Sacramento / Zeiske ARTocracy
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-3-86859-900-8
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Art, Informal Space, and Social Consewuence: A Curational Handbook in Collaborative Practice
E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-86859-900-8
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Kunst im öffentlichen Raum – das kann weit mehr sein als die Aufwertung von Straßen und Plätzen durch Plastiken und Skulpturen. ARTocracy stellt eine autonome Welt der Kunst vor, die – zielgerichtet im Dialog mit den Künstlern – ebenso die Geschichte wie die gegenwärtige Gesellschaft und den Alltag der Menschen einbezieht. Dieses Handbuch gewährt dabei Einblicke in die komplexe Organisation von Gemeinschaftsprojekten und zeigt, wie öffentliche Kunstprojekte im Dialog erfolgreich in die Tat umgesetzt werden können: und zwar von der Idee über die Beauftragung eines Künstlers, von der Finanzierung und dem Marketing bis hin zur Rezeption.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Curator and Shadow Curator After co-curating the ArtCup, Le Salon des Refusés—a project in Huntly during the World Cup 2006 that brought together art and football—Nuno Sacramento was invited to undertake a residency at Deveron Arts to test his Shadow Curator concept on the then emerging the town is the venue curatorial strategy. The aim was to enter a Shadow Curator dialogue with Claudia Zeiske, the director (and curator) of Deveron Arts, and investigate how this dialogue could feed back into the functioning and development of the organisation, as well as contribute to a wider discussion around curatorial practice. Curator Traditionally, a curator is someone who takes care of the collection of a museum or historic site. The word itself comes from the Latin word “curatus,” meaning “care.” A curator has a range of responsibilities, which are different from organisation to organisation, depending on the size of the institution, its mission, its financial resources, and the availability of other staff. In the contemporary visual arts context, the curator’s role is to develop an understanding and overview of both conceptual and organisational tasks. The “caring” element of curating is not related to the objects only, but also to the artists, the community, and the context—which may be a gallery, a residency centre, a site-specific project, an event, a book, etc. The curator generates the necessary conditions for the emergence of visual arts projects and at the same time is responsible for the frameworks of reception by the public. The curatorial scope relates to every stage of the project, from the conditions of making, to the presentation, and finally to the reception of the work. While they may come from a visual arts training background or related discipline, such as art history or cultural studies, visual arts curators have become interdisciplinary practitioners, who have to balance the theoretical tasks (research and conceptualising of projects) with the more organisational ones (fund-raising, marketing/PR, learning/education, for instance). Shadow Curator “Shadow Curator is to the curator what the Shadow Minister is to the Minister: it is a position of peaceful antagonism or of agonism.” (Nuno Sacramento) The comparison between Minister and Shadow Minister, and curator and Shadow Curator demands further clarification. While the Shadow Minister is interested in the downfall of his opponent, in order to take his place, the Shadow Curator is interested in consolidating the position of the curator. A robust curatorial practice results in a consolidated arts organisation. The following four interrogations will help clarify the concept of Shadow Curator: 1. What is a Shadow Curator, and why is there the need for one? 2. Is the comparison to the Minister and Shadow Minister consistent with the curator and Shadow Curator? 3. In what sense can we talk about agonism? 4. For whom should the Shadow Curator work? 1. What is a Shadow Curator, and why is there the need for one? Isn’t a curator with an assistant or with a mentor, enough to run an organisation or to organise a project? The Shadow Curator’s role isn’t to assist or to mentor a curator in regard to a particular project or programme. Their role is, through the use of dialogue and discussion, to challenge the proposals and actions of the curator in order to consolidate his/her methodology. Curators who are inclined to invite the critical position of the Shadow Curator are likely to belong to one or more of the following categories: feel isolated from the dominating curatorial discourse, want to gain knowledge and insight about other curatorial practices, feel the desire for challenge and discussion in order to establish their positions, want to enter networks where relevant discussions are taking place, or simply want their practices to be bridged with the practices of others in order to assess whether their work resonates with the work of their peers. The starting points for the Shadow Curator dialogue can thus range from geographic isolation, a keen interest in expanding knowledge on curating and affiliated practices, or a desire for debate and agonistic dialogue, etc. Curators who live and work in isolation regarding contemporary arts feel that although they have access to publications and websites on curatorial discourse, they are often unable to contribute to them, which can lead to the frustration of being at the receiving end of a one-way communication. This gap is bridged by the Shadow Curator, who helps to bring together the artistic practices with the core of the discourse. Curators whose practices relate closely to curatorial discourse, often lack the time and the resources for a more formal discussion around their work. Here, the Shadow Curator potentially contributes to the formalisation of a discussion, by encouraging the curator to build a time frame for the analysis and reflection around practice, within a busy schedule. 2. Is the comparison to the Minister and Shadow Minister consistent with the curator and Shadow Curator? The idea of Shadow Curator originates from an appropriation of the concept of Shadow Minister in Anglo-Saxon politics. A closer look at the remit and definition—taken from the Oxford English Dictionary—of the Shadow Minister shows that: Designating members of an opposition party nominated as counterparts of members of the government in power holding cabinet or other offices, or the offices held, as shadow cabinet, minister, ministry, etc. The role of the Shadow Members of Parliament during their mandate is clear: to scrutinise the function of the Members of Parliament in power and to propose appropriate alternative policies. As mentioned earlier, what distinguishes the Shadow Curator from the Shadow Minister is that he or she is not interested in the curator’s demise, nor will he or she ever take the curators’ place. They will work together from within the same system to contribute to a more consistent practice. 3. In what sense can we talk about agonism? To qualify the relationship between the curator and the Shadow Curator—distinguished from the one between the Minister and Shadow Minister or from the relationship between curator and assistant curator—this “agonism” must be discussed. The relationship between Shadow Curator and the curator encompasses a strong element of agonism, originated in a dialogue around practice, which is often undisputed or plainly taken for granted. The vision of the curator is informed by a number of tacit conversations, and is now coming more and more under scrutiny due to public accountability. The more visibility the project has, the more scrutiny it is likely to prompt. The Shadow Curator, in close dialogue with the curator consolidates a process that then becomes more robust. They do this by preempting some critical questions in an agonistic framework. The agonism functions here as an antidote to the possible antagonism created by public accountability. Chantal Mouffe describes agonism as: While antagonism is a “we/them” relation in which the two sides are enemies who do not share any common ground, agonism is a “we/them” relation where the conflicting parties, although acknowledging that there is no rational solution to their conflict, nevertheless recognise the legitimacy of their opponents. They are adversaries, not enemies. This means that, while in conflict, they see themselves as belonging to the same political association, as sharing a common symbolic space within which the conflict takes place.1 For Mouffe, the notion of agonism relates to all radical democratic processes. When antagonism, meaning the desire to annihilate the opposition is excluded, all we are left with is agonism. Setting the context for the use of agonism on the curatorial field underlines the need for curators to have a structured and formalised discussion about their approaches, one that will inform their methodologies and contribute to the wider curatorial discourse. This discussion between curator and Shadow Curator leads to the deconstruction of the tacit curatorial discourse. It promotes the study of curatorial methodologies and consolidates the practices of individuals and of their organisations. It creates a new position in the context of visual arts that strengthens the position of the curator, while contributing to the approximation of practices located at the periphery and at the core of discourse. 4. And for whom should the Shadow Curator work? For the same organisation as the curator. Shadow Curator at Deveron Arts Huntly, a small town in North East Scotland with only Deveron Arts as a place for professional artistic provision, is not a natural breeding ground for progressive contemporary artistic practice. There was a feeling of professional isolation, something the Shadow Curator project could potentially counterbalance through opening up an ongoing dialogue. After completing a PhD in curatorial practice titled Shadow Curating: A Critical Portfolio, Nuno was invited by Deveron Arts to go to Huntly for a three-month Shadow Curator residency. During this time, he talked to the...
