Pinault, the French businessman and founder of the Pinault Collection, one of the world's most significant private collections of contemporary art. She currently serves as an External Advisor to the Collection, following many years as Senior Curator. Her curatorial practice focuses on contemporary artistic experimentation, the moving image, and the relationship between artworks, exhibition spaces, and audiences. She earned a master's degree in psychoanalysis from the University of Paris in 1984 and began her career in contemporary art galleries, including Galerie Eric Franck and Galerie Jennifer Flay. Between 1998 and 2001, she developed the Pinault Collection's international video art holdings, and from 2004 to 2008 served as Artistic Director of Le Plateau–FRAC Île-de-France in Paris. Since 2007, she has curated major exhibitions for the Pinault Collection at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice and the Bourse de Commerce in Paris. Her exhibitions include Prima Materia (2013), Slip of the Tongue (2015), Marlene Dumas: Open-end (2022), Julie Mehretu: Ensemble (2024), and Tatiana Trouvé: The Strange Life of Things (2025). Her curatorial approach is distinguished by sustained collaboration with artists, ambitious exhibition-making, and an exploration of how contemporary art engages with its historical, architectural, and social contexts.