Year 1 2025-26

Schedule

Wednesday 24 September

Approaches to study of exhibitions & exhibition-making in curatorial studies.

Slides used in session here

Some reading materials that may be of interest:

“exhibition as genre, poetic and apparatus“
“what—after all is said and done—is exhibition?“
“exhibition histories: some apprehensions and anticipations“
“Introduction” to Part 1 of Wilson, M., Aikens, N., Mistry, J. & Caminha, K. (eds.) “On the Question of Exhibition” PARSE Journal Vol. 13, Parts 1.
“The Global White Cube“, Elena Filipovoc
Inside the White Cube, Brian O’Doherty
Here is a list of some sources that may be of interest in general: https://exhibition.school/the-riga-rous-informal-2/

Wednesday 8 October

‘Exhibition Histories’ and Other Sources in Curatorial Studies

Slides used in session here

Task for Friday 31 October

Write a short note (250 words) on one of the following topics.

A summary account of ONE example of the exhibition history of one exhibition (about 250 words, in Latvian Russian or English as you prefer)

The “arcade” as a system of display
The relation between “curating” and “the curatorial”
The spatial organization and design of the Survival Kit exhibition 2025
The spatial organization and display design of an exhibition that you have seen directly,

Put your note here: GOOGLE DOCUMENT

Some reading materials that may be of interest:

See Afterall Exhibition Histories
Bennet, Tony (1988) “The Exhibitionary Complex” chapter from his book The Birth of the Musuem and also an essay published in the journal New Formations
See also: the notes from the 2020 Bucharest Biennale workshop “handfuls thrown into air and scattered over earth” here: “What is exhibition?” and also “some notes from day one and also these notes on “Exhibition Histories“.
An interesting example of a research project on experimental practice in exhibition is Cristian Nae (ed.) (2016) In(visible) Frames. Rhetoric and exhibition practices in Romania during the period 1965-1989, an output from the research project “Pluralization of the public sphere. Art exhibitions in Romania during 1968-1989”, at the New Europe College, Bucharest, which analyses artistic production considered as unofficial, alternative, subversive or experimental in Romania from the point of view of institutional frameworks.
The Curatorial Online Journal of curating

Wednesday 25 November

Part #1. Short presentations on work done since last meeting

Olga on the spatial organization and display design of an exhibition (Rustem Skibin “Qalqan. Symbols of Crimean Tatars” Cupola Hall, Latvian National Museum of Art,2025)
Anna on the spatial organization and display design of an exhibition (Sophie Calle “Neither give nor throw away”, Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, 2024)
Taļa on the spatial organization and display design of an exhibition (“Shifts” (Riga Contemporary Art Space, 2025)
Zane on the spatial organization and display design of an exhibition (Aigars Bikše “Historical Memories of the Present”, Galerija Daugava, 2025).
Alise on the spatial organization and display design of an exhibition (“Simbioze 2.0,” by Kefīrs Studio, Gallery “Raa”, Matīsa Street 8)
Elīza on the relation between “curating” and “the curatorial”
Aleksejs on the spatial organization and display design of an exhibition (“Skin in the Game”, curated by Clementine Deliss, KW, Berlin, 2023)

Part #2. Presentation on “Curating and practices of organizing”

Introducing a project “Institutionings” e-flux announcement and project website: https://institutionings.eu/

Intriducing a research group EARN Curatorial Studies Workshop

SLIDES USED IN THIS SESSION

Wednesday 18 February

Curatorial Research: Project Types and Strategies

Exhibition as research process
Artist’s publication as research process
Research project about curatorial and commissioning practices that uses a curatorial process “co-production”
Some wider reflections about “production” and “research”
A task for March 4 session

SLIDES USED

Wednesday 4 March

We being with a review of the PhD examples that you found online.

And then we look at the questions of genre and genre analysis in the organization of exhibitions, with two key examples (i) the blockbuster and (ii) the archive-in-display.

SLIDES USED

Sharing examples of PhD

Sharing examples of Archival Exhibition

Wednesday 15 April

This afternoon we begin by looking at the examples of “Archival Exhibition” that you selected as a follow up on the discussion of exhibition “genres” in March. Sharing examples of Archival Exhibition. Then we proceed to look at the EARN event International Curatorial Students’ Assembly in Venice for the 2026 Biennale and the wider context of the Venice Biennale.

We will also look at some of the publications that will be briefly launched in Venice by the EARN Curatorial Studies Working Group.

At 17:00 we join the first part of an online session with Prof. Henk Slager on “An Arc of Artistic Research Publishing” where he discusses his experience in publishing as a curator working in the space of artistic research.

ZOOM address: https://gu-se.zoom.us/j/63506316002

You can also see Prof. Slager’s archive of publications at: https://monoskop.org/Henk_Slager