The Curatorial. A Philosophy of Curating / On Collecting Critical Art Practices

Lecture by Jean-Paul Martinon, The Content of Form, 2013 © Generali Foundation. Photo: Dario Punales

Hal Foster in conversation with Helmut Draxler, The Content of Form, 2013 © Generali Foundation. Photo: Dario Punales

June 22, 2013 5-7 p.m. (English)

The Curatorial. A Philosophy of Curating
Lecture by Jean-Paul Martinon, philosopher, followed by a conversation with Helmut Draxler, art historian

On Collecting Critical Art PracticesHal Foster, art historian, art critic in conversation with Helmut Draxler

This talk will put forward ten theses on the philosophy of curating. These short theses will not comment on the exhibition, nor put forward other examples or attempts to create a chronology of key exhibitions (thus generating an art history of exhibition practices). Instead, they intend to discuss the differences between ‘curating’ and ‘the curatorial’. If ‘curating’ is a gamut of professional practices for setting up exhibitions, then ‘the curatorial’ explores what takes place on the stage set up, both intentionally and unintentionally, by the curator. Ultimately, the aim of these ten theses is to continue Helmut Draxler’s questioning of the activity of curating as exposed inThe Content of Form.

Additional documentation of events held at the Generali Foundation since the 1990s—lectures, symposia, conversations with the artists, guided tours, and performances—is accessible via two terminals at the Study Center.

Symposium: Beyond the Canon. The Paradoxes of Conceptual Art

Beyond the Canon. The Paradoxes of Conceptual art. Photo: Dario Punales

March 22, 2013, 4–8.30 p.m. (English)

Guillaume Désanges, Curator
Camiel van Winkel, Art critic
Luke Skrebowski, Art historian
Sabeth Buchmann, Art critic
Moderation: Christian Höller, Art critic

Based on the exhibition Amazing! Clever! Linguistic! An Adventure in Conceptual Art, the symposium raises and discusses questions around curating and exhibiting Conceptual art, examining its definitions, canonizations, and reterritorializations, its paradoxes and its aesthetic. The curator Guillaume Désanges uses his current show as an example to explain what “conceptual” curating can mean today; Camiel van Winkel talks about the paradoxes—the successes and failures—of Conceptual art and about its afterlife in contemporary art. Luke Skrebowski, meanwhile, proposes that, as part of the historicization of Conceptual art, we reassess the status of aesthetics. And Sabeth Buchmann discusses the exhibition practices that were established in the context of the historic Conceptual art, focusing on presentation and reception as well as on new media and publication formats and their consequences for the emergence of a new type of curator.

Additional documentation of events held at the Generali Foundation since the 1990s—lectures, symposia, conversations with the artists, guided tours, and performances—is accessible via two terminals at the Study Center.