Journal of Curatorial Studies - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2015

The Third Guangzhou Triennial, Farewell to Post-Colonialism (2008) was intended as a return to a searching deconstructivist critique of the relationship between identity and social inequality. This article seeks to problematize that intended significance by drawing attention to ways in which the position adopted by the curators of the exhibition was rendered critically ineffective as a result of the de-territorializing effects of localized discursive restrictions on public display and discussion. In reconsidering the international ‘identity’ show more generally, attention will be drawn towards the necessity of a renewed deconstructive attention not only to specific instances of cultural dominance, but also relationships between curatorial practices and their particular discursive contexts.

This article focuses on the encounters and exchanges between French and Chinese artists, art critics and curators from 1985–90 and their impact on the development of two important presentations of the ’85 New Wave movement in France: Magiciens de la Terre (1989) and Chine Demain pour Hier (1990). Drawing on interviews with French and Chinese artists, critics and curators, it argues how the politics of intercultural encounters influenced the curatorial frameworks of both these exhibitions. Such politics ranged from the conditions of artistic exchanges between France and China initiated under French cultural policies to issues of linguistic and cultural translation.

In 2009 and 2011, Taiwan’s premier public art museum, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum presented two major solo exhibitions by prominent Chinese artists Cai Guo-Qiang and Ai Weiwei. These exhibitions signified a critical juncture in museological practice in Taiwan and they were closely aligned with the Taiwan government’s mission to develop closer ties with China. This article investigates the role of art in the development of cross-strait relations, including how it is being deployed by governments on both sides as a vehicle for soft power, as well as some of the political agendas that influenced and shaped exhibitions of Chinese art in Taiwan. By exploring issues of representation and reception, this article considers how the local art community is responding to Taiwan’s rapprochement with China, and to the growing visibility of Chinese art in its museums.

This article investigates the representational interplay between tradition and modernity in three museums about Tibet: the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, China; the Qinghai Tibetan Culture Museum in Xining, China; and the Tibet Museum in Dharamsala, India. Analyzing how each museum displays Tibetan heritage, three modalities of representing Tibetan culture and Tibet’s disputed ‘liberation’ are identified – triumphant modernization, spectacular sacralization, and catastrophic witnessing. Each modality reproduces, counters and complicates dominant Chinese narratives concerning Tibet’s history, culture and political status. Also discussed are the implications of these practices for displaying contested cultural narratives in contemporary China.

In the past twenty years, the Chongqing Municipality in China has experienced major social and territorial transformations. Created in 1997 as an autonomous administrative entity, it was partly formed to address the massive migration caused by the building of the Three Gorges Dam. This article explores how museums in the municipality’s cities of Chongqing, Wanzhou and Yunyang were developed after the Dam’s disruptions. Extensive ethnographic fieldwork identified the museum techniques that aimed to cope with the recent changes. Innovations included presentations of the pain suffered by migrants, and the reinvention of regional history based on former migrations and an ancient kingdom elevated to serve as the cradle of Chongqing culture.

Over the past decade, a number of curatorial and exhibitionary practices have developed in China that intervene into daily life. Interventionist practice partly develops from dissatisfaction with the marked division between the commercial art world and the everyday realities of cultural producers. They also develop from a desire to create a common space of engagement for artists and the local public. While much of this work is not overtly political, the prevailing social conditions of an authoritarian state lend these practices a critical edge, which can lead to surveillance, censorship and other consequences. This article surveys curatorial and artistic interventions in Beijing, placing them in the specific context of the various neighbourhoods, such as the 798 Art District, the city centre, Caochangdi village, and the industrialized suburbs.

Sam Durant, Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions, Washington, dc Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 3 August – 30 November 2014

Sona Safaei, V+1 8–11, Toronto, 16–30 August 2014

Terms of Engagement: Averns, Feldman-Kiss, Stimson Curated by Christine Conley, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Kingston, 26 April – 10 August 2014, also exhibited at Mount Saint Vincent University Museum, Halifax, 18 January – 9 March 2014, and the Esker Foundation, Calgary, 27 September – 14 December 2014

Camilla Singh, Uniforms for Non-Uniform Work Curated by Emelie Chhangur, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, 2 April – 15 June 2014

Fiona Tan, Inventory Curated by Adelina Vlas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 14 December 2013 – 11 May 2014; originating at MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, 27 March – 8 September 2013

Performative Appropriation of Video Art on YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion

Exhibition as Social Intervention: ‘Culture in Action’ 1993, Joshua Decter, Helmut Draxler and Others London: Afterall Books (2014), 224 pp., Paperback, ISBN: 978-3-86335-448-0, US$27.50

New Collecting: Exhibiting and Audiences After New Media art, Beryl Graham (ed.) Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate (2014), 234 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-40944-894-5, E-book, ISBN: 978-1-40944-895-2, £60.00

Show Time: The 50 Most Influential Exhibitions of Contemporary art, Jens Hoffmann London: Thames and Hudson (2014), 256 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-50023-911-7, £29.95

The Multisensory Museum: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Touch, Sound, Smell, Memory and Space, Nina Levent and Alvaro Pascual-Leone (eds) Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield (2014), 384 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-75912-354-0, US$75.00

The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution, Marilyn Satin Kushner and Kimberly Orcutt (eds) London: D. Giles Limited (2013), 512 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-90780-404-5, US$79.95

Curious Lessons in The Museum: The Pedagogic Potential of Artists’ Interventions, Claire Robins Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate (2013), 246 pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-40943-617-1, £65.00

Self-Organised, Stine Hebert and Anne Szefer Karlsen (eds) Bergen and London: Hordaland Centre and Open Editions (2013), 168 pp., Paperback, ISBN: 978-0-94900-417-8, £17.00