Exhibition as Artistic Medium, Curator of Contemporary Art as Author. The Changing Statuses of the Exhibition and the Curator in the Field of Contemporary Art

October 1st and 2nd 2010, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana
International symposium organized by the Igor Zabel Association in cooperation with Beti Žerovc.
Co-produced by: Moderna galerija
Financed by: ERSTE Foundation

Participants: Alfred H. Barr Jr., Martin Beck, Beatrice von Bismarck, Michael Fehr, Bogdan Ghiu, Søren Grammel, Paul O'Neill, Kerstin Stakemeier, Mary Anne Staniszewski, Philip Ursprung, Jelena Vesić, Beti Žerovc

About
In the background of the symposium lies the idea that large system changes have occurred and are still occurring in the field of contemporary art and to a certain degree in art in general. However, they are not treated and reflected upon as they occur, and they are especially rarely efficiently theoretically analyzed and explained in the local context. They are almost taken for granted and believed to be a sort of “natural flow of events” as if they have no significant influence on the artistic production, etc. The changing of the statuses of the exhibition – which is in a way a “privileged genre” of our period – and the curator in the field of contemporary art are two such phenomena.

The central issues that will be addressed in the lectures and panels:

• If the exhibition itself is becoming a work of art, what are the main features of such a work of art? Can we define its structure? Can we define why is it or isn’t it a work of art?
• What makes or doesn't make the curator an author? What makes or doesn't make the curator an artist?
• Do we still view and enjoy individual artworks within exhibitions or do we increasingly view, appreciate and contemplate exhibitions themselves? Can or must we view and enjoy these two things separately or simultaneously? Or should they merge as in a theatre play or film?

More about the programme.
More about the participants and abstracts.