The Curatorial Thing

Under the concept of a ‘thing’, an old Nordic term for a meeting place, an assembly of the community, or what can be defined as the precursor of the modern term 'parliament', SixtyEight Art Institute annually invited a range of Nordic-based and international speakers to address topics that included reflections on aesthetic and political potentials in art, the exhibition as a social, affective or discursive situation, new pedagogical possibilities in artistic practices, and how these play out between artistic and curatorial methodologies.

This extended learning and speakers programme consisted of two strands: one, an intensive series of closed day workshops and event programme for a select number of participants; and two, an evening programme of lectures that were open to the general public.

SixtyEight Art Institute invitee some of the most interesting voices from local contexts and beyond. The speakers shared research and perspectives in an informal structure of lectures or talks, followed by moderated peer conversations with the audience. The aim of the conversations was to reflect upon how the 'curatorial' continues to be collaborative, artistic, co-creative, critical, and experimental within the ever-expanding parameters of cultural production. Both in the workshops and in the speaker series, SixtyEight Art Institute hoped to articulate fundamental questions about autonomy, authorship, dissemination, editing, criticality, discourse, and the writing of art history.

The speakers and conversations in the programme reflected how education, collaboration or shared information can stimulate the next generation of artists and curators to form new, innovative and progressive curatorial or artistic propositions.