The independent curator

One of my interest deals with the relationship between the artist and the curator. I am not so much thinking about the more traditional Curator who works for an established Museum or Gallery even though one undoubtedly can notice big changes within the established art sphere as well.
I am mainly thinking about a particular type of independent curator who entered the art scene in the beginning of the 1990’s. During this decade, one started to experiment with the social dimension in a similar way that one had seen during the Fluxus movement in the 60’s and the Performance art scene from the 60’s to the 80’s. However, in the 1990’s, one started to emphasis the construction and the obstruction of social events with what one may describe as another form of sophistication, characterized by being more jaded, ironic, more detached, where the awareness of how the art world is defined by certain values, certain markets and ideologies are being implemented as an important part of the work. Consequently, the social and the very change of roles, became an important part in its own right, that is, it became an art form in itself. There was a sense of anarchy here, resulting from the knowledge, that no art object contains any meaning or value in itself. The fact that something is being defined as art in the first place, is acquired meaning and is not an essential feature with a particular object.
Art is nothing without its discourse and not at least, the ongoing discussions and interpretations that one relate to it. And likewise, the artist’s creative ability is not an autonomos agent, something that exist solely within the artist, a potential genius core, a creativity of a mystical muse-like offspring. An artist belongs to a certain era, a certain historical time, living and working withing certain social contexts. He socialise with other likeminded artists, and others working within the arts sphere. What influence the artist is also very much connected to what he relates to in the external world. The artist like the rest of the population also dependent on a massive range of different societal and natural factors. The idea of the isolated, suffering artist who is blessed with a certain creative force that all comes from within wither whilst seeing it within a bigger perspective. The same goes for whether the artist will succeed or not, Who you are, who you knows, the way you are able to network, how many invitations you get and from whom, what scholarships and funding you receive, all this and more constitutes the bigger mapping of the art scene and how it works.
Most art today deals with appropriation and an understanding of how its social network and market works less than about crafting an object.