Talking Contemporary Curating

5pm

The second publication in ICI‘s “Perspectives in Curating” series, Talking Contemporary Curating compiles conversations between art historian Terry Smith and 12 leading international curators, art historians, and theorists deeply immersed in reflecting upon the demands of their respective practices; the contexts of exhibition making; and the platforms through which art may be made public.

The contributors include Zdenka Badovinac, Claire Bishop, Zoe Butt, Germano Celant, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Okwui Enwezor, Boris Groys, Jens Hoffmann, Mami Kataoka, Maria Lind, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Mari Carmen Ramírez. Read together, they present a fascinating picture of how curating can contribute to a broader understanding of our contemporary world.

The conversations are framed by Smith’s opening chapter “The Discourse” in which he tracks the advent of a self-reflexive “discursive” era in curating. In the last decade,curators have developed a language specific to their field that has contributed to further shaping curatorial practice itself. The exchanges in this publication build upon, question and challenge Smith’s premises in ThinkingContemporary Curating, the first-ever book-length text to explore what is distinctive about curatorial thought, published by ICI in 2012.

For the West Coast launch, Smith joins Leigh Markopoulos and Julian Myers-Szupinska in conversation.