Ivana Meštrov and Mihaela Richter
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časopis za suvREMENA LIKOVNA ZBIVANJA ivana meŠtRov We thank everyone who responded to our invitation. We would and mihaela RichteR also like to thank the participants of the Curatorial Platform - pilot project for taking part in this rapprochement process. _______ conveRsations – stRategy FoR 1 Art and Design Magazine: On Curating – the Contemporary Art Museum and Beyond, n. 52., Academy Editions, London,1997.; ed. Barnaby RappRochement With Drabble, Dorothee Richter, Curating Degree Zero, An International cuRatoRial pRactices Curating Symposium, Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nurnberg, 1999.; ed. - Susan Hiller, Sarah Martin, The Producers: Contemporary Curators The series of conversations presented here is based in Conversations (1-5), Baltic and University of Newcastle, Newcastle, 2000.-2002.; Carin Kuoni, Words of Wisdom: A Curator’s Vade Mecum, on the assumption that, although the role and activity Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, 2001.; ed. Christoph of a present day curator have been explored and Tannert, Ute Tischler, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, MIB-Men in Black: deconstructed from different perspectives through Handbook of Curatorial Practice, Revolver, Frankfurt am Main, 2004.; ed. Liam Gillick, Maria Lind, Curating with Light Luggage, Revolver, 1 numerous publications , educational programmes and Frankfurt am Main, 2005., ed. Steven Rand and Heather Kouris, seminars organised in the international arena, in the Cautionary Tales: Critical Curating, Apexart, New York, 2007.; ed. Croatian cultural context, regardless of many well- Dorothee Richter, Barnaby Drabble, Marianne Eigenheer (ICE), Curating Critique, Revolver, Frankfurt am Main, 2007.; ed. Paul O’Neill, Curating established curatorial practices, such auto-referential Subjects, Occasional Table, Open Editions, London, 2007.; ed. Florence discourse is precisely what is missing. Derieux, Ecole du Magasin, Harald Szeemann, Individual Methodologies, Contemporary curators are engaged in activities JRP|Ringier, Zurich, 2007.; Hans Ulrich Obrist, A Brief History of Curating, JRP|Ringier, Les Presses du réel, Zurich/Dijon, 2008. which develop at the intersection of different creative, 2 In period of 2008 – 2009, in cooperation with Kultura Promjene (Culture administrative and theoretical practices, thus it is almost of Change) of the Student Centre in Zagreb, a pilot program Curatorial impossible to unequivocally define such a “hybrid” Platform was initiated with intention of providing additional theoretical activity. Besides, each local context brings its specific and practical education in contemporary national and international art to students in their final years in art and social orientation. Pilot preoccupations and fields of interest. program Curatorial Platform was, above all, dedicated to the acquisition A need for an open dialogue about what makes a curator and exchange of knowledge in contemporary art practices and theories, was clearly expressed in the final presentation of the which are the basics for further understanding of curatorial practices. Its aim was three-fold. First it aimed to direct those that were interested 2 Curatorial Platform’s program participants. As a response, in applying theoretical knowledge to practice. Second it sought to re- this cycle of conversations was developed in collaboration examine existing exhibition “formats” and curatorial “models”. Finally with participants in order to support transmission and it emphasized networking and interdisciplinary collaborations. That is the reason why the emphasis lay on independent and group research. exchange of knowledge on contemporary art and Also, work was done in actively connecting and including attendants curatorial practices. into currents of local and international cultural scenes through guest A collective model of work filtered out the choice of lectures of curators and theoreticians who are active locally, regionally and internationally, of which some act within educational platforms. The interlocutors and a fixed set of questions3, which were put concept and lecturing support to the program was provided by curators 145 to a certain number of curators, theoreticians, curatorial and art historians Ivana Bago, Antonia Majača and Klaudio štefančić. collectives, and artists of different generations who have It was devised and co-ordinated by Ivana Meštrov and Mihaela Richter. been present in the Croatian cultural context for the past The program was actively attended by 15 people. //www.platformakustos. blogspot.com// ten years. From eighteen of them we received answers that 3 Special contribution to the formulation of questions was given by Irena articulated their views on their own activities and practice. Gessner, Ana Kutleša, Marijana Rimanić and Vanja žanko. By repeating the same questions and suggestive sub- questions, interviewers employed a method for simulating comparative answers. We were not concerned with ivana bago and antonia majača empirical findings or ‘basic curatorial values’, but rather INTERVIEWED BY NINA PISK AND SANJA HORvatinčić with individual curatorial experiences and cultural practices - at the crossroads of theory and practice and the part they 1. What term would you use to define your profession and play in a modern society. It is important to emphasize what was the course of your professional path? that we were not exclusively interested in defining ways A.M.: My work might be described as one involving roles of a to curate but also in seeing how singular experience reader, student, writer, observer, mediator, curator, bricoleur, and thought processes compose the pluralism of ideas art historian, activist, cultural worker, author… So, my work creating the curatorial practice, within the art system and in takes different shapes and I discover different focuses “on the understanding how visible and effective these experiences way” but it always stems from the world of ideas, images and and thought processes are within a social field. words, their relations and their potential to modify, activate, Additional motivation for this cycle of conversations was the engage or transform their environments. My interests were aim to position local curators within the current international always in the sphere of thoughts and ideas, their critical and movements. Even though it might be argued that this artistic articulation and creating or empowering a context in approach attempts to map curatorial practices, by presenting which intellectual and artistic practices can emerge. During a fragmentary selection and using a heterogeneous my studies and immediately after I was engaged on several approach, we distance ourselves from historiography, i.e. projects connected with film and visual art, curated a number from writing the “never written” history of curatorial and of exhibitions as an independent curator, was writing on exhibition practices in Croatia. art and film for Radio and Croatian TV, collaborated with Our intention was to reflect upon curatorial practices and associations on the independent cultural scene, and in 2004, upon prevention of oblivion, which need to be (up)held took the post of the director at Galerija Miroslav Kraljević. I through active dialogue and presentation. Open discursive have started my term in G-MK by envisioning it as a space forms of conversation suit best our comprehension of variety, of potentialities, a space for the coexistence of diverse demands and responsibility, which are inseparable elements models of creative and critical engagement and as an open, of curatorial profession. explorative and process-oriented institutional experiment. I MAGAZINE FOR CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS started developing new program lines, initiated a program of the designation “curator” I am also an art historian. I think it new commissions, instigated a research-residency program is extremely important to insist upon this, seeing that actual for international artists and launched new international criticism and intervention into the conventional models of collaborative projects. Soon after, I started to work intensely writing art history have still not taken place in the local context with Ivana, both on projects related to G-MK and elsewhere… (least of all in the discipline’s academic realm). What we are mostly focused on lately are long-term, research 2. What would you list as the decisive moments that and publishing oriented projects developed through the contributed to the development of your thinking and Institute for Duration, Location and Variables (DeLVe) that we practice, whether concerning certain concepts you have recently established. The Institute represents for us a certain developed or references and collaborations? retreat from the immediate visibility of our work as curators There are no decisive moments. All moments are decisive if and exhibition makers, and represents a step into indepth they are determined by curiosity, enthusiasm about discovering research, close-reading of art history, performative writing something that was forgotten, or discovering new practices. etc. Simultaneously we are interested in finding a mode for In such a course there are no decisive moments or they introducing a kind of self-restrictiveness in the hyper production are purely accidental and often cannot be reconstructed in the field of art – with DeLVe we decide to radicalize the afterwards. It has to do with a certain kind of openness question – what should we really bring into the world, into the towards being constantly surprised,