What is Curating?

Instructors: Susan Hapgood and Renaud Proch
Guest Speakers: Geetha Mehra and Pooja Sood
In collaboration with ICI, New York and Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai

December 14 to 16, 2010 | 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai

What is curatorial practice and what does a contemporary art curator actually do? This concentrated series of lectures, discussions and workshops will provide three intensive days of training in the practice of curating a contemporary art exhibition. Prior to the class, students will be assigned several readings. Through lectures and hands-on workshops, they will learn the basis for conceptual and practical considerations necessary for the creation of a successful contemporary art exhibition. Instruction will include presentations by experienced professionals from New York and India. The class size is limited to 15 students.

A certificate, jointly issued by ICI and the Mohile Parikh Center, will be provided to students who complete the class. This course has been co-produced with the Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, and the venue sponsor is Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai.

Susan Hapgood is Senior Advisor at Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. Renaud Proch is the Deputy Director of Independent Curators International (ICI), New York
Geetha Mehra is the Director of Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai.
Pooja Sood is an independent curator and the Director of Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi.

Course Outline:
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Day I: Morning Session
Exhibitions: Concepts and Practical Concerns Susan Hapgood and Renaud Proch

What is curating, as a professional activity, even as a lifelong practice? How does a curator relate to artists, space, institutions, and audiences? What are the main concepts used by the curator, and how do they differ depending upon the kind of exhibition being organized? In this presentation, we will examine the shifting definition of curatorial practice as applied to different contexts, ranging from museum-based presentations, traveling shows, biennales, and non-profit alternatives, to art fair projects and gallery exhibitions. In addition, several examples of different exhibition models will be considered and discussed, including offsite installations, artists’ cooperative presentations, social practice, and others. With group discussion, the local curatorial context will also be mapped and explored.

Before breaking for lunch, the late curator Harald Szeemann’s career as a curator, and a selection of his many projects will be introduced as models for further discussion throughout the course. Szeemann’s controversial project, Documenta 5, produced in Kassel, Germany in 1972, in particular, will serve as a catalyst for discussion and critique.

Day I: Afternoon Session Curatorial Workshop
In the afternoon, a gathering of documents, photographs, press clippings and informational texts pertaining to Documenta 5 will be examined and discussed by the group together. Concepts of curatorial control, format and provocation, as evidenced by the materials in hand, will be considered, as well as institutional, artists’, and audiences’ expectations.

This material will be used as the germination point for class mini-curatorial projects. Brainstorming together as a group, broad and specific ideas will be solicited from all students. Documenta 5 will be the key stimulus for students’ presentation concepts, which may include additional outside material as well. Towards the end of the afternoon, the class will break into several smaller working groups that will each conceive an ad-hoc informal presentation to be on view by the afternoon of the third day.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Day II: Morning Session
Artist/Curator Model and Practical Considerations
Guest speaker Pooja Sood, Susan Hapgood and Renaud Proch

Following up on ideas and concepts raised in the first presentation, this session will further the understanding of differing models of curatorial practice: artists who play a quasi-curatorial role in assembling and generating programming with other artists, and art critics working as curators. The guest speaker will draw comparisons between his or her own professional curatorial platform and the example of Documenta 5.

The guest speaker, Susan Hapgood and Renaud Proch will together discuss the curatorial concerns of working with contemporary art and contemporary artists, delving into more practical considerations. This will introduce procedures and working plans, communications, budgeting, fundraising, education and events planning, and registration considerations in the development of an exhibition.

Before lunch break, an exhibition proposal checklist will be distributed and reviewed. It will include the ten key points a curator needs to consider when drawing up an initial exhibition or project plan.

Day II: Afternoon Session Curatorial Workshop
Class, Susan Hapgood and Renaud Proch

Separating into groups, the class will generate mini-exhibition concepts working with the Documenta 5 material. Each group will decide on a group presenter, and outline the concept for a brief oral presentation to the class. This exercise will show the importance of developing a message out of the material being considered in the curatorial process, which could include artworks by one or several artists, objects of design, archives, etc.

Each group will give a five-minute oral presentation of the group’s concept for open discussion and critique. Before the end of the day, the class will decide on the most successful mini-exhibition concept, and begin to develop a proposal for execution the following morning.

Thursday, December 16, 2010
Day III: Morning Session
Installation workshop
This session will show the engagement with space that is necessary to curating. Utilizing the gallery for installation, the class will mount their mini-exhibition, with time allowed for trouble-shooting, additions, and edits.

Day III: Afternoon Session Feedback session
This two-part session will allow for an informal conversation and critique of the mini-exhibition and the process developed to bring Documenta 5 to life. Then, the group will take some time to assess the process of this intensive program, reflecting on the main issues approached in the past couple of days.

Tour and lectures

Susan Hapgood and Renaud Proch will give an introduction to Documenta 5 and the participants’ work to the afternoon guest speakers, involving the class to speak briefly on their mini-exhibition premise and execution, and leading to a group discussion. Local institutional models and specific examples will be discussed by these two prominent figures in the Indian contemporary art scene. In particular, the role of individual collectors and gallerists as central figures in Indian curatorial practice will be discussed, exploring what has been working in local contexts, how, and why.