Curating on the Minefield
Schedule
How do curators tackle toxic colonial and imperial legacies today? How does the contextualization of art history operate on the minefield of public controversy? In a day-long symposium, curators, museum professionals, and writers discuss the political pressures on curating that arise in the age of resurgent right-wing populism and identity politics.
11:00–11:30
Greetings by Peter Peer, director of Neue Galerie Graz, and Ekaterina Degot
Presentation of the catalogue A War in the Distance
11:30–13:00
Curating across Borders
With Zdenka Badovinac, Günther Holler-Schuster, and Andreja Hribernik
Moderated by Ekaterina Degot
The first panel addresses how curators are dealing with Austria’s complex relation to its neighbors, especially in the Balkans. How to avoid the postcolonial pitfalls of curating across borders?
13:00–13:30
Sandwich break
13:30–15:00
Curating Difficult Legacies
With Renan Laru-an, Matteo Lucchetti, and Hajnalka Somogyi
Moderated by Barbara Seyerl
The second panel examines how curators might deal with problematic legacies that reflect forgotten colonial struggle. How to reread histories of oppression in treasures of the past? What kind of revised historical view is needed?
15:00–15:15
Coffee break
15:15–16:45
Curating under Political Pressure
With Hou Hanru, Małgorzata Ludwisiak, and WHW
Moderated by David Riff
The third panel looks at the new political pressures facing curators of contemporary art today. What does the right wing want to achieve in culture? What restrictions come with a reconsolidation of liberal European values? And what alternative forms can succeed under increasingly authoritarian governance?
17:00–18:00
Emancipation of Wonder
Navaridas & Deutinger
Performance
In German, whispering translation will be provided
The day concludes with Emancipation of Wonder, a performance developed by artist duo Navaridas & Deutinger in collaboration with children and their specific perception of the works displayed in A War in the Distance (limited capacity, registration via education [at] steirischerherbst.at).
18:15–19:15
Eat and Greet with Navaridas & Deutinger
In English
Feinkost Mild
Stubenberggasse 7
8010 Graz
After the performance, attendants can discuss it with the artists and curators over a sandwich (limited capacity, registration via education [at] steirischerherbst.at).