© The Bag Factory Artists' Studios
The project Beyond Ethnic Marketing: Transcultural Strategies of Collaborative Curating aims to investigate and contextualise today's transcultural curatorial theories and tactics: The objective is to develop a participatory platform in Johannesburg, South Africa that should scrutinize models of transcontinental curatorial discourses and collaborative curatorial practices that are equally informed of academic and artistic concepts.
Considering the fact that the contemporary artworld increasingly values the curator above the artist, the concept questions the hegemonic role of the curator as crucial starting point. Questioning the hegemonic role of the curator means to reflect the deconstruction of authorship and the current tendency of cultural producers to enfold collective curatorial practice as an option for dehierarchization: How do collaborative tactics challenge both theory and practice of curating?
The research project will investigate the challenges of transcultural curatorial theories and practices and therefore develop a participatory platform during the project coordinator's residency at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg, South Africa. The transcultural dialogue will reflect collaborative curating and especially transcontinental models of professional (sometimes competitive) interaction among 'local' and 'overseas' curators in order to undermine the sense of authority.
Support
Austrian Embassy, Pretoria; Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture; Förderprogramm Kuratorenreisen, Goethe-Institut
