Title: The Role of the Freelance Curator in an Art Exhibition
Abstract: 1. IntroductionModern curation is a rapidly growing profession (Kennedy, 2012). The number of freelance curators who not only want to ensure a fluent course of project, but also anticipate moves ahead, is increasing. They have more than institutional curators. They become art managers as well. Therefore, competition among curators increases; each of them seeks recognition and maximum profit possible. They sometimes compete even with artists. According to Hiller, at moment, curator has become the figure of art which replaces artist and art criticism. Frequently, exhibiting works are more important than artworks themselves. There are two possibilities: curator-artist either becomes more important than artists and their works (or at least temporarily pushes them to background) or creates a new high quality product together with them (Tumpyte, 2014). In any case, curator is no longer a passive participant in field of art. His collaboration with artist creates a product, namely an exhibition which can create an opportunity to enter second market of art. The aim of this article is to analyse activities of a freelance curator during organisation of an art exhibition.2. Conceptualisation of Notion of a Modern CuratorSince end of 20th century, notion of a modern curator has been gradually evolving. Table 1 introduces definitions of notion of curator. It is noteworthy that there are more possible definitions. Each curator, art critic and artist names a different possible definition.The similarities include fact that most of authors describe curator as a manager who organises meetings between spectator and a piece of art, takes care of presentation of works and can be a creator himself. The main difference is visible in quote by Obrist (2011) that curator is like a good chef. This means that curator is responsible for everything: for quality of entire exhibition, organisation of work, etc. He must be creative. Here one can remember quote by Kreivyte (2006) that a curator is a generator of ideas who develops his idea and vision together with artists. A curator helps artists to express themselves. He can be responsible for many actions. All of this shows that curators do not have their strong identity yet; therefore, there cannot be a unified definition for it.The role of curator during last decades has been gaining more importance (Vitkiene, 2012:46). According to Hopps, curation is not only introduction of works to a certain institution; it is a far more complex phenomenon (Fowle, 2007:15). Fowle states that curation can provide a platform to realise artists' ideas and interests, it must be responsive to situations in which it occurs, and it should address timely artistic, social, cultural or political issues creatively (Fowle, 2007:14-16). Therefore, curator is an ideologist; he can find various topics and analyse them. He performs work of an artist-analyst.Usually, there are two main categories of curators:* Freelance curators. They do not work in specific institutions. The position of a freelance curator is usually related to notion of free creator formed by avant-garde movements (Fomina, 2008:109-110). They collaborate with galleries, funding institutions, etc. (Fomina, 2008:109-110). Therefore, they are mediators between art institutions and artists. Freelance curators are frequently engaged in independent activities. They curate what they want and what they like. They participate in various art projects;* Institutional curators . These are curators working for specific galleries, museums, etc. They are dependent on policy carried out by institution, and they represent it. Therefore, their creative freedom can be slightly limited (Fomina, 2008:110). The role of each curator in different museums (Alloway, 1996:221) or any other institution is different. …
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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