‘You need to love the work and put in the work.’

How Giorgia von Albertini thrives as a young, independent art curator

Giorgia von Albertini is one of the youngest and most successful Swiss art curators at the moment. The 29-year-old started her career in the arts between her Bachelor and Masters degrees, when she collaborated with Bice Curiger, the renowned Swiss curator and co-founder of Parkett, who was only the third woman ever to curate the Venice Biennale in 2011.

“I simply wrote a letter to Bice saying how much I admired her work and asked if there was a way we could collaborate,” von Albertini tells Swizz Art Biz. When listening to her, one can tell she is someone who dares to take initiative.

“There was encouragement, but there was also a lot of discouragement. Because it’s obviously not an easy job. It’s perhaps more stable if you work in an institution but it’s generally a job where few people succeed or where few people are able to sustain themselves [...] People advised me to do something more stable, but in the end, it didn’t matter much to me because I did my thing. I’m very happy about it and don’t regret it at all.”

Even if it’s certainly not the best paid job in the art industry, she makes sure she gets paid for her work: “I always found that in a capitalist economy, no one should work for free and it was important to me to not devalue my work. But of course, especially being independent, there are moments where you need to invest in your own career. You take risks and begin a collaboration without knowing where that might take you. But you push for it, believe in it, and you take it to the next level.”

So what does it take to succeed? “You need to love the work and put in the work.”

Listen to this candid conversation with Giorgia von Albertini to find out her attitude toward work and why she wasn’t intimidated to collaborate with established figures in the art world. Plus, hear about her latest project, a monograph on Mexican artist Martín Soto Climént, which will be launched in Rome on February 3, at Karma International in Zurich on February 8, and then in London and Paris. 

Also available on Apple Podcasts or Spotify:

I also wrote a piece on Giorgia von Albertini for the platform ElleXX in German.