art-e-conomy _ reader - marko stamenkovic

Marko STAMENKOVIĆ
INTRODUCTION
CURATORIAL THEORY AND PRACTICE
Curating (as applied to contemporary visual arts) is a theoretical and practical
discipline revolving around the ideas, concepts, strategies, and meanings of visual
display. As such, curating implies both theoretical and practical involvement with
issues concerning all aspects of the way art is being submitted to the processes of
classification, selection, and representation, due to specific conditions imposed by
art production, criticism, exhibition space, and art reception. The theoretical aspect
of curating here specifically refers to curatorial theory, while the practical aspect of
curating refers to curatorial practice. It is by no means that these two disciplines
should be separated. On the contrary, they complement each other, and it is such
overlapping character of contemporary curatorship that I intend to put into focus
on here.
Curatorial theory is here understood as a specific theoretical discipline determined
as a linguistic or discursive activity. Curatorial theory as a linguistic or discursive
activity outlines the contemporary field of curating through its aspects of language
and discourse, i.e. the discursive scholarly forms of analysis dealing with fundamental
questions facing curating. As such, curatorial theory is not meant to be understood
as a self-referential discipline: it rather departs from the common body of knowledge
as accumulated in related theoretical disciplines (art theory, art criticism, philosophy
and critical theory, art history, visual and cultural studies, media studies, sociology of
art, theoretical psychoanalysis, etc.). Being identified as part of the common family
of disciplines, curatorial theory denotes its cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary
character, most notably determined by its relation toward art theory, and by its
appurtenance to the world of art and the art system: (a) If the framework of art theory
is determined by speech and language which denote art, the framework of curatorial
theory is determined by speech and language which denote displaying values of art;
(b) Also, if curatorial theory is situated inside the world of art and the art system, it is
possible to determine curatorial theory as a system for communicating information
within the given coordinates of art production and the consumer’s response to this
production.
The first hypothesis helps us identify those involved in curating today as protagonists
of discursive (language-based) communication and activities. The second hypothesis
helps us identify them as protagonists of productive (object/project-based)
communication and activities. Discursive (language-based) communication and
activities are here understood as referring to all aspects the meaning of language
is being produced: written language (curatorial statements, texts, essays, articles,
critical reviews, interviews, documents, etc), spoken language (speech, dialogue,
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