‘Together We Curate’: Cultural Participation and Collective Curation

Abstract

In the frame of the museums’ reflexive and participatory turn and given that curation has rarely been used as an inclusive practice, the co-curating project “Together We Curate” initiated by the MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts (Thessaloniki, Greece) after the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic has served as an attempt to break with established theory and practice. The paper discusses the participatory experience of a co-curating exhibition and critically examines if and how such an approach enables curating to become a collective and inclusive practice contributing to the democratization of culture. Via a practice-led research methodology, the paper reflects on how a shift in the institution’s received practices can serve as a vehicle for togetherness, enabling participants to become active agents. Furthermore it discusses issues of sharing authorship, re-negotiation of institutional authority and power relations through participatory actions, possibly opening new spaces for thought and action in the process of democratizing art and culture.