Olga Fernández López
Just What is it that Makes “Curating” so Different, so Appealing?
Institutional critique can be considered a methodology of inquiry that reflects on the conditions of possibility that frame art, whereas curating can be thought about as a practice. Narrowing down a practice by means of transforming it into an inquisitive methodology could be problematic. Expanding it and using it as a simile that correlates curatorial and institutional practices could be risky as well. But what makes the metaphor so pervasive nowadays? Research, network, knowledge production, delegation, mediation, performativity… flexible, interactive, relational, fluid… Aren’t we transposing the creativity co-optation that is being discussed in relation to the artist in the post-fordist scenario to the curatorial domain?
Olga Fernández López is teaching Curatorial Strategies – Past and Present at the Curating Contemporary Art Department, Royal College of Art, London and is a visiting lecturer at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She has previously worked as a curator at Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, Spain.
Just What is it that Makes “Curating” so Different, so Appealing?
Institutional critique can be considered a methodology of inquiry that reflects on the conditions of possibility that frame art, whereas curating can be thought about as a practice. Narrowing down a practice by means of transforming it into an inquisitive methodology could be problematic. Expanding it and using it as a simile that correlates curatorial and institutional practices could be risky as well. But what makes the metaphor so pervasive nowadays? Research, network, knowledge production, delegation, mediation, performativity… flexible, interactive, relational, fluid… Aren’t we transposing the creativity co-optation that is being discussed in relation to the artist in the post-fordist scenario to the curatorial domain?
Olga Fernández López is teaching Curatorial Strategies – Past and Present at the Curating Contemporary Art Department, Royal College of Art, London and is a visiting lecturer at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She has previously worked as a curator at Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, Spain.
