[spectre] Curating Degree Zero Archive (Bremen)

[geert lovink]

From: "Dorothee Richter & Barnaby Drabble" <office at curating.org>

Curating Degree Zero Archive
An Archive, Touring Exhibition and Web-Resource exploring the field of
Critical Curating

Concept: Dorothee Richter and Barnaby Drabble

Opening: 08/29/2003    7 p.m.

7 -11 p.m.

Short Presentations and discussion with:

Stella Rollig, Frederikke Hansen, Helmut Draxler, Dorothee Richter, Barnaby
Drabble
Music:  Mental Groove Records Geneva

Duration: 09/30/ -09/30.2003

Brunch: 09/13/2003 - 11 a.m. Cooperation with "No Man is an Island"

Curating Degree Zero Archive is a touring exhibition, which presents
critical positions in the field of curating. It contains material
(catalogues, articles, videos, CD's, images and web sites) in relation to
the practice of about 60 international curators and curatorial
collaborations. The Design of the travelling elements of the archive was
commissioned from the Zurich based design group Elektrosmog. Their concept
places the materials in a variety of travel bags with oversized labels,
which the public can unpack and explore. In Basel where the exhibition begun
its tour (in Jan 2003), the bags were displayed on luggage trolleys parked
throughout the space, while in Geneva they were displayed on massive tables
within a lounge type atmosphere.

The Archive expands as it tours, docking onto the networks of hosting venues
and adapting to those areas of critical practice particular to each new
context. In such a way the choice deliberately avoids being seen as a survey
driven by the tastes of the organisers. Instead the development of the list
of participating curators is based on the logic of networks, friendships and
circles of shared interest and discussion. Likewise the concept of
'critical' curating is not a unified one. It is subject to historical
change, just as the discursive formation of the visual arts is subject to
constant transformation.

The web-site www.curatingdegreezero.org was designed in collaboration with
[plug-in], Basel. It is an interface both for exhibition visitors and people
accessing the project via the Internet. For those in the exhibition itself
it acts as an indexing tool for defining which materials are of interest and
where these materials can be found, it also extends the real space into the
virtual, linking to the web sites of the participating curators. As the tour
develops the site grows in its potential as a rich research tool for an
international network of curators, art practitioners and students with an
interest in this particular field.

Supported by Kulturstiftung des Bundes