Curating Research - (Paperback)

About the Book

This anthology of newly commissioned texts presents a series of detailed examples of the different kinds of knowledge production that have recently emerged within the field of curatorial practice. The first volume of its kind to provide an overview of the theme of research within contemporary curating, 'Curating research' marks a new phase in developments of the profession globally. Consisting of case studies and contextual analyses by curators, artists, critics and academics, this publication will be an indispensible resource for all those interested in the current state of art, with particular regard to curating.

Book Synopsis

This anthology of newly commissioned texts presents a series of detailed examples of the different kinds of knowledge production that have recently emerged within the field of curatorial practice. The first volume of its kind to provide an overview of the theme of research within contemporary curating, Curating Research marks a new phase in developments of the profession globally. Consisting of case studies and contextual analyses by curators, artists, critics and academics, including Hyunjoo Byeon, Carson Chan and Joanna Warsza, Chris Fite-Wassilak, Olga Fernandez Lopez, Kate Fowle, Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Liam Gillick, Georgina Jackson, Sidsel Nelund, Simon Sheikh, Henk Slager, tranzit.hu, Jelena Vestic, Marion von Osten and Vivian Ziherl, and edited by curators Paul O'Neill and Mick Wilson, the book is an indispensible resource for all those interested in the current state of art and in the intersection between research and curating that underlies exhibition-making today.

Review Quotes

O'Neill and Wilson's recent tome, part three in a series that has previously included Curating Subjects and Curating and the Educational Turn, reads admirably [...] Excitingly, O'Neill and Wilson put forward several authorial positions that attempt to see the exhibition as a research action in its own right.-- "Art Monthly"

This anthology of newly commissioned texts presents a series of detailed examples of the different forms of knowledge production that have recently emerged within the field of curatorial practice. The first volume of its kind to provide an overview of the theme of research within contemporary curating, Curating Research marks a new phase in development of the profession globally. Consisting of case studies and contextual analyses by curators, artists, critics and academics, this publication will be an indispensible resource for all those interested in the current state of art, with particular regard to curating.-- "Open Editions & de Appel"

The editors of this volume have been pioneers in expanding a Meta field of inquiry for curators. With this new book they take one step further in dissecting the anatomy of curatorial practice in gathering a number of texts that are both speculative and analytic. They stick to the notion of curating as an interconnected endeavor that interlinks the aesthetic and the cognitive and carefully avoid falling into the pitfall of defining curatorial practice solely as a disembodied form of knowledge production. In so doing, they allow us to reflect on the function of research within curatorial practice both as a tool or prelude to exhibitions or presentations and as an autonomous, intellectual activity. O'Neill and Wilson succeed in 'grabbing' a topic that is at the forefront of many minds in the art world, yet through their in-depth approach they prevent it from becoming just a trendy short-lived issue.--Ann Demeester

This insightful collection of essays expands the notion of the 'curatorial' in multiple directions by exposing the intrinsic interconnectedness of research to the process of exhibition making, but also introduces the (art) exhibition as a tool and site of research. Making accessible the fundamental relationship between curating, the curatorial and the process of research, this book will serve as a key reference, not only for scholars and students of art and curating, but for anyone who is interested in the theory and practice of curating itself, and in the potential of curating as research based activity.--Ute Meta Bauer