Notes on Understanding the "Post Colonial"

SNDT Campus Mumbai - Charles Correa

I just realised that there is no image of the lovely SNDT Campus anywhere on the internet that was designed by Charles Correa! I pulled out these images from my ages old archive when the Cinema City Exhibition was hosted here. These are randomly taken images that catch glimpses of the campus. 

The Politics of Curation

Yesterday in an intense discussion with Aditya (Sawant) and Deepti (Talpade), we came to question the constitution of the position of a Curator. Aditya's argument was that the act of curation was a self-legitimised enactment of power. He questioned where, after all, does the curator derive validation for the works he selects to be a part of any exhibition. Who testifies his knowledge and how does it gain currency?

To be sure, his observation sat well within a Marxist framework. In the increasingly capitalising art world, curators are often appointed on the basis of their potential to bring sufficient funds for / to any project. In this situation, the power of the curator is constituted in the role of administering and managing money that mobilises the exhibition activity.

Aditya went on to say that a specific framing of any event by a curator fundamentally starts shifting the nature in which the artist himself/herself sees one's own work. Thus, it impacts the true nature of the evolution of an artist, giving in to a relationship that has been established between the organiser (curator) and the producer (artist).

Dipti however expanded to say that every position, in that notion would be an enactment of power. At the same time, there would be many curatorial acts which donot necessarily fall merely within the logic of economics. While many of these network relationships have come to feed into the present structure of several art events, there are scenarios in which curators do not necessarily impact the producer's work.

We debated a lot on the role of the curator, and the underpinnings of executing art exhibitions today. Much of it seemed like intellectual masturbation. But thinking back, I just thought it might be worthwhile to put down the arguments for a future date.

Three words of confuse and concern

Didactic: Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motif.

Pedantic: Excessively concerned with minor details or rules, too instructional

Pedagogic: Relating to teaching.

Word Affinities sourced from:

http://visuwords.com/

The Advancement of Learning

"The registering and proposing of doubts has a double use: one use is a straightforward use - it guides us against errors. The second use involves the role of doubts in initiating a process of enquiry which has the effect of enriching our investigations."

-Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, 1605