When attitudes become the norm
Subtitle: the contemporary curator and institutional art
By: Beti Žerovc ; [translators Rawley Grau, David Limon, and Polona Petek]
Contributors: Staniszewski, Mary Anne, author; Grau, Rawley, translator; Limon, David, translator; Petek, Polona, translator
Publisher: Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory; Archive Books
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Ljubljana; Berlin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
ISBN-13: 9783943620399
Subjects: Art museums; Curatorship; Modern Art; Exhibitions; Philosophy; Art; Exhibition techniques; Art museum curators; Interviews
Description: When Attitudes Become the Norm is a collection of essays and interviews (in English) by art historian and theorist Beti Žerovc on the topic of curatorship in contemporary art. Žerovc examines curatorship in its broader social, political and economic contexts, as well as in relation to the profound changes that have taken place in the art field over the last century. She analyses the curator as a figure who appears, evolves, and participates in the institutionalisation of contemporary art and argues that with the curator institutional art - art designed to fit the art institution's space and needs - achieves its fullest expression. The first part of the book establishes the historical and contextual framework for understanding the phenomenon of curatorship and outlines the range of the contemporary art curator's powers and activities. In later essays, Žerovc analyses the rapid global spread of curatorship, discusses politicised left-leaning contemporary art as a genre that has developed in explicit connection with curators and art institutions, and questions the possibilities of the social and political objectives attached to exhibitions and other curatorial projects. In the last part of the book, Žerovc investigates the character and ambiguities of the curator as an artist and the curated contemporary art exhibition as an artistic medium, as an event, and as a ritual. She draws comparisons between the contemporary role of art institutions as commissioners and producers of art and the similar role played in the past by the aristocracy and the Church and makes connections between contemporary art events and religious ritual. Her analysis thus seeks to counter the treatment of these aesthetic productions as autonomous creations and to foster a more critical view of the role art institutions play within the broader social system.--Publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The role of the contemporary curator: a historical and critical analysis --; title: Joséphin Péladan: a proto-curator? --; title: Interview with Pierre Restany --; title: Interview with Zoran Kržišnik --; title: Interview with Harald Szeemann --; title: Interview with Daniel Buren --; title: Networking, curatorship and social capital --; title: The curator and the leftist politicisation of contemporary art --; title: Interview with Charles Esche --; title: Beautiful freedom --; title: The exhibition as a work of art and the curator as its author --; title: The exhibition as artwork, the curator as artist: a comparison with theatre --; title: Interview with Walter Benjamin --; title: Why is it so important in the art field to think about art events? --; title: Afterword -- Mary Anne Staniszewski.