friends,
just a brief note to say that - probably like many others - i am
following with much interest the discussion and contributions sparked
by the question yesterday.
i particularly liked roger's comments - and of course agree with the
suggestion that, even if there were some sort of rules or codes,
there would have to be exceptions. whether you want to declare the
situation open and the distinction between curator and artist
obsolete, is for me a question of pragmatics: is there sufficient
need for having terms that describe a particular practice, or not?
and if yes, does that practice follow general structures which have
recurring ethical implications which, in turn, a community like this
chooses to have shared opinions about, or not? (i can easily live
with both, and only choose to have my own position about it.)
roger's question why there are curators in art but not in science is
interesting. in my own perception, it is very much a question of
reflexivity (a reflexivity that is built into many peer review
systems), i.e. in how far somebody who has to make value judgements
is able to do this in a fair, transparent and critical way, and come
up with an interesting, dense and meaningful selection - of texts, of
art projects, or other works or items; in some cases, not in all!, i
doubt whether the artists who work as curators evaluate their own
work with the same critical interest that they apply to other
people's work. (assuming that artists have a close and intimate
relationship with their work; would you invite the partner of one of
the candidates for the Mr. Universe competition to be one of the
jurors?)
my own recent experience is this: i was working in a curatorial team
and one of the people on this team is a practising artist; he
forcefully suggested to include his own work in the project, leaving
little room for a critical evaluation by the rest of the team,
comparable to the collective selection process that we had been
working with on other proposals. i had hoped that there would be a
consensus among my peers on this crumb list that especially high
moral standards apply for a situation in which an artist wants to
include his/her own work in an exhibition project. i learn now that
such a consensus does not exist, due to the abundance of different
situations and settings we have to take into consideration.
what does it mean for the audience?
greetings,
-a
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