About COMMODE:
COMMODE is an independent project based in central Pōneke Wellington.
Operating across writing, conversation, performance, research, exhibition-making and a studio residency, COMMODE is a platform for artists, writers and curators to test ideas, develop projects and question the relationships between art, knowledge, power, history, ideology etc. Each project unfolds as a study, engaging emerging and established practitioners whose work contributes to contemporary debate. COMMODE maintains a commitment to critical and artist-led modes of production, foregrounding practices that speak to the complexities and possibilities of the present.
COMMODE recognises Te Āti Awa and Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika a Māui as mana whenua of Pōneke, and with neighbouring Ngāti Toa, of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, greater Wellington.
People:
Director: DJCS
DJCS (b. 1994) is a curator. Their research centres on institutional and infrastructural critique. DJCS is the founder and director of COMMODE (2025–present). Previously, they were director of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space (2022–2025), assistant curator at Artspace Aotearoa (2021–2022), founder and director of Parasite (2020–2022), and co-director of RM Gallery and Projectspace (2016–2018). They have worked independently and within public, commercial, and artist-run galleries throughout Aotearoa since 2012.
COMMODE works with artists, writers, curators, collaborators, supporters and friends across its programme.
Opportunities:
COMMODE periodically shares calls for proposals for writing commissions, curatorial programmes, exhibitions and other opportunities through its website, newsletter, and Instagram.
Support:
COMMODE is an independent organisation. Donations and support help sustain artist fees, writing, exhibitions, rent, website costs, and future programming.
If you would like to support COMMODE, please contact us.
COMMODE extends thanks to those who have supported us, including Jillian Allen, Jim and Mary Barr, Emily Berryman, Elvis Booth-Claveria, Samuel Mark Clyma, James Dobson, Jack Ellery, Henrietta Fisher, Ritual Heaps, Kat Lang, Manon, Lucy Reid, George Turner, and others who share our commitment to experimental and critical discourse.
Funders and partners:
COMMODE is structurally supported by Creative New Zealand.
2025
Creative Impact Fund (received by DJCS from the Artists and Arts Practitioners fund)
Contact:
Mail: info@commode.co.nz