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What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

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Author	Message
Milena Placentile Joined: 16 Jul 2007	Tuesday 11 December 2007 6:16:55 am What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?
Tommi Brem Just me. Joined: 25 Mar 2008	Wednesday 26 March 2008 12:10:15 pm Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas? Now, I'm neither an active artist nor a curator, but through a project we started on the premises of the agency I work for, namely a small space for contemporary art, curated by two outside people, I formed a vague idea. Therefore I would like to expand your list to cover "premises" and "audiences" or maybe better "audience experiences". I always experienced the curatorial work of the two as something they do with a very good sense for what the room they are curating for can do and for what their audience might experience when they come to visit. So in a sense, a curator could be compared to a DJ. You can play what the audience knows, you can surprise them, youcan promote new ideas, new artists. Just my quick 5 cents. Curious what other people think.
Milena Placentile Joined: 16 Jul 2007	Saturday 12 April 2008 10:08:04 pm Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas? Hi Tommi, Thanks for taking the time to post a comment. I agree with you completely! And, having said that, I feel compelled to mention a very interesting coincidence, which is that I've often said very similar things. It is not my intention to plug my own work, but the research I undertook for my masters degree was specifically about audience experience as an important consideration for curators of contemporary art. And responding to your DJ analogy, yes! I also agree. At a break out session during a conference I attended a few years ago, a curator mentioned her, um, annoyance with the fact that "no one wants to be an artist anymore... everyone wants to be a curator". I paralleled it to the music scene, in that there were (at the time) fewer people buying guitars and drums, and more people buying turntables Curators, like DJs, can also contextualize through juxtaposition and atmosphere... shaping experience, but also leaving room for people to draw their own conclusions, and respond in ways that feel natural to them. I look forward to what others have to say on this idea, as well!
Ben Kruisdijk Joined: 16 Feb 2008	Sunday 13 April 2008 2:43:08 pm Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas? As an artist I can get inspiration from what curators are doing with other peoples art, namely that they seem to turn the work into a material to create a installation in it's own right. This has made me work in a similar way when collaborating with other artists on a piece of work. Also I feel that curating opens the possibility to bring together different visual languages, maybe also acting as a translator for people who come and view the work (visual esperanto perhaps?). Ben http://www.benkruisdijk.com
Milena Placentile Joined: 16 Jul 2007	Sunday 18 May 2008 7:26:08 pm Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas? Hi Ben! Thanks for your message, and sorry about my delayed reply. Fortunately, room for delay has been built into the terms of this conversation It is very interesting to read that your perspective on artistic practice creates a loop that acknowledges the importance of conversation between artists and curators. Just recently, at a conference, someone stood up to decry the parasitic nature of curation. What a ridiculously modernist perspective! Has this person simply not been paying attention to developments over the past decade, at least? I was surprised. True enough, there are still some lazy curators who do little more than what I call “grocery shopping” and “interior decorating” (that is, selecting from existing work then hanging it), but there are so many curators doing more. In particular, they are generating new perspectives on art, society, politics, etc. through exhibitions that can are genuine springboards for discussion through the creation of alternative contexts. My rebuttal to that complaint drew attention to the importance of dialogue and relationship building across the so-called divided groupings of artists, audiences, and institutions/other curators. It’s very rare that I include existing work in show, and if I do, it’s with a tremendous amount of discussion and consideration. That said, I wouldn’t say that my work aims to create installations as I’m much more interested in social and political themes that draw diverse artists together. Still, I appreciate and enjoy exhibitions where curators have taken on complex issues AND created spaces that are entirely unexpected and new.

Author

Message

Milena Placentile

Joined:
16 Jul 2007

Tuesday 11 December 2007 6:16:55 am

What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

Tommi Brem

Just me.

Joined:
25 Mar 2008

Wednesday 26 March 2008 12:10:15 pm

Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

Now, I'm neither an active artist nor a curator, but through a project we started on the premises of the agency I work for, namely a small space for contemporary art, curated by two outside people, I formed a vague idea.

Therefore I would like to expand your list to cover "premises" and "audiences" or maybe better "audience experiences".

I always experienced the curatorial work of the two as something they do with a very good sense for what the room they are curating for can do and for what their audience might experience when they come to visit.

So in a sense, a curator could be compared to a DJ. You can play what the audience knows, you can surprise them, youcan promote new ideas, new artists.

Just my quick 5 cents. Curious what other people think.

Milena Placentile

Joined:
16 Jul 2007

Saturday 12 April 2008 10:08:04 pm

Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

Hi Tommi,

Thanks for taking the time to post a comment.

I agree with you completely! And, having said that, I feel compelled to mention a very interesting coincidence, which is that I've often said very similar things.

It is not my intention to plug my own work, but the research I undertook for my masters degree was specifically about audience experience as an important consideration for curators of contemporary art.

And responding to your DJ analogy, yes! I also agree. At a break out session during a conference I attended a few years ago, a curator mentioned her, um, annoyance with the fact that "no one wants to be an artist anymore... everyone wants to be a curator". I paralleled it to the music scene, in that there were (at the time) fewer people buying guitars and drums, and more people buying turntables

Curators, like DJs, can also contextualize through juxtaposition and atmosphere... shaping experience, but also leaving room for people to draw their own conclusions, and respond in ways that feel natural to them.

I look forward to what others have to say on this idea, as well!

Ben Kruisdijk

Joined:
16 Feb 2008

Sunday 13 April 2008 2:43:08 pm

Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

As an artist I can get inspiration from what curators are doing with other peoples art, namely that they seem to turn the work into a material to create a installation in it's own right.

This has made me work in a similar way when collaborating with other artists on a piece of work.

Also I feel that curating opens the possibility to bring together different visual languages, maybe also acting as a translator for people who come and view the work (visual esperanto perhaps?).

Ben

http://www.benkruisdijk.com

Milena Placentile

Joined:
16 Jul 2007

Sunday 18 May 2008 7:26:08 pm

Re:What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

Hi Ben!

Thanks for your message, and sorry about my delayed reply. Fortunately, room for delay has been built into the terms of this conversation

It is very interesting to read that your perspective on artistic practice creates a loop that acknowledges the importance of conversation between artists and curators.

Just recently, at a conference, someone stood up to decry the parasitic nature of curation. What a ridiculously modernist perspective! Has this person simply not been paying attention to developments over the past decade, at least? I was surprised. True enough, there are still some lazy curators who do little more than what I call “grocery shopping” and “interior decorating” (that is, selecting from existing work then hanging it), but there are so many curators doing more. In particular, they are generating new perspectives on art, society, politics, etc. through exhibitions that can are genuine springboards for discussion through the creation of alternative contexts. My rebuttal to that complaint drew attention to the importance of dialogue and relationship building across the so-called divided groupings of artists, audiences, and institutions/other curators. It’s very rare that I include existing work in show, and if I do, it’s with a tremendous amount of discussion and consideration. That said, I wouldn’t say that my work aims to create installations as I’m much more interested in social and political themes that draw diverse artists together. Still, I appreciate and enjoy exhibitions where curators have taken on complex issues AND created spaces that are entirely unexpected and new.

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What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

What are we curating, really? Objects, artists, or ideas?

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