Curatorial Statement
Exhibitions are mediators and generators of ideas. Conceiving an exhibition means bringing ideas up-to-date and communicating them. Similar to other formats – texts, for example – exhibitions present cultural objectifications, they however also represent perspectives on a specific time or particular interpretation. In doing so, they construct theses rather than being expected to prove them. The most stimulating exhibitions are those where viewers do not only experience simple confirmations. Working with contemporary artists implies unexpected juxtapositions, reflected present, aesthetics, form, and social relationships. All areas that are of particular interest for the artists. Questions about the paths of perception, areas of interest, communications and processes of finding form are relevant here. Being up-to-date means, for curators, the obligation to go beyond one’s own familiar perceptions, both in terms of content and design.
Exhibitions and the buildings or structures in which they can be seen are, not least, also staged spatial settings. This is one aspect that has in recent years once again been a frequent subject of debate and of central importance to curators. “Staging“, in this case, in no way means theatrical interior architecture, in which the exhibits drown but instead much more a feel for space and light conditions, for structures, perceptions of space and spatial arrangements, which can become visible in a minimal, or otherwise, but always contemporary manner.
Brigitte Franzen (2007)
