What does it take to be an art curator?

October 04, 2018

Art Fairs: What role does the curator perform?

By Tania Gonzalez

Photography by Tania Gonzalez 2018

What does it take to be an art curator?

The most generalised concept for an art curator it can be the person who is in charge of managing an art collection. However, this function in the contemporaneity means to control certain qualities and abilities that go beyond a simple administrative task.

An art curator must have critical thinking, but at the same time, he has to be multidisciplinary and be capable of executing the role of researcher, writer, educator, interpreter, diplomat, producer, director, mediator and catalyst of ideas. From experience that the job as a post producer provides along years, it is possible to say, that the function of the art curators and video editors are similar, in both cases, we can create narratives through the assembly of images, texts, sounds, shapes and colours. Both of them are responsible for reevaluating, filter, digest and connect ideas in an appropriate discourse, without losing any detail. However, what happens when a curator must curate for an art fair in an age immersed by the need for immediacy?

The curator at the art fair Everybody knows that the primary objective for an art fair it will always be the same, to exhibit in order to sell and market artworks, inquiring the support of "experts" in the art field with the intention of positioning a gallery or an artist, turning into a "prestigious brand" inside the so-called art market.

For instance, some curators consider that displaying in an art fair is one of the worst scenarios for curatorial practice because when we present a curatorial project for an art fair, this must be approached from a much more practical, less romantic and focused in the immediacy.

Curators always have to show their qualities as communicators, considering as a central task the creation of atmospheres or environments that it can be capable of conciliating a fluid dialogue between the art-work, space and attending public. In the case of the fairs, the public objectives are, "experts", investors and art collectors.

The curatorial proposal

Photography by​ Tania Gonzalez ​ 2014

When a curatorial work for art fairs is planning time, space and spectators are three of the essential elements to bear in mind. We have to remember that the art fair exhibition is usually conceptualising in tight spaces, such as prefabricated stands, hotels even rooms, that is why one of the main reasons the proposals might be flexible.

The volume of sale and the affluence of the public present during the hours of the exhibition will make the place a space in constant change and mutation.

Besides, when the curatorial proposal is submitting, it must not be ruled out the possibility of the exhibition may be itinerant. It could be moved and adapted to different spaces or places throughout a season or a work cycle.

As we discussed first, the time and the viewer are determining factors in the art fairs. It is essential to clarify that the spectator is an essential part of the speech and the staging. However, the primary objective of the fair is not to offer spaces for reflective contemplation of the artwork; the real purpose it is to offer artworks for sale, for that reason is so important considering as a primary objective, the constant and fluid traffic of the public with the shortest stay throughout the exposition.

Photography by​ Tania Gonzalez 2 ​ 01​5

The curator's role is truly essential in the art fairs?

To sum up, everything it seems that art fairs have become spaces where the curators must show more than ever their administrative, budgetary, and production skills considering that they are being handled under very tight schedules and times, with investments that demand almost an instantaneous return.

Following this scenario and as an incipient curator, there are a series of questions that it has emerged while writing these lines and I would like to share with the readers, Is there a curatorial job inside a stand at the art fair? Does the work of curators losing their creative and discursive essence in art fairs? Is it possible to present a curatorial proposal when the primary objective is the sale and commercialisation of the artwork?