Journal of Curatorial Studies - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013

This article examines the 1993 Whitney Biennial, its focus on identity politics, and the exhibition’s position within the methodological debates between Art History and an interdisciplinary Cultural Studies. It identifies where and how the voice of the exhibition came to be defined and observes the relations between the institutional framework, the curatorial agenda, and what the art itself performed. With emphasis on the artworks of Andrea Fraser, Renée Green, and Daniel J. Martinez, I argue that contemporaneous critical reception missed the Biennial’s art historical contribution, which highlighted artists synthesizing historically incompatible modes of practice, and bringing identity politics to bear on institutional critique and conceptual art.

This article examines the aesthetico-political preoccupations and linkages between dOCUMENTA (13)’s four positions (‘on stage’ in Kassel, ‘under siege’ in Kabul/Bamiyan, ‘in a state of hope’ in Alexandria/Cairo, and ‘on retreat’ in Banff). Complemented by personal vignettes, the discussion moves between the conditional positions and the impact of the Occupy Movement as well as the contiguous notions of retreat and residency. It concludes by considering dOCUMENTA (13)’s proposition of occupying, or taking up residency in spaces as well as in objects and images, and investigating the possibility for art’s direct political engagement.

This article examines the early history of the Artangel Trust (1985–91), focusing on the use of advertising media such as billboards and outdoor screens in a series of prominently located projects, by artists such as Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, and Les Levine. It also identifies significant shifts in the organization’s approach to practices of commissioning, mediation and promotion after 1991, following the appointment of James Lingwood and Michael Morris as co-directors. Instead of simply emphasizing the specific differences between these two incarnations of Artangel, the article draws attention to the altered – and continually changing – relationship betwen media and concepts of the public sphere in curatorial practice.

This discussion between nine curators, theorists and art historians addresses some of the contemporary issues related to feminism and curating. Topics include the role of the geographical and geopolitical in curatorial projects; the place of canons and canon-making in feminist approaches; the nature of contemporary feminist collectivities; the importance of the museum and its context of capitalism within politicized curatorial practice; and the status of the object and aesthetics in feminist-oriented curatorial practice.

How can a history of exhibitions inform curators on the challenges of exhibiting new media art? How can histories of exhibitions dealing with interaction and participation inform the curation of new media art involving these behaviours? Exhibitions of broadly conceptual or immaterial work such as Information (1970) and Les Immatériaux (1985) lead to an examination of exhibitions where participation is key, including Bodyspacemotionthings (1971 and 2009), Serious Games (1996), 010101 (2001), The Art of Participation (2008), and Current (2011). New media artworks including Talkaoke, www_hack, and Random Information Exchange help to establish critical categories for different kinds of participatory systems. For future critical art histories of participatory art exhibitions, I propose that an effective method would include a combination of documentary sources, such as installation images, audience data, and crowd-sourced documentation.

Theaster Gates: My Labor is my Protest White Cube, Bermondsey, 7 September–11 November 2012

Experts: Doomsday Predictions Have no Basis in Fact or History Curated by Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp, 15 May 2012–13 January 2013

Come Closer: Art Around the Bowery, 1969–1989 Curated by Ethan Swan, New Museum, New York, 19 September–30 December 2012

Colossal: Art & Visual Ingenuity Christopher Jobson, Blogger, http://www.thisiscolossal.com/, 2010–date

Hyperallergic: Sensitive to Art & Its Discontents Hrag Vartanian, Co-founder and Editor-in-chief, and Veken Gueyikian, Co-founder and Publisher, http://hyperallergic.com/, 2009–date

The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(S), Paul O’Neill Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (2012), 192 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-262-01772-5, US$24.95

Cultures of the Curatorial, Beatrice Von Bismarck, Jörn Schafaff and Thomas Weski (eds) Leipzig: Sternberg Press and Kulturen des Kuratorischen an der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst/Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig (2012), 376 pp., Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-934105-97-9, €19.00

Performing the Curatorial: Within and Beyond Art, Maria Lind (ed.) Berlin: Sternberg Press, Tensta konsthall, ArtMonitor/University of Gothenburg (2012), 162 pp., Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-934105-89-4, €19.00

Curating in the Caribbean, David A. Bailey, Alissandra Cummins, Axel Lapp and Allison Thompson (eds) Berlin: the Green Box (2012), 184 pp., Paperback, ISBN: 978-3-941644-32-8, €15.00

Film, Art, New Media: Museum Without Walls?, Angela Dalle Vacche (ed.) London: Palgrave Macmillan (2012), 336 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-230-27292-7, £60.00

Artists’ Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art, Gwen Allen Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (2011), 368 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-262015-19-6, US$37.95

Great Exhibitions in the Margins 1851–1938 Organized by Marta Filipova, held at the University of Wolverhampton, UK, 26–27 April 2012