{"id":574,"date":"2022-03-31T08:23:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T08:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/?p=574"},"modified":"2023-08-01T17:38:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T17:38:44","slug":"the-art-chemists-a-guide-to-curatorial-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/2022\/03\/31\/the-art-chemists-a-guide-to-curatorial-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art Chemists: A Guide to Curatorial Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By: Ebtedy Admin | 31 March 2022<\/p>\n

I see a curator as a catalyst, generator and motivator – a sparring partner, accompanying<\/em><\/p>\n

the artist while they build a show, and a bridge builder, creating a bridge to the public.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Hans Ulrich Obrist<\/em><\/p>\n

Swiss art curator, critic and historian of art, artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries in London,<\/p>\n

and author of\u00a0Ways of Curating<\/em><\/p>\n

An art curator is a creative who can capture and make visible the spirit of spatiotemporal realities that don’t necessarily reflect geopolitical ones.<\/p>\n

Traditionally described as managers of art collections, art curators are in fact multidisciplinary artists with a heightened awareness, which allows them to detect and synthesize the collective outlook of their fellow artists’ work.<\/p>\n

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Curators play an important role in shaping cultural scenes all over the world. They are the catalysts of our art experience. Their work is usually most visible at museums, galleries, art fairs, biennales, and today, it extends to public and digital spaces.<\/p>\n

Although Lebanon is the home of numerous internationally renowned art curators, such as Christine Tohm\u00e9, Akram Zaatari, and Hashim Sarkis, the practice is still relatively obscure to the audience. The reason could lie in the “general lack of education about curatorial practices, which makes it difficult for younger people to tap into it,” as suggested by the Lebanese Curator Ibrahim Nehme. Such formal training, when available, could lead to a better understanding of the practice and can also facilitate the formation of art entrepreneurship. When I was researching this piece, I came across a Master thesis project that led to the establishment of\u00a0KODA<\/u><\/a>, an actual curatorial space. The\u00a0thesis<\/a><\/u>\u00a0combines curatorial practice and business planning and could serve as a model for anyone interested in pursuing a similar path. In Lebanon and the MENA region, Curatorial Studies are still scarce, and when they exist, they are connected to Museum Studies and Art History rather than contemporary art practices. Hence, driven by their passion for the arts, contemporary art curators in Lebanon and the Middle East are often self-taught and self-made.<\/p>\n

To delve into the workings of curatorial practice, I ask Ibrahim Nehme, a Beirut-based curator, creator, writer, speaker, and founder of\u00a0The Outpost<\/a>\u00a0magazine, for some pointers.<\/p>\n

In what follows, Ibrahim draws on his own experience to guide us through the making of a curator.<\/p>\n

Curatorial Practice Definition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curatorial practice is a research-based artistic or creative process, which I think involves three stages: conversation, integration, and communication. A curator needs to be embedded within and in conversation with different networks of artists and cultural producers. These conversations are essentially what activate and drive the work and inform their practice. A curator needs to be able to qualify and clarify the multiple strands from these conversations in order to integrate them into a cohesive, meaningful whole. And, finally, a curator needs to be able to communicate that wholeness through different expressions and experiences.<\/p>\n

Curatorial Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it takes a lot of curiosity to be a curator. A curator needs to be curious about the mechanisms of the world and the many currents that make up the zeitgeist. They need to be able to tune into these multiple threads, weave sense among them and derive new meaning from them, even when, if not especially when, these various strands are not in conversation with one another and do not necessarily make sense with each other.<\/p>\n

And Trust. There\u2019s an inherent element of mutual trust between the curator and the artists in curatorial practice. Artists have to be willing to trust my vision and I have to show that I completely trust and support the realization of their work. Trust is really very generative.<\/p>\n

The Path to Curating<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never really imagined I would become a curator. I didn\u2019t even know what a curator does until later in my young adulthood. It honestly happened by accident. I became a writer by accident, which eventually led me to found and edit a magazine, and the process of putting together one issue after another made me realize that I have a knack for curating and that I really enjoy it. In the end, I embraced myself as a curator and started applying my work from that vantage point.<\/p>\n

I would also say that The Outpost magazine was the ground on which I learned the craft on my own. I think editing a printed magazine teaches you about sacrifice, in the end, you have a limited number of pages to fit a lot of content, so I learned to trust my judgment and make choices of what gets cut and what goes through. It turned out also to be a much-needed skill for a curator.<\/p>\n

The Curatorial Drive\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My practice is driven by an investigation of the relationship between cultural output and social impact. I am very interested in the economies and ecosystems that thrust marginal voices into the mainstream and the possibilities that arise when these limits are stretched.<\/p>\n

A Curatorial Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

I particularly enjoyed\u00a0The Outpost Caf\u00e9 in Amman<\/u><\/a>, which I opened in 2019 as a pop-up space to tune into the city and engage visitors in the editorial process, as part of an art residency I was doing there with Amman Design Week. It was a storytelling cafe that aimed to engage the community in new and engaging ways. The tagline of the cafe was: ‘ if you play, you don’t\u00a0pay.’ The game was one where visitors of the cafe wrote down their stories on postcards in exchange\u00a0for free cups of coffee. In the end, I ended up collecting a lot of material, which found its way into an exhibition and a publication and became an inspiration for a group of musicians, who came and performed to a live audience. I love to work with the community and get them to participate in playful ways. I also like to integrate what the community generates into the overall creative process. I find it very empowering.<\/p>\n

Inspiring Curator<\/strong><\/p>\n

I admire what\u00a0Amanda Abi Khalil<\/u><\/a>\u00a0is doing and what she has managed to pull off in the past years. I like the underlying intention for social impact present in her curatorial practice, which manifests very differently in each project she undertakes, but it is subtly and powerfully there all along.<\/p>\n

Amanda is also the founder of\u00a0Temporary Art Platform<\/u><\/a>, a non-profit organisation that aims to shift artistic and curatorial discourse towards social and contextual concerns through residencies, research projects, and commissions. Temporary Art Platform creates accessible tools and production opportunities for contemporary artists while rendering their practice porous and participatory within and beyond the field of art.<\/p>\n

Advice for Aspiring Curators<\/strong><\/p>\n

Practice looking sideways. Cultivate a way of thinking that sees unity among opposites. Learn to find sense between elements that do not make sense together.<\/p>\n

By:\u00a0Jana Al Obeidyine<\/strong>, a dancer, writer and independent publisher based in Beirut- Lebanon.<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright Photos: Ibrahim Nehme \/\u00a0The Outpost Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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