1: Introduction
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Working Papers WP 2016-05 Centre for German and European Studies (CGES) Moskaleva Ekaterina Contemporary art curators as cultural intermediaries: German and Russian experience WP 2016-05 2016 № 5 Bielefeld / St. Petersburg Working Papers WP 2016-05 Centre for German and European Studies Bielefeld University St. Petersburg State University Centre for German and European Studies (CGES) CGES Working Papers series includes publication of materials prepared within different activities of the Centre for German and European Studies both in St. Petersburg and in Germany. The CGES supports educational programmes, research and scientific dialogues. In accordance with the CGES mission, the Working Papers are dedicated to the interdisciplinary studies of different aspects of German and European societies. The paper based on the MA Thesis on the qualitative research of professional and communicative practices of art curators in two national contexts – Russia and Germany. The work has been supervised by Dr. Anisya Khokhlova and defended in the MA 'Studies in European Societies' in June 2016. The publication of the MA thesis in the CGES Working Paper series was recommended by the Examination Committee as one of the best MA theses defended by the students of the MA Programme ‘Studies in European Societies’ at St. Petersburg State University in June 2016. Ekaterina Moskaleva has graduated from the Faculty of Sociology of St. Petersburg State University in 2016. Contact: [email protected] ISSN 1860-5680 © Centre for German and European Studies, 2016 2 Working Papers WP 2016-05 Centre for German and European Studies Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 Chapter 1. Theoretical approaches to the investigation of curatorial practices ...................... 9 1.1. The production of culture perspective: Richard Peterson’s approach ....................... 9 1.2. Curators in the “art world”: Howard Becker ............................................................. 11 1.3. Position of curators in the field of cultural production: Pierre Bourdieu ................... 13 1.3.1. The notion of field ............................................................................................... 13 1.3.2. The field of cultural production ........................................................................... 14 1.3.3. Forms of capital .................................................................................................. 16 1.3.4. Curators as cultural intermediaries ..................................................................... 20 1.3.5. Criticism addressed to Bourdieu’s approach ...................................................... 21 1.4. Analysis of curatorship through the lens of sociology of profession ........................ 21 1.4.1. Curators as creative professionals ..................................................................... 22 1.5. Research on curatorship: Two perspectives ........................................................... 23 1.5.1. Insider perspective ............................................................................................. 23 1.5.2. Sociological perspective ..................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2. Contemporary art curators of St. Petersburg and Hamburg as cultural intermediaries: The results of comparative empirical research ............................................ 30 2.1. The logic of data collection and analysis ................................................................. 30 2.1.1. Sampling ............................................................................................................ 31 2.1.2. Working with data: Transcribing, coding, analyzing............................................ 32 2.1.3. Challenges: Access to the field and research limitations .................................... 33 2.2. Empirical analysis: Curatorship in St. Petersburg .................................................... 34 2.2.1. Artistic institutions represented in the research sample (St. Petersburg) ........... 34 2.2.2. Becoming a curator: Classical education vs. newcomers ................................... 35 2.2.3. Curators in public artistic institutions .................................................................. 41 2.2.4. Curators in private artistic institutions and self-run projects ............................... 45 2.2.5. Curator and artist: Having a show ...................................................................... 48 2.2.6. Curatorship in St. Petersburg today: Overcoming challenges ............................ 51 2.3. Empirical analysis: Curatorship in Hamburg ............................................................ 53 2.3.1. Artistic institutions represented in the research sample (Hamburg) ................... 53 2.3.2. Joining the profession: Academic background ................................................... 54 2.3.3. Freelancers and employees: Curators working in Hamburg ............................... 57 2.3.4. Working with contemporary artists and art in Hamburg ...................................... 61 3 Working Papers WP 2016-05 Centre for German and European Studies 2.3.5. Artistic scene in Hamburg and the role of curators ............................................. 64 2.4. Curators as cultural intermediaries in two national contexts .................................... 65 2.5. Curatorial practices: Duties and tasks ..................................................................... 68 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 72 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 75 Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 79 Appendix I. Interview guide ............................................................................................ 79 Appendix II. Table of codes (a fragment) ....................................................................... 82 4 Working Papers WP 2016-05 Centre for German and European Studies Introduction Contemporary art has always drawn great interest from the public and triggered heated discussions, and currently the process of performing and presenting contemporary art makes it the focus of sociological investigations more frequently than in previous years. Consequently, in recent decades, researchers have started to examine curatorial practices from different perspectives, contributing to the study of the professional artistic field in general, as well as to the analysis of the specific professional cluster of curators (Acord, 2010). Contemporary art curators play an important role in the artistic scene due to the growing importance of mediating between artistic representation, operating on the art market as an economic structure, facing bureaucratic challenges, dealing with the media, and the increasingly significant educational functions of artistic institutions. In this paper, contemporary art curators will be analyzed from different theoretical perspectives in two national contexts – the Russian one and the German one – for several reasons. Firstly, I assume that curators operate as intermediaries between artists, museums and galleries, government, the media, the publics and other actors in the field. Secondly, curating, being a relatively new professional field, plays a significant role in the processes of cultural production and consumption and thus becomes an important subject of inquiry for sociologists. Curators perform a set of professional and communicative functions in the field by realizing different communication practices, as well as applying professional skills which will be investigated in this research. Finally, I am going to compare the experience of curating in Russia and Germany as examples of national artistic scenes by taking the cases of curatorship in St. Petersburg and Hamburg into particular focus, as I see this comparative perspective as rather novel and insightful for the better understanding of the tracks the professional development of curators can take in different national and local contexts. In order to clarify the logic of this research, it is important to provide the working definitions of the major analytical concepts which are used in this paper. First of all, it is necessary to define curating practices. Those are understood here as the processes of the creation of meanings and contribution to public dialogues about the ideas and art strategies which address the world in its complexity, consisting of daily activities based on professional actions within a set routine. Curating can be also seen as the process of creating opportunities for artists, based on the traditional role of research and collections development within art institutions, and the organization of exhibitions. The study of this process focuses on contemporary art. Contemporary art in this context is understood as a complex of art practices that has been shaped in the second half of the 20th century and that aims to develop new forms of artistic expression by using unconventional tools (e.g. new materials, technologies, forms of interaction with the audience). 5 Working Papers WP 2016-05 Centre for German and European Studies According