Johanna Zanon is a new resident within the project BoSA - Briefing on Soft Arts. She will continue her research on the sound of fashion, with a special focus on sounding the fashion archive. To do so, Johanna will build on her latest exhibition as an independent curator, The Sighing Sound of Lips Unsatisfied (2025) at Telemark Kunstsenter in Norway. The exhibition explored the sound of fashion through the works of nine artists, fashion practitioners, and artistic researchers – most of which were new productions. They engaged with the rich and complex sounds of wearing, making, and selling garments, questioning which hearing and listening practices are at play in contemporary fashion.
During her stay at CIMO, Johanna will reflect on the exhibition format as a method to think through fashion theory. How can fashion exhibitions contribute to theoretical inquiry and how to harness their analytical potential? Johanna will also confront the impossibility to reconcile the systematic approach that theory requires with the open-endedness that characterizes the curation of new works. She will ponder whether messing with theory can nevertheless prove to be a fruitful attitude towards both theory and curatorial practice. In total, she will assess the opportunities and limits of attuning research epistemologies as they relate to disciplinarity with curatorial strategies.
Join us for a talk with Johanna Zanon at CIMO, 16/1/2026 at 7 pm
Johanna Zanon (b. 1988, FR/NO) is an independent curator and writer. She holds a PhD in history from the University of Oslo, a graduate diploma from École Nationale des Chartes in Paris, and an MA in art history from École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. She has curated interdisciplinary, research-based exhibitions, projects in the public space, and film series. Her curatorial interests include labour, capitalism, contemporary crafts, speculative and interactive fiction, art theory, and environmental humanities. She also worked as a programme curator at the Norwegian Association for Craft Artists (2020-2025).
Photo: Aliona Paz
Project supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb and Foundation Kultura Nova
