5 September 2025
Speaker
George Enescu National University of Arts, Iași
https://www.artsummerschool.ro
Advanced Lecture and Open Research Workshop
Emancipative Research: Critical Perspectives in Curatorial and Artistic Research
alongside Charles Esche and Maria Hlavajova, convened by Cătălin Gheorghe
Doctoral School of Visual Arts, George Enescu National University of Arts, Iași, Romania, 5 September 2025
The lecture Post-Exhibitionary Practices: From Disciplinary Power to Governmental Assemblages in the Exhibitionary Complex traced a shift in curatorial discourse from institutional disciplinary power, drawing on Michel Foucault and Tony Bennett, towards governmentality and non-institutional forms of governance. It considered how exhibition-making can create transversal contact zones for negotiation, situated knowledge production, and emancipatory research.
The accompanying workshop, A Relationship-Oriented View of Exhibition History, introduced an analytical toolkit for examining exhibitionary projects inside and outside art institutions. Participants analysed the relationships between artworks, audiences, cultural producers, institutions, economic conditions, and supporting infrastructures. Each participant brought an historical or contemporary exhibition image showing exhibits, viewers, and their spatial setting as the basis for collective analysis.