No Ground Underneath: Curating On the Nexus of Changes

Former student of the Curatorial Programme Vivian Ziherl (Independent critic and curator) will give a key-note lecture at the three-day international seminar Curating On the Nexus of Changes, in the Guangdong Times Museum (China).

Vivian Ziherl (co-prepared with Ann Demeester)
The “Professional” Coding and the “Locatedness” of Curating

The key-note presentation responds to the topic of “institutionalization” by raising the related issue of “professionalization” within the curatorial field. A relay of positions will be set in motion, commencing with an address originally made by Ann Demeester at a conference held at the Banff International Curatorial Institute in 2011. Responding to Ann’s proposition of “personal particularity”, Vivian will discuss the “professional” coding of curatorship following two trajectories that excavate the site of display. Relocating back in time a historical case-study will raise the issue of agency within the exhibitionary scenario, querying the who, what and why of curatorship. Shifting sideways, a consideration of exhibition as “place” will raise the issue of “locatedness” within the temporal epistemic framing engendered under the term “Contemporary Art”.