Kritisk kuratering. Udstillingspraksis udviklet i perspektiv af 1960- og 1970’ernes institutionskritik

This project description presents a curatorial practice that is part of a post.doc. investigating the contemporary cultural and political focus on participatory agendas. The curatorial practice takes a critical stand towards this focus, and suggests exhibition formats and educational strategies that address participation as critical reflection. The research unfolds in two exhibitions dealing with some of the notable tendencies within contemporary museological and curatorial studies, where museum and exhibition spaces are not considered as spaces of showcasing or conservation of art, but on the contrary are perceived as active spaces of production. Referring to Doreen Massey’s seminal work For Space – first published in 2005 – art spaces are thought of as a product of interrelations and recognised as always being under construction. In the research project institutional critique from the 1960s and 1970s avant-gardes is used as an analytical approach and as a method of spatial and political criticism and articulation that can be applied not only to the art world, but to spaces and institutions in general, which is a point made by Simon Sheikh. The two exhibitions are not to be considered as institutional critique, but as critical exchanges with and about contemporary art. The exhibitions are made in collaboration with two non-commercial art spaces in Copenhagen and will be on show in the spring of 2017.