Exhibition making is not any longer solely about curator(s) as author(s) arranging artworks and „creating“ meaningful relations between them. Nor is it solely about artist(s) broadcasting their artworks through the exhibition considered as pure medium. Made by the performance, choreography and interplay of objects, structures and bodies in time(s) and space(s), exhibitions unfold a poetics but also a politics of relation. They have become ecosystems challenging the myth of the autonomous individual producer, where diverse positions and agencies co-exist, sometimes in antagonism, but also contaminate and influence each other, intentionally or not. From the conception to the realisation and reception, a creative multitude is at work in every exhibition making, generated by and generating in turn temporary forms of collectivity and participation, of cooperation and co-creation.

This is where exhibitions’ political potential lies.

We will study and discuss texts, artworks, installations, exhibitions but also experience them by visiting shows and going outside the university. The curatorial and artistic practices we will look into – from deconstruction up to refusal, from performative curating up to participatory and in-situ practices – re-frame classic conception of re-/presentation, re-invent exhibition formats, and ultimately re-configure – even temporarily – the collective.

This course is the first of a two-parts seminar. It aims at collectively constituting a toolbox and setting the conditions for the realization of a group show opening in spring 2024. 

As we will be working collectively, reciprocal care and regular attendance are mandatory.

Attendance, collaboration and engagement in preparations before and discussions during the course. 

Presentations of works and/or texts might be asked as well. 

The number of participants for this course is limited.

The registrations will be confirmed only after the first meeting taking place on October 6th and whose attendance is highly recommanded. 

The course takes place in the Ortsbezogene Kunst building at Paulusplatz 5, 2. floor.