The research seeks to look into artistic and curatorial practices in light of governmental matters, and its ramification for arts and culture embedded within state structures (and its problems in a representational manner) and independent modes of participations (and its entanglement in neoliberal conditions).
It wants to shed light to this specific field of practice in curating, that juggles between the self-(re)presentation of an artistic expression of freedom, of critique (and of idiosyncrasy) and the state representation of all projects within the exhibitionary complex.
Following Michel Foucault’s key term “governmentality” (and its implications for the neoliberal shift of capitalistic systems) the research conducted for this issue wants to research exhibitionary projects that materialize (and make visible) the relation of the individual and its governing structure (state, family, school), and of its own governing power within society.
Governmentality is meant to structurally bring together two spheres of a society: the sovereign and the individual: Techniques of a government, that produce citizens with rules of (soft / affirmative) policies (incentives) and the self-imposed disciplinary techniques of any subject. Governmentality in that sense is a framework that can help to show the entanglements of arts & politics.
The thesis will take into account (general and generalizing) concepts of globalism and scrutinizes different strategies of global constructions in contemporary art exhibition of the backdrop of the idea of post-national culture. Canonical exhibitions and large-scale events in Biennales (and also its local community-based art practice connecting with an international scene) with an attempt to relate to a global sphere [and art institutions working on a global scale or with a global concept in mind, but also community-based art networks and cultural producers] on a post-national level function as case studies. The representability, its metaphors and visualizations, its press material – the self-representation – of said projects will be used critically as research material.
The practical part (among others) will emphasize mainly on the interview project "CURATING – Explored with a Camera. A Research-Based Digital Platform on Curatorial Practice.«, headed by Dorothee Richter. The body of 70+ interviews with international curators will be evaluated in terms of postcolonial, global and geopolitical dimensions of curatorial practice through the interview corpus with an output as an artistic/curatorial exploration by means of relating the statements in a filmic essay form. The research result aims to find answers to curatorial knowledge formation in post-national settings of culture and art.