Conversation: Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices
Salt Galata
December 8, 2018 15.00
Cover image of Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices, SALT, 2018
Floor 1, Workshop II-III
In parallel to the launch of SALT’s new e-publication Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices by Michela Alessandrini, a conversation will take place between Charles Esche, Vasıf Kortun, Meriç Öner, and the author to discuss and contextualize different approaches to curatorial archives. The program will focus on positioning curatorial archives within cultural institutions to propose comprehensive cultural, economical, and political perspectives through an analysis of the narratives they present and the strategies of their display.
Over the past fifteen years, archives have progressively gained a central place in the way societies deal not only with the past, but also with the present and the future of humanity. On a more specific note, artists have been interrogating the notion of archives through their work, and art historians have re-imagined the role of archives in the field. Even though the curator as a particular figure has already become the subject of numerous studies, the conducive potential of curatorial archives in shaping contemporary practices have not yet been comprehensively explored.
Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices is a collection of nineteen interviews with international curators about their own archives and the way they conceive and understand them. The e-publication elucidates the idea that the curatorial archives should be seen as systems or operational structures from which curatorial visions are set out, as much as they can be used as primary resources into objective research. They could be considered a place where practice is expressed, a salon where it is possible to enter into discussion with individual and collective methodologies. They act as para-curatorial tools, of which both the origin and the result of a complex process can be witnessed and proposed as an apparatus to better understand wider curatorial dynamics.
The program will be held in English. Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices will be available on PDF and EPUB formats on saltonline.org on December 7.
Michela Alessandrini is a PhD candidate at Université Bordeaux Montaigne. Her research revolves around the notions of personal, collective, and institutional curatorial archives. She is a consultant for research and editorial projects at Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, as well as an independent curator and advisor for private and public archives and collections.
Charles Esche is the director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. He is also the co-founding director of the Afterall Research Centre and the editorial director of Afterall Journal and Books based at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London.
Vasıf Kortun is the chairman of the Foundation for Arts Initiatives. Between 2011 and 2017, he served as the founding director of Research and Programs at SALT, whose public access online archives on art; architecture and design; social, economic, and urban histories maintain the core of the institution.
Meriç Öner is a trained architect and the director of Research and Programs at SALT. Focusing mainly on material culture in Turkey and its surrounding geographies, Öner works on programming with an eye to tackling the culture in question with a comprehensive and progressive approach.
In parallel to the launch of SALT’s new e-publication Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices by Michela Alessandrini, a conversation will take place between Charles Esche, Vasıf Kortun, Meriç Öner, and the author to discuss and contextualize different approaches to curatorial archives. The program will focus on positioning curatorial archives within cultural institutions to propose comprehensive cultural, economical, and political perspectives through an analysis of the narratives they present and the strategies of their display.
Over the past fifteen years, archives have progressively gained a central place in the way societies deal not only with the past, but also with the present and the future of humanity. On a more specific note, artists have been interrogating the notion of archives through their work, and art historians have re-imagined the role of archives in the field. Even though the curator as a particular figure has already become the subject of numerous studies, the conducive potential of curatorial archives in shaping contemporary practices have not yet been comprehensively explored.
Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices is a collection of nineteen interviews with international curators about their own archives and the way they conceive and understand them. The e-publication elucidates the idea that the curatorial archives should be seen as systems or operational structures from which curatorial visions are set out, as much as they can be used as primary resources into objective research. They could be considered a place where practice is expressed, a salon where it is possible to enter into discussion with individual and collective methodologies. They act as para-curatorial tools, of which both the origin and the result of a complex process can be witnessed and proposed as an apparatus to better understand wider curatorial dynamics.
The program will be held in English. Curatorial Archives in Curatorial Practices will be available on PDF and EPUB formats on saltonline.org on December 7.
Michela Alessandrini is a PhD candidate at Université Bordeaux Montaigne. Her research revolves around the notions of personal, collective, and institutional curatorial archives. She is a consultant for research and editorial projects at Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, as well as an independent curator and advisor for private and public archives and collections.
Charles Esche is the director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. He is also the co-founding director of the Afterall Research Centre and the editorial director of Afterall Journal and Books based at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London.
Vasıf Kortun is the chairman of the Foundation for Arts Initiatives. Between 2011 and 2017, he served as the founding director of Research and Programs at SALT, whose public access online archives on art; architecture and design; social, economic, and urban histories maintain the core of the institution.
Meriç Öner is a trained architect and the director of Research and Programs at SALT. Focusing mainly on material culture in Turkey and its surrounding geographies, Öner works on programming with an eye to tackling the culture in question with a comprehensive and progressive approach.
