The status and significance of objects has changed since the beginning of the 21st century, affected by the course of globalization, the digitization of all areas of life, and the appreciation in value of immaterial work vis-à-vis the production of goods. The way in which things are presented plays a decisive part in, and at the same time is strongly influenced by, this development. Traditional ideas about how things acquire importance as exhibition objects are beginning to break down and be reformulated. Fundamental questions are arising as to the relationship between the various elements of a presentation situation, including not only objects traditionally designated as exhibition pieces, but also display objects, exhibition spaces, discourses, and the various people involved. The question of what can become a “thing” in exhibitions, and when, how, and with what potentialities, stands at the center of this debate.
Three important aspects of the current curatorial discourse overlap and mutually engage one another in this context:
Firstly, the “vessel function,” by which objects in Western culture came to be repositories of meaning and thus a core constituent of the conception of museums. This notion cannot be declared generally valid for non-Western exhibiting practices and institutions. Nor does it hold validity for the curatorial practices of other disciplines, such as theater, dance, or film. Secondly, the material, static thing that is exhibited as a work of art and a cultural object is accompanied by elements of a curatorial situation that in their materiality, manifestation, and meaning are ephemeral, movable, and incomplete.
Thirdly, by taking on an active role in such situations, these things ultimately attain the status of agents.
The conference CURATORIAL THINGS pursues the implications, consequences, and potentialities that arise out of the interleaving of these aspects and their developments. It proceeds from the understanding that, essentially, curatorial practice means the production of constellations. From differing disciplinary, cultural, and institutional perspectives, it examines the power of influence that is attributed to objects as active participants in such constellations.
"Curatorial Things" in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2014, Oct 30, Thu — 2014, Nov 01, Sat
CONCEPT:
Beatrice von Bismarck,
Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer,
Thomas Weski
CONTRUBITORS:
Sabeth Buchmann, Clémentine Deliss, Anselm Franke, André Lepecki, Maria Lind, Florian Malzacher, Susanne Neubauer, Kerstin Schankweiler, Peter Schneemann, Jana Scholze, Mario Schulze, Leire Vergara, Victoria Walsh, Katharina Weinstock
A COOPERATION WITH:
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2014, Thu, Oct 30
14 - 15h Welcome and introduction: Bernd Scherer, Beatrice von Bismarck, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer
Section 1: Displaying agents
15 - 16h Victoria Walsh: Tracing the Agency of Curatorial Things
16 - 17h Mario Schulze: A Short History of the Thing on Display
17 - 17:30h coffee break
17:30 - 18:30h Sabeth Buchmann: Economics of Information on Display
18:30 - 19:30h Maria Lind: Exhibitionary Agents – Tensta Museum: Reports From New Sweden
Friday, Oct 31 2014
Section 2: Performing Things
10 - 11h Anselm Franke: How to Step out of the Frame? Ontological Difference and Limits of Decolonization in Exhibitions
11 -12h Leire Vergara: Touching the Curatorial: On Collective Processes of Making Sense
12 - 12:30h coffee break
12:30 - 13:30h André Lepecki: Thing / Dance / Vagueness: Choreographic Challenges to Curating
13:30 - 15h lunch break
Section 3: Doing Things
15 - 16h Katharina Weinstock: Re-Arranging the World – Surrealist Object Practices
16 - 17h Kerstin Schankweiler: Contexts of Mobilized Things. Exhibitions and the "Difference within"
17 - 17:30h coffee break
17:30 - 18:30h Clémentine Deliss: Collecting and Curating Life’s Unknowns: Past Ethnography and Current Art Practice
Saturday, Nov 1 2014
Section 4: Changing Status
10 - 11h Susanne Neubauer: Li Yuan Chia's Cupboard of Slides
11 - 12h Florian Malzacher: The Straw to Grasp. Things as Remains of Performances and Lives
12 - 12:30h coffee break
12:30 - 13:30h Peter Schneemann: Curating Spaces – Evoking Sites, Narratives and Processes
13:30 - 14:30h Jana Scholze: Immaterialization and the Museum Collection