Calendar

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the master program Cultures of the Curatorial at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, the symposium and curatorial program „Show and Try Again“ focuses on the potential of curatorial research.  

Art and artifacts transform in the process of becoming public. Each presentation creates new meanings for both the exhibits and for the relations generated within an exhibition situation. As a result, what is familiar can become unfamiliar, forms of knowledge discarded, institutions redefined, roles overruled and narratives reoriented.

How can showing itself be understood as a form of research, rather than merely a result of an invisible process preceding it? What can be required from operations of presenting art in the face of the increasing economization of education, knowledge, and visibility? What is the emancipatory, critical potential of showing in specific orders? How can showing and research be understood as a mutual process?

The role of the curatorial – a set of interrelated practices and positions – in the context of transformation processes on an aesthetic as well as on a social, political and economic level is undisputed in the current discourse. However, the debate on the actual practices, strategies and processes that could and should be used for this purpose is ongoing and open. It addresses those meaningful actions that are specific to the act of showing and self-reflection of art and culture.

Experimental, repetitive processing and reorganizing ways of dealing with curatorial situations, which are especially interested in epistemological and socially relevant questions, take center stage within the framework of Show and Try Again. Artists, curators and scholars explore the potentials of curatorial research through various formats, ranging from performances, presentations, workshops, panels and lectures.

Combining theory and practice, the symposium taking place on October 18th sets a discursive framing for the program. The contributions seek to explore the dimensions of curatorial research today, discussing aspects of gender, digitality, politicality, performativity, and curatorial agency.

Contributors: Fiona McGovern, Adrian Heathfield, Nora Sternfeld and Magda Tyżlik-Carver.

Schedule:
2.00 p.m. | Welcome and Introduction

2.30 – 3.30 p.m. | Keynotes
Nora Sternfeld (Wien/Kassel): How can we learn something that does not yet exist?
Magda Tyżlik-Carver (Aarhus): Posthuman Curating and computational culture

3.30 – 3.45 p.m. | Coffee Break

3.45 – 4.45 p.m. | Keynotes
Adrian Heathfield (London): Spirited affinities
Fiona McGovern (Berlin/Hildesheim): Some considerations about an ethic of curating

4.45 – 5.15 p.m. | Coffee Break
5.15 – 6.15 p.m. | Roundtables

6.15 – 6.30 p.m. | Coffee Break
6.30 – 8.00 p.m. | Paneldiscussion

The event is free and open to the public.

Concept: Beatrice von Bismarck, Julia Kurz, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer and Agnieszka Roguski

Support for Show and Try Again is generously provided by the Dresden State Art Collections and the Friends of the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts.

Photo: Beatrice von Bismarck. Installation of „Re:Bachelor Machines“, gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, 2018.