Beyond the Head: The Practical Work of Curating Contemporary Art

Abstract

In contemporary art, the curator plays an important role in the production of artistic meaning through exhibition-making. Although sociology has tended to see this work as the exercise of tacit or embodied knowledge, curatorial knowledge and plans may be elaborated and altered by the situated actions of exhibition installation. While curators know a successful installation "when they see it," this depends on the indexical particularities of artworks and environments which cannot be predicted in advance. In demonstrating the practical ways in which culture is mobilized in situations of object (inter)action, this paper emphasizes the "making" in artistic meaning-making. © 2010 The Author(s).