[curatorial.net] Cultures of the CuratorialConference

[Peter Dickinson]

Hi Joasia

Hope this is of interest.

Peter

Cultures of the Curatorial
Conference

Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst
Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig

January 22 - 24, 2010

Guests: Daniel Birnbaum, Gabriele Brandtstetter, Liam Gillick, Hannah
Hurtzig, Maria Lind, Marion von Osten, Raqs Media Collective, Dorothee
Richter, Irit Rogoff, Barbara Steiner, Nora Sternfeld, Hito Steyerl, Anton
Vidokle, Tirdad Zolghadr.

Concept: Beatrice von Bismarck, Jörn Schafaff, Thomas Weski.

To download the conference schedule, please go to:
http://www.kdk-leipzig.de/veranstaltungen.html
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The conference "Cultures of the Curatorial" aims at positioning the
Curatorial ­ a practice which goes decisively beyond the making of
exhibitions ­ within a transdisciplinary and transcultural context and
exploring it as a genuine method of generating, mediating and reflecting
experience and knowledge. It thus takes into account the current economic,
social and political developments within the cultural field under the
conditions of globalization, neo-liberalism and post-fordism.

Background to the conference is the observation that in the course of the
20th Century the relations and conditions for the presentation and reception
of cultural objects and information have increasingly become a focus of
artistic and other cultural practices. Between art and science forms of
practice, techniques, formats and aesthetics have emerged which can be
subsumed under the notion of the "Curatorial" ­ not dissimilar to the
functions of the concepts of the filmic or the literary. With activities
such as organization, compilation, display, presentation, mediation or
publication the curatorial encompasses a multitude of different, overlapping
and heterogeneously coded tasks and roles. Dealing with them the various
participants within the field have developed a broad spectrum of
historically, disciplinary, professionally and regionally shaped approaches.

Over the past twenty years the curatorial has then yet again gained in
social relevance. Located within the cultural realm it betrays a number of
characteristics, which allow for its social and economic importance
particularly within the service and information sector. Consequences were in
a first instance the competency demands for those working in this realm
which have considerably grown in quantity and complexity. The globalizing of
exhibiting activities, the continuously growing numbers of visitors
connected with it, the increased mobility of people, objects and
information, the new relevance of culture for regional economic development
as well as the economically oriented restructuring of cultural politics mark
some of the most important conditions of this development.

Furthermore the curatorial plays a decisive role within the contemporary
de-limitation of the arts, for the changing notion of artistic work and
competency as well as for the current social status of artists. In this
context it developed model functions for the economic field with respect for
example to creative industries, tourist economics and the transition to
flexible working conditions. However, in this same context there also
developed strategies and techniques unfolding the critical potential of the
curatorial to question the social, economic and cultural effects of
globalization and neo-liberalism in a specific way.

The conference pursues these various current practices and formats of the
curatorial and their societal perspectives. It integrates different artistic
and academic disciplines and professions, - visual arts, dance, theater,
film and music ­ which touch, intersect, complement but also compete with
one another. Additionally it focuses on the similarities, differences and
reciprocities of socially, economically, ethnically, regionally or
nationally defined curatorial cultures and inquires about the respective
conditions. The aim is to mark the field within which the actual societal
relevance of the curatorial as a form of experience, cognition and knowledge
emerges with its aesthetic, social and political perspectives.

To download the conference schedule, please go to:
http://www.kdk-leipzig.de/veranstaltungen.html

Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst/ Academy of Visual Arts
Wächterstr. 11
04107 Leipzig
Germany

Contact:
Judith Krakowski: krakow at hgb-leipzig.de
Jörn Schafaff: schafaff at hgb-leipzig.de