Curating Global Arts

This School of Arts module combines curatorial training with an exploration of key debates in the history, theory, and practice of curating art, music and media in a global context.

The module includes a series of off-site visits to galleries and arts institutions during which students will meet curators and engage with current perspectives on curating in London. Students will study the histories and debates of curating through a close reading of seminal exhibitions, manifestos and texts, and will cover themes including collecting and display, postcolonial exhibition practice, representation and the ‘other’, curatorial initiatives in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, curating sound and music, and the use of archives and digital technologies in curating. Throughout the module, students will work on group projects to develop conceptual and practical skills for curatorial research, and will complete the module by producing an exhibition proposal. The module will appeal especially to students interested in pursuing a career in the arts sector.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

On successful completion of this module students will be able to

• Critically engage with central debates in transnational curatorial practice, particularly in the context of the arts and music of Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the history of curating international art and music in the twentieth century.
• Demonstrate awareness of current exhibitions and institutions dealing with contemporary art and music from Asia, the Middle East and Africa in London.
• Demonstrate the skills needed to research and present an exhibition proposal.
• Understand the stages, processes and parameters of exhibition production.

Workload

• Lectures: 2 hours per week
• Tutorials: 1 hour per week

Method of assessment

• 1,500-word review of sound installation or visual arts exhibition (worth 20% of marks)
• Exhibition proposal (for visual arts, moving image and/or sound event) of 3,000 word for non-finalist students, 3,500 words for finalist students (worth 60%)
• Group research project, culminating in group presentations (worth 20%)

Suggested reading

• Belting, Hans, Andrea Buddensieg, and Peter Weibel, The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds (Karlsruhe, Germany : Cambridge, MA ; London, England: MIT Press, 2013)
• Enwezor, Okwui All the World’s Futures: 56 International Art Exhibition. La Biennale Di Venezia, Box edition (Venezia: Marsilio, 2015)
• Enwezor, Okwui Documenta 11: the Catalogue, Ostfildern-Ruit / Hatje Cantz, (London, Arts Book International, 2002)
• Filipovic, Van Hal, and Ovstebo, eds., The Biennial Reader (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010)
• Spring, Christopher James A way of life: considering and curating the Sainsbury African Galleries (Middlesex University PhD thesis, 2015) Available at eprints.mdx.ac.uk

Disclaimer

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