[-empyre-] "Death of the Curator"

[pedro]

Hey Naeem

interesting point.

i used to mix performing and "curating" and decided to abandon it. As
u say, the headspaces are different and i suffered. But it doesnt mean
you cant do both, just in different time/spaces.

will download your PDF, thanks !

x




On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 8:40 AM, Naeem Mohaiemen
<naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Renate,
> Thank you for the invitation to join this discussion.
>
> I have attached here the PDF of an essay I had written about
> artists-as-curators. It was published in the now defunct ART LIES
> journal in their "Death of the Curator" issue in 2009 and then
> reprinted in TAKE ON ART in India in 2011.
>
> Some of this now feels quite dated, but hopefully some of it can still
> be relevant to our discussion.
>
> This was a key portion for me:
>
> "This is when I started to wonder if artist-as-curator was always a
> healthy construct. Being that close to the decisionmaking process,
> seeing up close all the calculations and permutations and equations: I
> worried that it would make me too conscious about my own work. Instead
> of messing around, you start to walk in a straight line.
>
> Of course, no one is living in a hermetic bubble where they have no
> idea how decisions are made. It’s about the work, it’s about the
> budget, it’s about the mandate, it’s about the theme, it’s about the
> recommendation. Sometimes it’s also about the check box, and when you
> are in an identifiable race/nation subgenre, navigating that is a
> challenge. But to become overly conscious of this process is damaging
> to the isolation and headspace that is needed when dreaming up worlds
> and ideas for one’s own work.
>
> A friend sounded a contrarian note in an email: “Well, I don’t think
> becoming self-conscious about my own work is an unhealthy thing. The
> agenda for me as an artist is organizing, having a larger
> conversation, a research activity.” So this is not a cautionary tale
> after all. There are many possible outcomes, no need to lament."
>
> Hope people will get a chance to read the full attachment and then we
> can get the discussion going?
>
> in solidarity,
> Naeem Mohaiemen
>
> --
>
> http://shobak.org
>
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