Abstract
Whether we conceive of exhibitions as narratological spaces with grammar and syntax,[1] or as intellectual working spaces,[2] the fact is that our understanding of exhibitions has shifted from static, temporary constellations of art objects gathered in a dedicated space, to performative sites where the art objects become agents, interacting among themselves, with their audiences, and with the various discursive contexts that are implicitly or explicitly present or presented. Furthermore, exhibitions are increasingly understood as sites for knowledge production, for research, and as having their own discursive agency. They are not merely the outcome of a curatorial research done by a dedicated expert, but in and of themselves sites where various modes of research and various modes of thinking are enacted. Much like we can think about, with, and through art, we can think about, with, and through exhibitions. In tandem with this new understanding of exhibitions, or rather of its ontological potential, the idea of the curatorial as a new epistemological paradigm is rapidly taking hold.
Highlights
This essay will look at ways in which exhibitions are understood as thinking spaces
As I hope to demonstrate, this thinking space seems to unlock a political agency aimed at changing the way we think
When Swiss curator and art writer Hans-Ulrich Obrist recalls his encounter with the exhibition Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk, organized by that other legendary Swiss curator, Harald Szeemann, in 1983, he describes the exhibition as “an attempt to produce knowledge”: “I visited it thirty-eight times
Summary
Whether we conceive of exhibitions as narratological spaces with grammar and syntax,[1] or as intellectual working spaces,[2] the fact is that our understanding of exhibitions has shifted from static, temporary constellations of art objects gathered in a dedicated space, to performative sites where the art objects become agents, interacting among themselves, with their audiences, and with the various discursive contexts that are implicitly or explicitly present or presented. Exhibitions are increasingly understood as sites for knowledge production, for research, and as having their own discursive agency. They are not merely the outcome of a curatorial research done by a dedicated expert, but in and of themselves sites where various modes of research and various modes of thinking are enacted. The library, which by the time of his death in 1929 contained over 60,000 books on subjects as diverse as astronomy, philosophy, art history, folklore, etc., was not organized like a conventional library; the books were not categorized according to discipline, geography, or historical period, but in temporary “alliances of attraction.”. An agency that is closely related to the epistemological shift proposed by Irit Rogoff, among others, towards “a meaning that takes place as events unfold.”
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