Amanda Pinatih is an art historian, curator and PhD candidate. As Curator Design and Contemporary Art at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, she brings new perspectives to the museum’s vast collection. Her experimental working method is driven by an interest in developing new formats for knowledge transfer, while her exhibitions and projects explore the intersections of social, political, (de)colonial, environmental and economic issues. Last year she also served as the Curator of the Dutch Pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale with the exhibition SIDELINED: A Space to Rethink Togetherness.
Simultaneously as a PhD candidate at the VU Amsterdam, Pinatih is researching the affordances of Indonesian objects around social and political contestations of belonging for diasporic communities with roots in the Indonesian archipelago, both in the museum, at home and in artistic practice. She studies how contemporary artists from the diaspora reactivate such objects to commemorate, mourn or celebrate their state of “in-betweenness.
She is also co-founder of the Design Museum Dharavi in Mumbai (IN), the first museum of its kind, that was based in the homegrown neighbourhood of Dharavi. It showcased local talent through a nomadic exhibition space and employed design as a tool to promote social change and innovation on a global scale. In addition, the museum was constantly challenging the boundaries of what a museum can be.
Pinatih is member of the supervisory board of the Research School Art History.