ICI PERSPECTIVES IN CURATING NO.1 Thinking Contemporary Curating Terry Smith INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL .-.....t Thinking Contemporary Curating is the first Series Editor in a new publication series developed by Kate Fowle Independent Curators International (ICI) Table of entitled Perspectives in Curating which offers Copyeditor timely reflections by curators, artists, critics, Audrey Walen and art historians on emergent debates in Contents curatorial practice around the world. Designer Scott Panik This publication was made possible, in part, by grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Publication Coordinator Graham Foundation and the Robert Sterling Chelsea Haines Clark Foundation. Additional support for this publication was received from the Researcher ICI Perspectives in Curating 7 ICI International Forum Patrons Melva Jessica Gogan Kate Fowle Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy, Haro and Bilge Cumbusyan, Carol and Arthur Printer Goldberg, Belinda Kielland, Patricia and The Prolific Group, Winnipeg, Canada Acknowledgments 15 Charles Selden, Younghee Kim-Wait, Georgia Welles, and Elizabeth Erdreich White. Library of Congress Control Number: 2012939896 The Lure 17 Published by Independent Curators 27 International, New York. 1. What is Contemporary Curatorial Thought? Independent Curators International ISBN 978-0-916365-86-8 2. Shifting the Exhibitionary Complex 57 401 Broadway, Suite 1620 New York, NY 10013 3. Artists as Curators/Curators as Artists 101 Tel: 212-254-8200 4. Curating Contemporaneity 141 Fax: 212-477-4781 www.curatorsintl.org 5. Curatorial Practice Now 177 The Infrastructural 249 Copyright ©2012 Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may Illustration Credits 261 be reproduced or otherwise transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from Author Biography 265 the publisher. Texts copyright ©2012 the author. ICI Perspectives in Curating Kate Fowle The starting point for Thinking Contemporary Curating occurred on March 11, 2011-day one of The Now Museum conference that Independent Curators International (ICI) produced in collaboration with The Graduate Center, CUNY and the New Museum in New York. Involving artists, art historians, curators, and museum directors in a series of panel discussions and conversations, the three-day event looked at the diversification of the notion of the "museum of contemporary art," providing intergenerational perspectives on recent developments across Mrica, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. While topics in the spotlight included the reconsideration of historical narratives (or their abandonment), recent alternative models to traditional museum infrastructures, and burgeoning international collaborations, the subtext to the whole event was a revelation of the various positions the speakers held in relation to the contemporary museum as a place and/or concept. What became evident was a slightly uneasy breakdown in communication among speakers (and at times audience members)-in 7 KATE FOWLE ICI PERSPECTIVES IN CURATING particular between curators and art historians­ Smith did not totally agree with my reasoning, who, even when talking about the same thing, but concurred that there was something in the frequently could not tell that this was the case, "glitch," particularly as a result of the increasingly causing a slippage in establishing what was at multifarious production modes of curators. stake, let alone any cooperative game plan in While it is widely accepted that the role has been moving ideas forward. professionalized and given independence from bureaucratic mandates, with a "coming of age" The breakdown became palpable on the occurring in the 1990s, we are still fumbling to afternoon of the first day, during the discussion pinpoint what really constitutes contemporary "Contemporanizing History/Historicizing the curating. If the curatorial position remained Contemporary," led by Claire Bishop (Associate fixed, as it was historically-behind the scenes, Professor, PhD Program in Art History, The pragmatic, and ostensibly service oriented-this Graduate Center, CUNY) with panelists belaboring of specifics and terminologies would Okwui Enwezor (Director, Haus der Kunst), be unnecessary, but as the curatorial imperative Annie Fletcher (Curator, Van Abbemuseum), gains momentum around the world, its form Massimiliano Gioni (Associate Director and is mutating and becoming untethered from its Director of Exhibitions, New Museum), and Terry modern precedent. Furthermore, the notion of Smith. It continued as a fascinating glitch in the a language around curating is still nascent, or proceedings of the many sessions that followed. at best tentative, as evidenced by the anecdotal fallback position so often used by practitioners. A month or so later, over dinner, I brought up Mter much back and forth and a few glitches in this slippage to Terry Smith, asking him what he our own conversation, by the end of the night we thought lay at the root of it. I suggested perhaps were left with yet another question, though one it was a difference in style and use of language. that was pertinent to getting to the bottom of Art historians are trained (and expected) to the first: What is distinctive about contemporary propose a unique observation (no matter how curatorial thought? minutely different) on any given topic, outline the facts and problems that pertain to its specificities, And so Thinking Contemporary Curating and present their solutions before providing a became the first book-length text to lay the conclusion that proves they are right. Curators, groundwork for articulating specificities in on the other hand, take a far more speculative (and this still-forming field. As described in his often meandering) approach, outlining the issues acknowledgments, Smith has actively (and I at stake from personal experience, describing a would add generously and thoroughly) engaged project and various artists' practices that test ways with numerous exhibitions, conversations, to understand key points, then making an open­ and projects around the world-often as they ended proposition for consideration with the are occurring-and gained an overview of conclusion that research is ongoing. both emerging and established curator's ideas, l 8 9 KATE FOWLE ICI PERSPECTIVES IN CURATING practices, and outcomes, with one pivotal closed­ provides a flexible format for sharing infor11 l door group discussion between professionals and ideas-in-progress; and The Curatorial tD triggering the form of the text in front of us Intensive-a short-term program for workin! n now. Divided into five chapters that loosely professionals from around the world held twi .... define five facets or operatives, Smith considers annually in New York and in collaboration wi c what contemporaneity means for curating, and institutional partners internationally-enable~ .l the exchange of knowledge and expertise whit dl examines the curator's position in relation to the Ul artist, the public, the exhibition, the institution, developing a new project with all-too-rare pee and the expanded infrastructure that constitutes 1 feedback. While each of these programs, toget the art world within global social, political, and with conference and fellowship initiatives, offe cultural frameworks. Recognizing the drive for curators the opportunity to test ideas, think ou contemporary curatorial practices to destabilize loud, and develop an international network, th, common assumptions or positions, as well as imperative for the book series is to take researc rethink geographic and political representations, to a deeper level. By dedicating resources and Smith also weaves case studies of key exhibitions, attention to a single topic in each volume and debates, and propositions in recent history that building the issues explored over time, Perspecti1. have set precedents from which we can build. in Curating is intended to be responsive to the rapid developments in the field while recognizirJ This is the first book in a series entitled the need to slow down in understanding what is Perspectives in Curating that will be published at stake in the questions we ask of the practice. by Independent Curators International (ICI) Although a new initiative, the precedent for m to provide sustained analysis on topics that are X) pressing for curators now. This initiative follows Thinking Contemporary Curating was established • ~ a number of others that ICI has established in 2001, when ICI published its first book on m ~ since 2010 to support curatorial research and · curatorial practice, Words of Wisdom: A Curator's ::;; Vade Mecum on Contemporary Art. Markedly 2' development in various forms: The Curator's ::J Perspective-a talks series in New York that different in its approach, the book included (Q periodically travels across the U.S.-provides a short texts offering advice to a new generation platform for curators from around the world to of curators from sixty professionals who were present their observations on social and political playing a crucial role in shaping the field. (These situations that are impacting their practice, the included Lynne Cook, Bice Curiger, Thelma Golden, Hou Hanru, Vasif Kortun, Lucy R. projects they understand to be important to ;QJ. I~":.>.:::::~·::..:::~ curatorial developments, and the artists who are Lippard, Maria Lind, Jean-Hubert Martin, making them think; DISPATCH-a quarterly Gerardo Mosquera, Hans Ulrich