Yael Eylat Van-Essen
Critical Curating
“Critical Curating” was the leading concept in the planning process for the New City Museum of Tel-Aviv - an institution that attends to contemporary urban issues. In my presentation I will discuss the conceptual programme that was developed, emphasising a leading model that offers the possibility of planning an institutional museum that follows the paradigm of “museum as a self-reflective medium”. This model focuses on the critical and interpretative role of the museum, while reassessing issues such as curatorial responsibility, museum authority and ways for audience involvement. As a result, the conceptual design of the museum challenges traditional dichotomies, offering to blur the clear distinction between Art and Historic museums.
Yael Eylat Van-Essen works as a researcher and a lecturer of Digital Culture, Digital Art Theory and Museology, Head of the Art and New-Media Department and Academic Director of the Curatorial Studies Program (CSP) at the School of Arts and Technology in Tel-Aviv (2008-2010); was a member of the curatorial team and a media curator for the Museum of the City of Tel-Aviv (2006-2008); editor of the first anthology published in Hebrew on digital culture; currently, on the last stages of completing her PhD thesis at the Tel-Aviv University on the conceptual influence of new technologies on the museum.
Critical Curating
“Critical Curating” was the leading concept in the planning process for the New City Museum of Tel-Aviv - an institution that attends to contemporary urban issues. In my presentation I will discuss the conceptual programme that was developed, emphasising a leading model that offers the possibility of planning an institutional museum that follows the paradigm of “museum as a self-reflective medium”. This model focuses on the critical and interpretative role of the museum, while reassessing issues such as curatorial responsibility, museum authority and ways for audience involvement. As a result, the conceptual design of the museum challenges traditional dichotomies, offering to blur the clear distinction between Art and Historic museums.
Yael Eylat Van-Essen works as a researcher and a lecturer of Digital Culture, Digital Art Theory and Museology, Head of the Art and New-Media Department and Academic Director of the Curatorial Studies Program (CSP) at the School of Arts and Technology in Tel-Aviv (2008-2010); was a member of the curatorial team and a media curator for the Museum of the City of Tel-Aviv (2006-2008); editor of the first anthology published in Hebrew on digital culture; currently, on the last stages of completing her PhD thesis at the Tel-Aviv University on the conceptual influence of new technologies on the museum.
