Course detail

Curating in a Shifting Terrain

FaVU-4CiSTAcad. year: 2023/2024

The overview course Curating in a Shifting Terrain introduces students to the basic frameworks,
formats, and concepts of the curatorial discipline. It will spotlight the emergence and transformations of the curatorial profession and the role of the curator (with an emphasis on the 20th and 21st centuries) in both global and local contexts. The course will look at different platforms, modes and formats of curatorial practice, and critically position them within the broader frameworks of the artworld and, more broadly, contemporary culture. We will also consider art historical, philosophical and academic reflections on curating, as well as the critiques that have accompanied the proliferation of curating in recent decades. 

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

4

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Mgr. Zuzana Jakalová, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Entry knowledge

None.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

The exam is taken by submitting a classified essay of 6000 - 9000 characters on an independently selected subtopic reflecting one of the general topics covered in the course. 

Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (3 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the teachers.

  

Aims

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the basic frameworks, formats and concepts of the curatorial discipline, as well as its development (with an emphasis on the 20th and 21st centuries). 


Upon completion of the course, students will have an overview of the history, major figures and key concepts of curating. The students will understand the development and challenges of the curatorial profession in both domestic and global contexts. They will view curating in a critical and nuanced way as a practical discipline, but will have a solid orientation in its conceptualizations and theoretical reflections.

 

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Terry SMITH, Thinking Contemporary Curating. New York: Indipendent Curators International 2012. (EN)
Beatrice von BISMARCK: The Curatorial Condition. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2022. (EN)

Recommended reading

Kate FOWLE, „Who Cares? Understanding the Role of the Curator Today“, in: Steven RAND – Heather KOURIS (eds.), Cautionary Tales. Critical Curating,[s.l.]: apexart 2010, s. 26–35. 70 (EN)
Amanda CACHIA, „Disabling the Museum. Curator As Infrastructural Activist“, in: Vanessa BARLETT (ed.), Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press 2015. (EN)
Kathy DAVIS, „Intersectionality As Critical Methodology“, in: Nina LYKKE (ed.), Writing Academic Texts Differently. Intersectional Feminist Methodologies and the Playful Art of Writing, New York: Routledge 2014. (EN)
Elke KRASNY, Sophie LINGG, Lena FRITSCH, Birgit BOSOLD, Vera HOFMANN (eds.), Radicalizing Care Feminist and Queer Activismin Curating, Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2022. (EN)
Paul O’NEILL – Mick WILSON (eds.), Curating Research, London – Amsterdam: Open Editions 2015. (EN)
Irit ROGOFF – Beatrice VON BISMARCK, “Curating/Curatorial”, in: Beatrice VON BISMARCK – Jörn SCHAFAFF – Thomas WESKI, Cultures of the Curatorial, London: Sternberg Press 2012, s. 21–40. (EN)
Joasia KRYSA, „Exhibitionary Practices at the Intersection of Academic Research and Public Display“, in: Jan KAILA – Anita SEPPÄ – Hendrik P. SLAGER (eds.), The Futures of Artistic Research: at the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power, Helsinky: Academy of Fine Arts – Uniarts Helsinki 2017, s. 63–70. (EN)
Paul O’NEILL, The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s), Cambridge: The MIT Press 2012. 72 (EN)
Claire BISHOP and Dan PERJOVSCHI: Radical Museology: Or, What's 'Contemporary' in Museums of Contemporary Art? London: Koenig, 2014. (EN)
WILL Bradley and Charles ESCHE. Art and Social Change: A Critical Reader. London: Tate Publishing. (EN)
Maria HLAVAJOVA and Simon SHEIKH. Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989. Utrecht and Cambridge: basis vor actuele kunst and MIT Press. 2016. (EN)
Brian O´DOHERTY: Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1999. (EN)
Hans Ulrich OBRIST: A Brief History of Curating. JRP Editions. 2008. (EN)
Dieter LESAGE: Art, Research and Politics: Essays in Curatorial Criticism (1999-2014) (EN)
David BALZER: Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else. Pluto Press: London. 2014. (EN)
Terry SMITH: Curating the Complex & The Open Strike. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2021. (EN)
Zdenka BADOVINAC: Unannounced Voices: Curatorial Practice and Changing Institutions, Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2022. (EN)
Bonaventure Soh Bejeng NDIKUNG: Pidginization as Curatorial Method: Messing with Languages and Praxes of Curating. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2022. (EN)

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme ZST-BX Bachelor's

    branch ZST , 1. year of study, summer semester, elective

  • Programme FAAD Master's, 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional

  • Programme VUM Master's

    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional

  • Programme ZST-NX Master's

    branch ZST , 1. year of study, summer semester, elective

  • Programme FAAD Master's, 2. year of study, summer semester, elective

  • Programme VUM Master's

    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, summer semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. Zuzana Jakalová, Ph.D.

Syllabus

1. What are we talking about when we talk about curating? Curating as a discipline. Histories of
exhibition as a format, exhibition studies, curatorial histories.

2. The frameworks and institutions of contemporary curating. Institutional curating and their
critique. Collection-based institutions and their curatorial challenges. "Independent curating":
freelance curating, artist-run spaces. The Biennial, its specificities, possibilities and limits
Curating as a social, interdisciplinary and interspecies practice.

3. The role of the curator and its transformations over time. Curator between the status quo and
the market. Curator as celebrity. Curatorial activism and curating as engaged practice. Artists
as curators. Curatorial collectives and the platformisation of curating.

4. Curating and the post-socialist situation. The development of the curatorial discipline in
Czechoslovakia, personalities of Czechoslovak curating. Curating, its personalities, topics and
formats in the Czech Republic after 1990.

5. Curating between identity politics and revolutionary practice: non-Western and decolonizing
perspectives in curating. Feminist perspectives in curatorial practice and queering the
curatorial. Curating from a 'disability' perspective. More-than-human perspectives and
curating. Curating in digital space.

6. Conceptualisation, theoretical reflection and critique of curatorial practice. Epistemological
frameworks of curating. Curatorial research. "The curatorial", "curationism".