Sunday, January 20, 2013

About and around curating in 2013



About and around curating/ Kustosiranje is an educative and research project, based on the idea of lifelong learning, designed for professionals and students from the fields of arts and culture, and open for general public. Based on the experience of professionals as a basis of knowledge, the project is transparent and flexible, based on alternative methodology, with an idea to verify the theoretical assumptions through critical and practical experiences. The project’s tendency is to gather young, future and graduated/ established arts and culture professionals in order to give them a clearer picture of the professional curatorial possibilities that lie ahead, developing and nurturing the society’s understanding for all professions that this vocation covers.

As part of the final activities of each season, exhibition project will take place together with the participants of the project as practical, hands-on part of the programme. The exact timetable, venue, form, system and norms of the selection of the exhibition project’s participants will be announced opportunely, during the season. A group of 5-10 participants are being selected by the following criteria: motivational letter (a draft on and exhibition project, concept, idea; why I want to participate in About and around curating) and participation in the public programme. Afterwards, a month of two before the exhibition, in cooperation with the exhibition venue/institution, meetings and workshops with the participants are taking place in order to define the exhibition concept, selection of artworks, setting, catalogue, accompanying programme etc. The authors of the project are present merely as moderators – advising and providing logistics. For 2013 two exhibitions have been arranged with the gallery of Dom omladine.

About and around curating/ Kustosiranje is a public and non-profit programme, open for all creative individuals from the fields of arts and culture. For more information, subscribe to our newsletter: about.and.around.curating@gmail.com, and check our blog: aboutandaroundcurating.blogspot.com.


Project description and origins:

That’s not a cabinet vocation, but a truly dynamic activity, which requires everyday attendance, devotion, the quest for sources, connecting information and people, intelligent deliberation of both present and the past, throughout the challenges, which are all a part of everyday life, according to the professor Jerko Denegri, in a very interesting conversation.

By understanding the surroundings in which the curatorial vocation exists and develops in Serbia, especially among younger professionals, based on challenges as shortage or even lack of professional practice, the deficit of stable and long-lasting specialised curatorial courses and schools, the conservative public image of a curator’s profession, the connection between the public and the civil sector, employment and sustainability troubles; these are all the most important strategic questions to be raised through the project  About and around curating/ Kustosiranje. Instead of stating unnecessarily the impoverished and almost helpless state in the curatorial field, it is required to point the examples of good practice, to encourage the possibilities of self-realisation, to stress the importance of cooperation and team work, but also to give support to proactive attitude in developing independent projects in the fields of arts and culture. After all, the main focus is on questions that define the curatorial profession, the questions which are in line, that “breathe” with the contemporary, esthetical and social tendencies. The technology of making an exhibition project, curator-artist relation, different methodological approaches (public institution and independent work), arbitrariness and the representativeness of the profession, curator as an artist (and vice versa) – are just some questions on which we seek possible answers, by developing the About and around curating/ Kustosiranje project as a research activity, publicly accessible and visible, affirmative towards the curatorial vocation.

The institutions of culture – public or independent – are in the position to actively participate in the project About and around curating/ Kustosiranje, by being a partner organisation, offering practice or advices relating to younger colleagues.

Project mission: on curatorial practices, developing toolbox and required skills, on the technologies of preparation and realisation of independent exhibition project, education and supporting proactive attitude of young and future art curators, team work, developing entrepreneurship in the field of culture, spreading share culture

Target group: final-year(s) students and graduates of Arts universities (art history, visual and applied arts, architecture, dramatic arts, etc), professionals from the fields of arts and culture (curators, artists, managers and entrepreneurs)

Venues: cultural institutions in Belgrade: galleries, museums, cultural centres in Belgrade, 120min each session, every two weeks. In between sessions, organised public guidances and visits to exhibitions and artistic events

Project authors: Andrej Bereta and Srđan Tunić (curators, art historians)


Work in progress – in realisation for Seasons #03 (January – June) and #04 (September - December) 2013:

  • Publication on the first year of About and around curating project (springtime 2013)
  • Academic course About and around curating students' exhibition in Art space U10 (28.02. – 13.03.2012.)
  • Exhibitons with participants of the public programme (June 2012); in cooperation with gallery of Dom omladine Beograda
  • Internacional project, in cooperation with cultural institutions   (universities, NGO's, museums, artistic collectives); spring 2013
  • Public programme - public cultural institutions, exhibition spaces etc.


Established cooperation and support in 2012: First year of the project



Contact:
Udruženje građana „ARTIKAL: Društvo za promovisanje i negovanje savremenog i slobodnog umetničkog izražavanja“ / Civil association „ARTIKAL: Association for curating and promoting contemporary and free artistic expression“, Beograd

Andrej Bereta: andrej.bereta(@)gmail.com
Srđan Tunić: srdjan.tunic(@)gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment