Curatorial research

Application summary

"How we might attempt to take care of time when it seems to pool, dammed up by a foreclosed future that no longer brings the promise of the now and an historical past saturated with unpresentable trauma?” - writes Lisa Baraitser in her book Enduring Time. This beautifully written work describes the condition of suspended time when it feels as if time is losing its flow and pooling up, and how feminist strategies of care can be employed during the time of watchful waiting. Watchful waiting is a good title for the next three months of my curatorial research. Another inspiration comes from “Maintenance art”, a term introduced by performance artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. I plan to focus on documenting, cleaning up the junk folders, archiving, having time for long conversations, reflecting, upkeeping the networks, offering care. My current work is focusing on three main topics: - Documenting responses from the performing art field to the current challenges, creating an archive and a possibility for collective reflection. I will use Instagram as online platform for sharing content, developing of map of different offerings. Sharing moments of hope and of despair, marveling at amazing resilience of the field. - Intersections of political agency, contemporary art, and magical practices. This research is zooming into the current explosion of everything connected to magic, spiritual practices, and witchcraft in contemporary art and culture. I am looking into artists who work with supernatural phenomena and magic as part of their daily lives, for a possible curatorial project. - Documentation of curatorial projects in the field of performing arts. There are not many good examples of proper documentation of festivals, venue seasons or thematic programs that would make visible the curatorial lines, as well as the collective shared space and the longer-term impact. I am researching and writing guidelines for documentation, for the future handbook on curatorial practice.