INSTITUTION

AS PRAXIS
 INSTITUTION
AS PRAXIS
NEW CURATORIAL
DIRECTIONS FOR
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Carolina Rito and Bill Balaskas

(Eds.)
TABLE OF CONTENTS 8
INTRODUCTION
Carolina Rito and
Bill Balaskas

32 124 200
CURATORIAL RESEARCH TAKE A DEEP BREATH IN: CONFIDENCE IN
AS THE PRACTICE OF “MUSEUM AS PRAXIS,” PRACTICE: POSITIONING
COMMONING INAUGURATED IN INSTITUTIONAL AND
Je Yun Moon OCTOBER 2035 INDIVIDUAL CREATIVE
Nora Sternfeld RESEARCH AS
44 PARA-ACADEMIC
WHAT IS THE

THE CURATORIAL AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

136 Sian Vaughan
CURATORIAL DOING? SIMPLY STORIES:
Carolina Rito NOT HIS, HERS, 214
OR—WORSE—THEORIES ARTS ORGANISATIONS,
62 ruangrupa (farid HIGHER EDUCATION

ENACTING THE INSTITUTION

EXHIBITIONARY rakun and Leonhard INSTITUTIONS, AND
PRACTICES AT THE

WHAT IS MEANING(FUL)
Bartolomeus) THE COLLABORATIVE
INTERSECTION OF IMPERATIVE
ACADEMIC RESEARCH 156 Andrea Phillips
AND PUBLIC DISPLAY AUTOHISTORIA AS PRAXIS
Joasia Krysa Mélanie Bouteloup 226
“WHERE IS THE
76 170 KNOWLEDGE WE HAVE
ALL THOSE THINGS “IT’S ALL ABOUT LOST IN INFORMATION?”:
ARE ALSO OURS: TRUST”: REFRAMING SPECULATIVE RESEARCH
DE LO BLANDO EN THE CURATOR AS AND DIGITAL
LO CURATORIAL PRACTITIONER RESEARCHER METHODOLOGIES
Carolina Cerón Emily Pringle Anthony Downey
88 180 250
ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NETWORKED MEDIA AND NOTES TOWARDS
FINAL DECADE: THE CASE THE RISE OF ALTERNATIVE IMAGINING A
OF THE CITADEL INSTITUTIONS: ART UNIVERS(E)ITY
Vali Mahlouji AND COLLABORATION OTHERWISE
AFTER 2008 Pujita Guha and
110 Bill Balaskas Abhijan Toto for the
DISCURSIVE PRACTICE: Forest Curriculum
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC
PRACTICE IN THE MUSEUM
Michael Birchall
264
BIOGRAPHIES

271
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 INTRODUCTION This publication’s remit and contributions acknowledge
that, in various instances, curatorial practices are led and
developed by research enquiries and, in this way, they
advance new research methods at the intersection between
visual cultures, curating, the arts, and critical theory. The
emergence of the curatorial as a field of practice beyond
exhibition-making and its research capacities have been
explored elsewhere in publications and in institutional and
independent curatorial programming (i.e., public events,
exhibitions).1 This book contributes to this debate by
analysing what we perceive to be a shift in the current
landscape, with higher education institutions (HEIs) making
available resources for collaborations with industry and
encouraging “practice research” across the fields of arts
and humanities. In the context of this publication, “practice
research” should be understood as research conducted by
means of practice—particularly, but not exclusively, in
the arts and curatorial fields. Moreover, what this book
acknowledges is that research-driven programming in
curatorial and artistic practices has advanced radical ways
of producing knowledge beyond the repetition of inherited
epistemologies.

Collaboration at the borders between academia—where

knowledge is perceived to be dominantly produced—and
the cultural sector has long occurred. The use of the term
“research” in cultural programming does not come as a
surprise to practitioners and audiences of contemporary art
institutions alike. In the UK, evidence of this phenomenon
can be seen, for instance, in the increasing number of

1 — Paul O’Neill and Mick Wilson, Paul O’Neill, Lucy Steeds, and Mick

Carolina Rito eds., Curating Research (London:

Open Editions, 2015); Jean-Paul
Martinon, ed., The Curatorial: A
Wilson, eds., How Institutions Think:
Between Contemporary Art and
Curatorial Discourse (Cambridge, MA:

Bill Balaskas 9
Philosophy of Curating (New York:
Bloomsbury Academic, 2013);
MIT Press).
 research-related posts being established in non-collecting global knowledge systems.”3 The last platform culminated
arts organisations, such as: Liverpool Biennial’s Head of with the main documenta exhibition in Kassel, Germany. Of
Research; No!ingham Contemporary’s Head of Public a different nature, but founded around the same time and
Programmes and Research; and BALTIC’s post of BALTIC open until today, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht,
Professor and Director of BxNU Research Institute.2 is programmed around long-term lines of enquiry.4 Since
Collecting institutions are more likely to have staff who 2017, BAK has been commi!ed to a long-term programme
utilise research methods for cataloguing, investigating, entitled “Propositions for Non-Fascist Living,” around which
and looking after their artefacts. This publication looks the cultural activities and everyday affairs of the institution
gravitate. According to Maria Hlavajova, founding General
to research beyond collections and beyond methods
and Artistic Director of BAK, this series of activities were
that remain faithful to traditional modes of academic
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

“prompted by the dramatic resurfacing and normalization

investigation. We aim to provide a breadth of contributions
of historical and contemporary fascisms in our present, and
that explore the research capacities of programming, the
[it] advocates art as imagining and enacting ways of ‘being
curatorial, and artistic research as an event of knowledge.
together otherwise.’”5

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

Contemporary arts institutions and independent curatorial Despite an increase in such familiar cases of research-

INTRODUCTION
projects increasingly programme around lines of enquiry driven programmes and institutions, these systems are still
that go beyond the interpretation and framing of an not fully acknowledged or recognised within academia.
exhibition’s concepts and artworks. In 2002, the late When it comes to collaborations between academics
curator Okwui Enwezor curated documenta 11 around and practitioners, these still occur in an unbalanced way,
five transdisciplinary discursive platforms held on four wherein academia is still in charge of determining the
continents—Africa, America, Europe, and Asia—with talks “whats” and “hows” of the research project, which itself
and conferences involving international speakers from is likely reliant on academic mechanisms of validation
across the globe. The debates focused on four major topics and based on a case-study approach. Thus, such arts and
that sought to investigate the postcolonial infrastructures cultural collaborations remain largely dependent on terms
of politics and cultural production in the present. The topics defined by the academic partner and, arguably, are used
were democracy, transitional justice, creolization, and the
African context. According to the exhibition’s introductory
text, the overall project aimed to “describe the present 3 — “Transdisciplinary ‘platforms’ Johannesburg, Kinshasa, and Lagos’
devoted to different themes were (Lagos, March 16–20, 2002).”
location of culture and its interfaces with other complex, presented on four continents […] For more, see “Retrospective:
in advance of the official opening: documenta 11,” Documenta.de,
‘Democracy Unrealized’ (Vienna, accessed January 17, 2020, https://
March 15–April 20, 2001; Berlin, www.documenta.de/en/retrospective/
October 9–30, 2001), ‘Experiments documenta11#.
2 — For more on these roles, see https://www.nottinghamcontemporary. with Truth: Transitional Justice and the
“Staff,” Biennial.com, accessed org/about/staff/; “Baltic Professor Processes of Truth and Reconciliation’ 4 — “About,” Bakonline.org, accessed
January 24, 2020, https://www. Research,” Baltic.art, accessed January (New Delhi, May 7–21, 2001), ‘Créolité January 17, 2020, https://www.
biennial.com/about/staff; “Our Team,” 24, 2020, https://baltic.art/bxnu- and Creolization’ (St. Lucia, January bakonline.org/over-ons/.
Nottinghamcontemporary.org, institute/baltic-professor-research. 13–15, 2002), and ‘Under Siege:
10 accessed January 24, 2020, 11 Four African Cities, Freetown, 5 — Ibid.
 as case-studies to evidence a thesis. Artistic and cultural Bill Balaskas was invited to co-convene the working
projects in this scenario merely provide “examples” and group and, together, they began to organise open events
do not often entail participation in the formulation of and closed-door seminars, during which national and
research questions. international colleagues debated the role of cultural
organisations in collaborative research projects, shared
The idea for this book originates from numerous formal and practices, identified opportunities, and discussed
informal conversations with colleagues working in the field challenges. Based on these conversations—in academic
of curating and “instituting” practices on the importance and non-academic se!ings—the working group produced
of furthering the contributions of arts and the curatorial an advocacy document that contains recommendations for
to practice research and knowledge production. These funding bodies and research councils and focuses on the
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

relevance of practice research in the advancement of new

conversations happened in the context of the “Institution
research methodologies and epistemes.9
as Praxis” research strand that Carolina Rito inaugurated at
No!ingham Contemporary in early 2018, as well as events
This book is a response to what we perceive to be an

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

organised in the UK by the Midlands Higher Education
opportunity. We want to encourage a more balanced
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

Culture Forum (MHECF).6 In 2017, Arts Council England

dialogue between sectors and models of knowledge

INTRODUCTION
invited No!ingham Contemporary to be the cultural lead
production, wherein cultural partners take part in
of the Midlands Higher Education Culture Forum MHECF.7
formulating research questions from the outset and
The forum aimed to identify the challenges to and
continue to contribute to research practices throughout
opportunities for further collaboration between HEIs and the investigative process of research practice. Drawing
the cultural sector in the Midlands, UK. As Head of Public on different approaches to the way in which research has
Programmes and Research at No!ingham Contemporary entered curatorial practice in institutions and independent
and Executive Board Member of MHECF, in 2018, Rito projects, this book calls for us to reflect upon how these
founded the UK-based “Collaborative Research” working practices are changing the way we understand research
group, which soon became central to and complemented and knowledge production. In this context, the growing
by the aforementioned conversations.8 In the same year, appetite—and availability—of resources for collaboration
between academia and the cultural sector should be
accompanied by rigorous reflection on how this shifting
6 — Carolina Rito was Head of 7 — For more on MHECF, see
Public Programmes and Research Midlandshecf.org, accessed January 19,
landscape provides an opportunity to actualise modes
at Nottingham Contemporary until 2020, http://midlandshecf.org/. of knowledge production and epistemologies. At the
November 2019 when she joined
Coventry University as Professor 8 — For more information on the
same time, it is worth noting how many cultural workers
of Creative Practice Research. For Collaborative Research working
more details on the “Institution group, see “Collaborative Research,”
as Praxis” research strand, see Midlandshecf.org, accessed January 9 — To date, the “Collaborative document, see “Advocacy Document
“Research: Research Strands,” 24, 2020, http://midlandshecf.org/ Research Advocacy Document” has on Collaborative Research,”
Nottinghamcontemporary.org, working-groups/collaborative- been shared with Arts Council England, Midlandshecf.org, accessed February
accessed January 24, 2020, https:// research. the Arts and Humanities Research 16, 2020, http://midlandshecf.org/
www.nottinghamcontemporary. Council (AHRC), and a network of news/advocacy-document-
org/exchange/research/#public- colleagues in the UK academic and oncollaborative-research.
12 programmes-research-strands. 13 cultural sectors. For the advocacy
 increasingly question the validation protocols of knowledge However, these clusters are not intended to reduce the
production in academia, which are based on the concepts of spectrum and complexities of each text; therefore, at
universal evidence, peer-review evaluation, and neutrality times, the texts’ propositions intersect with the topics of
of the researcher. other clusters or even expand beyond them.

The outcome of the publication process is a book that lays The first cluster is entitled The Curatorial and Knowledge
out an impressive range of anti-, para-, inter-, and intra- Production and consists of texts by Je Yun Moon, Carolina
institutional practices, all of which operate in ways that we Rito, Joasia Krysa, Carolina Cerón, Vali Mahlouji, and
could not have imagined just a few years ago. Institution as Michael Birchall. The curatorial, in the context of this cluster,
Praxis is a compilation of voices and accounts that aim to is neither understood as an exhibition-making practice
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

contribute to the current debate on practice research and (which pertains to the realm of curating) nor is it set up in
the validation of creative methodologies for knowledge opposition to the la!er. Instead, the curatorial draws from
production. This book brings together texts from curators, its affiliations with curating in the way that it mobilises the

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

artists, and scholars to provide directions for understanding notion of “making public” in its exhibitionary capacities—
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

the contributions of: the curatorial and artistic practices, be it in the format of an exhibition, publication, or public

INTRODUCTION
programming and organising, and research in cultural and event—as an event where new knowledge is formulated. As
academic se!ings. Jean-Paul Martinon and Irit Rogoff argue in The Curatorial:
A Philosophy of Curating:
CONTRIBUTIONS
If “curating” is a gamut of professional practices
The texts assembled in this book are responses to our that had to do with se!ing up exhibitions and
invitation to our contributors. They consider the multiplicity other modes of display, then “the curatorial”
of practices taking place across the cultural sector that do operates at a very different level: it explores
not only engage with the quest to deliver cultural activities all that takes place on the stage set-up, both
(e.g., exhibitions, events) but also generate new modes of intentionally and unintentionally, by the curator
knowledge production and research in the field of visual and views it as an event of knowledge. So to drive
culture, the arts, the curatorial, and beyond. Although home a distinction between “curating” and “the
the development of these modes is not new in the cultural curatorial” means to emphasize a shift from the
field, this book aims to contribute to the debate around staging of the event to the actual event itself: its
them by demonstrating the porosities, in practice, that enactment, dramatization and performance.10
exist between non-academic and academic contexts. The
contributions have been divided into three main clusters As an interdisciplinary arena, by definition, the curatorial
in order to demonstrate common threads between them. recognises a variety of points of entry determined by the

1o — Jean-Paul Martinon and Irit

Rogoff, preface to The Curatorial, ed.
14 15 Martinon, ix.
 nature of the enquiry and choreographs its hypothesis in creation and destruction, as an example of how we can
the articulation of seemingly unrelated material—i.e., build “on the legacy of postcolonial struggle and the newly
visual, aural, haptic, textual, and affective. The curatorial emerging opportunities in a globalised world.” This view is
draws on methods from artistic and curating practices, also supported by a further example: Jeanne van Heeswijk’s
which are informed by post-structuralist, feminist, and Homebaked (2010), which reinstated a local bakery
postcolonial studies, amongst others. Contrary to inherited through community-led action as part of a commission by
knowledges and traditional epistemic schemata, the Liverpool Biennial. In both cases, the Biennial became the
curatorial has demonstrated the capacity to propose new catalyst for a shared ecology of curatorial research and
ways of conducting rigorous research via the deployment cultural practice, both of which nurtured multi-positioned
of speculative methods. knowledges capable of resisting financialisation and
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

marketisation.
Je Yun Moon identifies “commoning” as one of these
methods. In her essay, she begins by defining curatorial Following the first wave of institutionally-reflexive practices

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

research as part of a “complex network of exchanges and further successive waves of institutional critique, in
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

of knowledge,” rather than as the work of a “genius” or the last fifteen years, cultural institutions have reshaped

INTRODUCTION
“specialist.” Questioning the notion of the “Über-Curator,” their sociopolitical functions. Alongside these changes, the
Moon highlights the multiple stakeholders who actualise sector has also been shaken by successive funding cuts and a
an exhibition—most notably, its visitors. In this sense, steady process of corporatisation and privatisation, which
curatorial research can be perceived as an organic form are wrapped in catchphrases such as “sustainability.” While
of commoning, wherein the curator adopts the role of identifying the challenges that cultural institutions face
mediator between practices, ideas, creators, and audiences. today and the latest developments in curatorial practices,
For Moon, this can be viewed as a response to the multiple Carolina Rito observes the opportunities for new epistemic
challenges produced by a decade of austerity in the UK, functions for museums and kunsthalle-sized organisations.
where underinvestment and cuts in formal education have In museums, epistemic functions have long been associated
been accompanied by pressure on cultural institutions with the knowledge produced around the objects purchased,
to carry a much larger educational role. Moon looks at collected, and conserved by the institution. However,
“biennial practice” as a particular tactic for curatorial according to Rito, the question of knowledge production
research that may satisfy some of these rising demands. in curatorial practices needs to be sought elsewhere, away
More specifically, the author examines the vandalization of from such collections-based expertise. Her text argues for a
Banu Cennetoğlu’s The List, a project exhibited at the 2018 curatorial practice that mobilises its own modus operandi
Liverpool Biennial about the deaths of immigrants and (via juxtaposition and spatiality) to create new meanings.
refugees on Europe’s borders. Moon sees Cennetoğlu’s work, Designed as a platform of aesthetic and intellectual
and the events, debates, and exchanges that followed its exchange, the curatorial activates research questions

16 17
 through discursive and exhibitionary practices and through in exhibition-making, i.e., curators, artists, etc. This is
longitudinal and interdisciplinary projects. It is in the exemplified by the work of Liverpool Biennial 2016, The
practice of programming itself that research is conducted Serving Library, and “Catch | Bounce: Towards a Relational
and advanced. Given the nature of the curatorial, these Ontology of the Digital in Art Practice,” by James Charlton.
are always polyvocal processes, with shared authorship, What becomes evident in such examples is the
engaging with and generating audiences-in-the-making. experimental thinking behind the programming of ERL,
In addition, Rito takes the opportunity to reflect upon and how it contributes to broader discussions about
the research and collaborative affordances of the Public how meaning is produced in these se!ings and through
Programmes and Research Department at No!ingham curatorial practices.
Contemporary—Rito was Head of this Department for three
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

In her contribution, Carolina Cerón revisits curaduría

years (2017–19). Through examples such as the CAMPUS
blanda (“soft curating”)—a term formally introduced by
independent study programme, The Contemporary Journal,
Colombian artist Gustavo Zalamea at the turn of the last
and the Department’s research strands, the text explores
millennium. Cerón theorises a series of exhibitions that

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

the importance of fostering open-ended and critical
took place in Bogotá under the umbrella of curaduría
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

programming with a “virtually unlimited social reach,”

blanda during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Prompted by

INTRODUCTION
in spite of the current climate in the sector.11 Knowledge
the near untranslatability of the word blando, the author
production in cultural institutions not only also takes place
maps its range of signification with a variety of adjectives,
beyond collections, moreover, it has radically changed the including “light,” “porous,” “gaseous,” “diluted,” “ductile,”
way we think of the development of research qualities in “bendable,” “frail,” “anaemic,” “gutless,” and “ephemeral.”
curatorial and artistic practices. Collectively, these terms signify a broadening of our sense
of what constitutes (cultural) praxis and embrace the
In thinking how the exhibitionary—defined here as the context of “democratic disorder,” a modus operandi within
site of making materials and gestures public—can be which institutional protocols are replaced by the objectives
operationalised as the actual site of research, Joasia of immediacy and efficiency. Arguably, the activities
Krysa delves into the work developed at the Exhibition of curaduría blanda can occur anywhere in the city as
Research Lab (ERL). ERL is an academic research centre direct responses to local situations. In staging the work of
and public venue located at Liverpool School of Art and Zalamea in the city of Bogotá, locations ranged from the
Design. Krysa positions the exhibitionary practices at Museo de la Universidad Nacional (museum of the national
ERL at the intersection of academic research and public university) to a local bakery, and from public telephones to
display, challenging the traditional notion of the so-called a billiards club. For Cerón, the ethos of curaduría blanda
“university gallery” and the standard roles of those involved defies capitalist fictions around order and chaos and shows
how the curatorial can expand not only knowledge, but
the very paths that lead to it. Curatorial methodologies
11 — Alex Farquharson, “Institutional
Mores,” in Pascal Gielen, ed.,
Institutional Attitudes: Instituting Art
in a Flat World (Amsterdam: Valiz/
18 Antennae, 2013), 225. 19
 have long explored the aesthetic potentialities of staging Finally, as Michael Birchall explores in his text, in the
the making of meaning and affects via the display of process of expanding beyond exhibition-making, curatorial
materials; namely, not to represent a chosen theme, but practices have found a fertile terrain in dialogical and
to generate new understandings via the juxtaposition of discursive formats. Institutions are moving towards a
seemingly unrelated images, sounds, texts, or gestures. more discursive model, linking critical practices to the
The site of display or, in other words, the making-public of formation of a new public sphere. Birchall acknowledges
those juxtapositions, moves beyond the finite space of a the increasing interest in discursive practices in museums
thematic show, where meaning is driven towards a central as the consequence of a desire to engage with audiences
focal point (without any disregard for the role of thematic in a variety of setups, be they lectures, talks, workshops, or
exhibitions and programming). In the making-public of performances. However, discursive practices are not only
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

new articulations, what is intended—to use the words of prone to increasing or widening audience participation.
Jacqueline Rose in her response to Edward Said’s Freud Birchall highlights the shifts within the traditional roles
and the Non-European—is the “as-yet-unlived,” and “still of cultural practitioners who have become more and

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

shaping” affects that the material “partially, tentatively, more involved in the programming of discursive events,
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

foresees and provokes.”12 In the work presented by Vali rather than producing or displaying art objects. In this

INTRODUCTION
Mahlouji in his contribution to this publication, a traumatic contribution, Birchall draws on his experience with Tate
event in Iranian history is restaged. Mahlouji presents the Exchange to argue that the new arena of practice not only
work of the research platform Archaeology of the Final repurposes the function of exhibition spaces but also allows
Decade (AOTFD), set up in 2010, an ongoing curatorial for a collective building of knowledge production.13
project that engages with the destruction of Shahr-e No
in 1979—a walled neighbourhood in Tehran that was home Enacting the Institution is the title of the second cluster
to sex-workers. Newspaper clippings are displayed next of texts featured in this publication. This group brings
to partially obliterated (or censored) images and the together contributions that demonstrate the performative
photographic works—dating to between 1975 and 1977— capacities of institutions and their responsibility to keep
of the late Iranian documentary photographer Kaveh responding to their contexts, needs, and urgencies and
Golestan (1950–2003). More than merely documenting to avoid the standardisation of their aims, functions, and
the event factually, AOTFD collects imagery in order mission statements. Contributions in this cluster include
to illuminate a partial and incomplete memory of the accounts of how to mobilise artistic and curatorial tools to
destroyed neighbourhood and calls for the inscription reinvent our institutions today and tomorrow. In response
and understanding of the event, as well as its political to the la!er, Nora Sternfeld’s contribution is a sequel to
repercussions in the present.

13 — Tate Exchange is a joint project

between Tate Modern and Tate
12 — Jacqueline Rose, “Response to Liverpool: “Tate Exchange,”
Edward Said,” in Edward Said, Freud Tate.org.uk, accessed January 19,
and the Non-European (London: 2020, https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-
20 Verso, 2003), 67. 21 exchange.
 her series on fictional scenarios set up in a future to come. of ruangrupa respectively.15 Both reveal the importance of
These projections portray an even grimmer future. Fascism debates and dilemmas, hesitations and deliberations, in the
is the norm in Europe; we are living in the 2030s and making and development of a project—no ma!er its scale,
cultural institutions struggle to find a space for action and size, longevity, or aims. Since its foundation, ruangrupa’s
intervention. The text provides flashbacks to exhibitions, project—to avoid calling it an “institution” or “organisation”
episodes, and other related affairs that took place in the that could eventually indicate a more formal and fixed
early 2000s and that eventually help our colleagues in the format—has been driven by urgencies on the ground
future to make sense of their present. In preparation for and operationalised by taking into consideration other
the opening of a new museum, the “Museum as Praxis,” Jakarta-based collectives’ skills and resources. ruangrupa’s
the staff examines past events in search of lessons to be method, which is also its struggle, is to ensure that the
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

learned. After “Why Exhibit at All? An Answer from the Year project does not become hostage to obsolete commitments.
2030”—the first iteration of this series—Sternfeld discusses In this conversation, rakun and Bartolomeus reflect
the obsolescence of the museums’ function—to safeguard upon the first year of Gudskul, a study programme on

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

and display collections—and urges museums to take direct contemporary art collectives and ecosystems, which was
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

action in their society and political sphere.14 The Museum as founded in November 2018 by ruangrupa and two other
Praxis is to open in October 2035 and internal institutional

INTRODUCTION
Jakarta-based collectives: Grafis Huru Hara and Serrum.
debates will define its programme and, moreover, its In addition to being an educational programme, Gudskul
means of production. The museum’s staff meet to discuss puts into practice the idea of a “collective of collectives,”
self-management and self-organisation with a view to where the groups come together to contribute to a larger
making decisions about their working conditions, including constellation of means of production and, therefore,
salaries and governance. “Take A Deep Breath In: “Museum possibilities. However, this process does not come without
as Praxis,” Inaugurated in October 2035” advocates uncertainties. As Bartolomeus asserts, to maintain its
for a foundational symbiosis between the means and
actuality, one needs to keep assessing the ongoing process
mechanisms of production, the institution’s external role,
and keep one’s own work “in check.”
and curatorial programming. In order to get it right, the
author calls for time to debate, to analyse the legacies and
Mélanie Bouteloup employs, as a point of departure for
current scenarios, to “take a deep breath in” and, if needs
her text, the notion of autohistoria-teoría—a term coined
be, to start all over again.
by Chicana feminist theorist and poet Gloria E. Anzaldúa—
to explain the research-informed programme developed
The debates conveyed in Nora Sternfeld’s prospective
by Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research and Villa
scenario are echoed in the conversation between farid rakun
Vassilieff, in Paris. Autohistoria-teoría, for Anzaldúa,
and Leonhard Bartolomeus, current and former members
was a mode of writing in different formats (testimonies,
short stories, poems, and more) by using a multiplicity
14 — First published in Natalie Bayer, 15 — ruangrupa is a contemporary art
Belinda Kazeem, and Nora Sternfeld, collective founded in 2000 by a group
eds., Curating as Antiracist Praxis of artists based in Jakarta. In 2019,
(Helsinki: Aalto University, 2018). ruangrupa were appointed curators of
22 documenta 15, 2022. 23
 of voices. For Bouteloup, programming Villa Vassilieff is and the generation of original knowledge that goes out
similar to this mode of writing. The institution seeks to into the world.” Pringle has explored in greater detail the
prioritise “intergenerational and intercultural exchange use of this term in the context of the museum elsewhere.16
and subjectification” as a prerequisite for nurturing new As the author argues, introducing the term “research” into
solidarities. In this context, the artist is placed at the definitions of what museum practitioners do is simply a
epicentre of the institution’s a!ention, and art-making way of acknowledging and naming an important part of
is very much seen as an ongoing process. The goal of the their activities, as well as crediting their contributions.
institution, then, is to create or revitalise an ecology, rather
than reach a fixed position. For Bouteloup, questioning In his essay, Bill Balaskas explores the construction of
prevailing histories constitutes a “mode of decolonising material and immaterial micro-economies by artists
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

knowledge by defying the hegemony of a presumed centre,” and cultural organisations in the aftermath of the global
and a path that can lead to a different understanding financial crisis of 2008, and how they have both been
of cosmopolitanism—one that accommodates a range informed by and resulted in new modes of collaborative

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

of voices that may change over time. This approach is research. The la!er regularly employs the shared value of
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

exemplified by the work of Villa Vassilieff with the Fonds the commons as a starting point in order to oppose the

INTRODUCTION
Marc Vaux archive at the Centre Pompidou. The archive ramifications of data capitalism—a particularly harsh
has been explored since 2016 by a large number of artists phase in the development of the capitalist economic
and researchers from different disciplines and origins. model. Balaskas’s essay documents this shift in the social
function of contemporary cultural production, exposing
Following on from Bouteloup’s focus on opening cultural the often-paradigmatic role of the web and new media
structures to societal dialogues, Emily Pringle argues that it technologies in the effort to collaborate differently for
is imperative for museums to increase their accountability the common good. At the core of this process lies what
with regard to those for whom (or, ideally, with whom) the author terms “the rise of alternative institutions”—
they are programming. Museums reflect changes taking the proliferation of initiatives and structures both within
place around them, as so do their staff. The role of museum and outside existing institutions, which have aimed to
curators has changed over time—from being considered “[reclaim] information and knowledge, with a view to
autonomous experts whose role is to look after collections producing wealth for the majority of people; not just for
and set up exhibitions to practitioners who utilise their those who already control capital and its flows.” In this
specialist knowledge in dialogue with others, e.g., artists, context, Balaskas highlights the work of organisations
curators, academics, local groups, and visitors. For the based in countries that found themselves at the epicentre
mediators of these dialogues and processes, Pringle suggests of the global financial meltdown, such as Spain’s Centre de
the term “practitioner researcher,” an individual who is Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), Platoniq,
open to “questioning, the structured process of enquiry, Medialab-Prado, and Colaborabora, as well as initiatives

16 — Emily Pringle, Rethinking

Research in the Art Museum
24 25 (New York: Routledge, 2019).
 that have focused on specific communities, such as the Despite the apparent benefits of increasing collaboration
“Zero Dollar Laptop” workshops by Furtherfield, London. between cultural organisations and HEIs—that is, in
In addition, Balaskas examines some of the time banking terms of shared resources and funding opportunities—
models that have been proposed in the decade since the Andrea Phillips alerts us to the pressure inherent in the
end of the Great Recession, and how the web has been imperative to collaborate. In the wake of the publication
a crucial tool in their establishment and activities (e.g., of Arts Council England’s ten-year strategy (2020–2030),
“Time/Bank” and “Neighbourhood Time Exchange”). cultural institutions are feeling the urgency to “invest” in
these relationships in order to secure funding from the
Finally, the third cluster, entitled What is Meaning(ful), next round of applications. Phillips reveals the continuing
brings our a!ention to how we can make the most out outsourcing of funding for cultural organisations to other
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

of collaborations between the cultural and academic institutions, in this case, academia. Along with a growing
sectors while also acknowledging the dangers inherent in corporatisation of the sector, the new model will generate
the demand to collaborate. Moreover, the contributions yet another pressure, thereby absorbing resources and
to this cluster consider what would happen if we were

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

staff in order to meet these new targets. Responding to
to reinvent the functions and actions of universities
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

the new Arts Council England’s demands will compromise

altogether. To start, Sian Vaughan proposes the concept

INTRODUCTION
the radical nature of some of these organisations, who will,
of “paraacademic” research in order to acknowledge the
from now on, have to comply with highly competitive and
arena of practice-based research in the visual arts and
capitalised criteria.
cultural sectors that tends to be disregarded in terms of
its process, rigour, significance, and originality. Despite
In continuing this enquiry into how artistic practices realign
recognising the potentially negative connotations of the
and potentially redefine our understanding of knowledge
prefix “para,” Vaughan’s proposition is to re-actualise its
meaning into a generative practice that reflects what is production, Anthony Downey mobilises the phrase by Harun
taking place in institutional praxis and in artistic research Farocki “operational images.” In a postrepresentational and
within the cultural sector. Acknowledging the activity post-digital age, images are neither representing subjects
happening in paraacademic research is also a way of nor objects; instead, between them, they have their own
increasing confidence in and recognition for the modes operations and grammar and generate a new visual regime
of knowledge and research that exist beside and beyond beyond human interpretation. In a very timely approach,
academia. As Vaughan goes on to assert: “This is not to these questions are considered within the framework of
position institutional praxis as oppositional to academic machine-learning, artificial intelligence (AI), surveillance
research; rather, it is to blur the boundaries and have the systems, and global warfare. To further articulate these
confidence to articulate the multiple and interrelated problematics, Downey presents the project “From ‘Apple’
contexts in which research takes place and knowledge is to ‘Anomaly,’” by Trevor Paglen, in order to demonstrate
generated in the visual arts.” how AI and its growing autonomy is making decisions

26 27
 based on, for instance, racially-biased assumptions that epistemologies. “Notes Towards Imagining a Univers(e)
have direct consequences for people’s lives.17 Paglen’s work ity Otherwise” reminds us of the student protests currently
shows how colonial regimes and racial segregation are now taking place across the globe, from Hong Kong, New Delhi,
present in one of the most advanced technologies being and Beirut, to Bogotá and Santiago, and their opposition
used in surveillance systems across the globe. Additionally, to forms of economic and political oppression. What
Downey delineates the production and circulation of digital these protests also indicate is their intrinsic and radical
images in the making of a revolution in the work of Lara interdependencies with the concept of “society otherwise.”
Baladi, “Tahrir Archives,” the prevalence of the techno- As Fred Moten and Stefano Harney have argued, universities
aesthetics of the “machine gaze” produced by uncrewed are sites of refuge—not idle sites but, rather, refuges from
aerial vehicles (UAVs), and the spectre of technology in which to disrupt the logic of universal protocols, be it
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Heba Y. Amin’s project The General’s Stork (2013–). All of regimes of knowledge production or global neoliberalism.18
these displace previously understood regimens of viewing Refuges that, according to Guha and Toto, should allow us
and conceptual understanding. By looking to Baladi’s “to work from events, situations of encounter, to produce

Carolina Rito, Bill Balaskas

“Tahir Archives,” Downey reflects upon how the political enfoldings resonating in multiple directions.” In that
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

event and its aftermath are informed and defined by the way, the authors propose turning to Zomia, a vast mass
of land in Southeast Asia that may include areas of India,

INTRODUCTION
digital production, circulation, and archiving of such data
in a way that radically differs from traditional archives or Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and
documentation of events. Vietnam. What is important here is not the exact physical
geography of Zomia but, rather, what it has to offer: the
The third cluster closes with a contribution by Pujita Guha concept of a zone of inherent “indisciplinarity.”
and Abhijan Toto for the Forest Curriculum. Instead of
focusing on the potentialities of the cultural sector and
its liminal practices, the two authors call for a radical
reimagination of the official institutions of knowledge
production, i.e., universities. However, they do not mean
the physical infrastructure that holds all the different
departments together, its bureaucracy, or the members of
staff and student bodies. Rather, the authors draw their
a!ention to the as yet not lost potential of the space of
education as a site that should be able to reinvent itself,
beyond the logics of inherited knowledges and Western

17 — See for example: “Apple Recognition Mismatch Can Ruin Your

AI Accused of Leading to Man’s Life,” The Intercept, October 13, 2016,
Wrongful Arrest,” BBC News, April https://theintercept.com/2016/10/13/ 18 — Fred Moten and Stefano Harney,
23, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/ how-a-facial-recognition-mismatch- The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning
news/technology-48022890; Ava can-ruin-your-life/. and Black Study (Wivenhoe: Minor
28 Kofman, “Losing Face: How a Facial 29 Compositions, 2013).
 BIOGRAPHIES
Mélanie Bouteloup is Co-founder and with several research projects exploring
the current Director of Bétonsalon – pedagogy, digital cultures, and human
Centre for Art and Research and Villa rights in the Middle East. Recent
Vassilieff. Over the last fifteen years, and upcoming publications include:
she has curated numerous projects in Unbearable States: Digital Media,
various forms that anchor research in Cultural Activism and Human Rights
Bill Balaskas is an artist, theorist, and ruangrupa, publishing books, managing society on process-based, collaborative, (forthcoming, 2021); Displacement
educator, whose research is located a gallery, undertaking art research, and and discursive levels, following different Activities: Contemporary Art and the
at the intersection of politics, new organising karaoke events, amongst time spans, in cooperation with various Refugee Condition (Berlin: Sternberg
media, and contemporary visual other activities. In 2014, he received local, national, and international Press, 2020); Critique in Practice: Renzo
culture. He is an Associate Professor a grant from the Japan Foundation to organisations. In 2012, Bouteloup was Martens’ Episode III (Enjoy Poverty)
and Director of Research, Business undertake an internship as an Assistant an Associate Curator, alongside (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019); Don’t
and Innovation at the School of Art Curator at the Hiroshima City Museum Artistic Director Okwui Enwezor, of Shrink Me to the Size of a Bullet: The
& Architecture, Kingston University,
La Triennale, Paris—an event organised Works of Hiwa K (London: Koenig
of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Aside
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

on the initiative of the Ministry Books, 2017); and Future Imperfect:

London. His works have been widely from his work with ruangrupa, he has
of Culture and Communication/ Contemporary Art Practices and
exhibited internationally, in galleries, also undertaken research and exhibited
Directorate-General for Artistic Cultural Institutions in the Middle East
museums, festivals, and public spaces. with different partners, such as Jakarta
Creation (DGCA), the Centre national (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2016). In 2019,
He has received awards and grants Arts Council and various NGOs, and
des arts plastiques (CNAP), and the he launched a new series of books,
from: the European Investment Bank he has taught in an art school. Since
Palais de Tokyo. In 2014, she was Research/Practice (Sternberg Press)
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

(EIB) Institute; Comité International 2019, he has been a Curator at the

conferred with the French honour, with individual volumes on the work of
d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA); Open Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media

BIOGRAPHIES
Knight of the Order of Arts and Le!ers. Michael Rakowitz, Heba Y. Amin, and
Society Foundations; European Cultural (YCAM).
Larissa Sansour.
Foundation; National Sculpture Factory
Carolina Cerón works and lives in
(Ireland); and the Association for Art Michael Birchall is Curator of Public
Bogotá, Colombia. She is currently Pujita Guha and Abhijan Toto founded
History (UK), amongst others. He is Practice at Tate Liverpool and a
an Assistant Professor in Curating at and co-direct the Forest Curriculum,
an Editor of the Leonardo Electronic Senior Lecturer in Exhibition Studies the Art Department of Universidad which is an itinerant and nomadic
Almanac (LEA), published by MIT at Liverpool John Moores University. de los Andes. She is interested in platform for “indisciplinary” research
Press. His writings have also appeared His curatorial practice and research initiatives on experimental ephemera and mutual co-learning. It proposes
in edited books and other publications concerns socially engaged art, and alternative sites for curatorial to assemble a located critique of the
such as: Journal of Visual Culture, Third performance, exhibition histories, discourse. She also performs—from Anthropocene via the “naturecultures”
Text, and Revista ARTA. Originally and notions of publicness in museums. an eminently self-reflexive position— of Zomia, the forested belt that
trained as an economist, he holds a He has previously held curatorial the task of organising, exposing, connects south and southeast Asia. The
PhD in Critical Writing in Art & Design appointments at: Walter Phillips interpreting, reading, and writing Forest Curriculum works with artists,
and an MA in Communication Art & Gallery, Banff Centre, Alberta; Western about art and the metabolisation of researchers, indigenous organisations
Design from the Royal College of Art. Front, Vancouver; and Künstlerhaus, other sorts of viscosities. She holds a and thinkers, musicians, and activists.
Stu!gart. He has lectured at Zurich BFA from the Universidad de los Andes, Abhijan Toto is an independent curator
Leonhard Bartolomeus is a curator, University of the Arts and his writing a postgraduate diploma in exhibition and researcher, who has previously
researcher, and passionate teacher. has appeared in: Frieze; ARKEN format design from the Elisava School, worked with the Dhaka Art Summit;
He graduated from the Jakarta Bulletin; On Curating; Modern Painters; Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Bellas Artes Projects, Manila; and
Institute of Arts, with a degree in C Magazine; Art & the Public Sphere; and an MA in Culture Industry from Council, Paris. He is the recipient
ceramic craft. In 2012, he joined an as well as various catalogues and Goldsmiths, University of London. of the 2019 Lorenzo Bonaldi Award
Art Critics and visual culture Writers’ monographs, such as Collective Good/ for Art, GAMeC, Bergamo. Pujita
workshop organised by ruangrupa and, Collaborative Efforts (Stavanger: Anthony Downey is Professor of Visual Guha is currently a GCLR Fellow at
later on, he became involved in many Rogaland Kunstsenter, 2017). He co- Culture in the Middle East and North the University of California, Santa
more of the collective’s programmes curated “O.K. – The Musical,” a socially- Africa, Birmingham City University. Barbara and is widely published on
and events. From 2013 to 2017, he engaged long-term work by Christopher He sits on the editorial boards of Third south and southeast Asian cultures
264 was actively working as a member of Kline at Tate Liverpool in 2017. 265 Text and Digital War, and is affiliated and “ecosophical” thought. The Forest
 Curriculum organises exhibitions, and The Routledge Companion to Venice Architecture Biennale; Nam which time she established the Tate
talks, film programmes, and other Art and Politics (London and New June Paik Art Center, Yongin; and Research Centre: Learning. In 2017,
public activities in addition to leading York: Routledge, 2015). She has the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK), she was awarded an AHRC Leadership
and conducting research groups and been appointed as an international London. From 2017 to 2018, she ran the Fellowship, which allowed her to
independent investigations. It also Advisor for the first edition of the visual arts programme of the Korea/ take a sabbatical to examine how
indulges in new forms of research in Helsinki Biennial, 2020, and Sapporo UK season, a programme of extensive collaborative, practice-led research can
addition to teaching and developing International Art Festival (SIAF), cultural activities in collaboration with be embedded within art museums. Her
programmes for academic institutions. 2020, Japan. twenty-one arts institutions in the UK, research has been brought together in
The Forest Curriculum collaborates including: “I Believe My Works Are Still the publication, Rethinking Research in
with institutions and organisations Vali Mahlouji is a curator, Advisor to Valid” by Kim Yong Ik, Spike Island, the Art Museum (London and New York:
in south and southeast Asia and the British Museum and the Bahman Bristol; “Jewyo Rhii and Jihyun Jung: Routledge, 2019). In February 2019,
beyond, including: the Arts Network Mohassess Estate, and Director of Dawn Breaks,” The Showroom, London; she was appointed Head of Research
Asia (ANA) for “The Forest As School” the Kaveh Golestan Estate. In 2010, “Rehearsals from the Korean Avant- at Tate.
Summer Academy programme; SAVVY he founded Archaeology of the Garde Performance Archive,” KCCUK,
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Contemporary, Berlin; Ghost:2561 art Final Decade (AOTFD), a nonprofit London. She is currently the Head of farid rakun was trained as an architect
series, Bangkok; SUGAR Contemporary, curatorial platform which excavates Programmes at Liverpool Biennial. (B.Arch, Universitas Indonesia;
Toronto; Hanoi DocLab; and cultural materials that have been She holds a doctorate in Curatorial/ M.Arch, Cranbrook Academy of Art),
IdeasCity, New Museum, New York. subjected to erasure, censorship, Knowledge from Goldsmiths, University and wears different hats, depending
and destruction. AOTFD has placed of London, where her doctoral on who is asking. A visiting lecturer
Joasia Krysa is a curator and scholar artworks in international collections research delved into contemporary in the Department of Architecture,
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

whose research spans contemporary including: Tate Modern, Smithsonian choreographic practice as a particular Universitas Indonesia, he is also a

BIOGRAPHIES
art, curating, and digital culture. She Institution, Musée d’Art Moderne de la strategy of performing exhibitions. member of the artists’ collective
is Professor of Exhibition Research and Ville de Paris (MAM), British Museum, ruangrupa, with whom he co-curated
Lab Leader of Exhibition Research and Los Angeles County Museum Andrea Phillips is BALTIC Professor Sonsbeek 2016’s transACTION, Arnhem,
Lab (ERL) at Liverpool John Moores of Art (LACMA). Mahlouji’s recent and Director of BxNU Research Netherlands. As an instigator, he has
University, in partnership with curatorial work includes exhibitions Institute, Northumbria University & permeated various global institutions
Liverpool Biennial. She has curated at: the Dhaka Art Summit, 2018; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary such as: Le Centre Pompidou, Paris;
exhibitions at the intersection of art Whitechapel Gallery, London; Garage Art. Andrea lectures and writes about Venice Biennale; National Museum
and technology and commissioned Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow; the economic and social construction of Modern and Contemporary Art
online projects as part of the SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin; FOAM, of public value within contemporary (MMCA), Seoul; Sharjah Biennial; São
curatorial team for documenta 13, Amsterdam; MAXXI, Rome; Bergen art, the manipulation of forms of Paulo Biennial; Harun Farocki Institut
2012; as Artistic Director of Kunsthal Assembly; Sursock Museum, Beirut. participation, and the potential of (HaFI), Dutch Art Institute (DAI);
Aarhus, Denmark, 2012–15; and as An upcoming exhibition will take forms of political, architectural, and Creative Time, New York; Haute école
Co-curator of Liverpool Biennial 2016 place at the Asia Art Centre (ACC), social reorganisation within artistic d’art et de design (HEAD), Geneva; and
and 2018, amongst others. Her first Gwangju. He has been published by and curatorial culture. BAK basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.
“software-kurator” experiment was various institutions and publishers, He has worked for Jakarta Biennale
presented at Tate Modern in 2005 and including: Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Emily Pringle’s undergraduate and in different capacities since 2013, and
published in Curating Immateriality: Guggenheim Museum, New York; Asia postgraduate training was in Fine currently serves as an Advisor.
In Search for Spaces of The Curatorial Society Museum, New York; and Yale Art. During her doctoral research at
(Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2006). University Press. His upcoming book the University of London, she focused Carolina Rito is a researcher and
Recent publications include the edited is being published by the Whitechapel on the relationship between artistic curator whose work is situated at
books Systemics (or, Exhibition as Gallery, London, in 2020. ways of knowing and teaching. She the intersection between knowledge
a Series) (Berlin: Sternberg Press, joined Tate in 2009, following ten production, the curatorial, and
2017) and Writing and Unwriting Je Yun Moon is a curator and writer years as a researcher and writer on contested historical narratives. She
Media Art History: Erkki Kurenniemi from South Korea. She has worked museum education, creative learning, is Professor of Creative Practice
in 2048 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, in the fields of art, architecture, and and socially-engaged art practice. Research, Research Centre for Arts,
2015) as well as chapters in Networks performance at: the Sonje Art Center, From 2010 to 2019 she was Head of Memory, and Communities, Coventry
266 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014) Seoul; Anyang Public Art Project; 267 Learning Practice and Research during University; an Executive Board Member
 of the Midlands Higher Education & Nora Sternfeld is an educator and
Culture Forum; and a Research Fellow curator. She is currently documenta
at the Institute of Contemporary Professor at the Kunsthochschule,
History (IHC), Universidade Nova de Kassel. From 2012 to 2018 she was
Lisboa. Rito is the Executive Editor Professor in Curating and Mediating
of The Contemporary Journal and has Art at Aalto University, Helsinki. She
published in international journals such is Co-director of the ECM (educating/
as King’s Review, Mousse Magazine, curating/managing) MA programme
and Wrong Wrong. From 2017 to 2019, at the University of Applied Arts,
she was Head of Public Programmes Vienna. With Renate Höllwart and
and Research at No!ingham Elke Smodics, she is part of trafo.K:
Contemporary. She holds a PhD in Office for Art, Education, and Critical
Curatorial/Knowledge from Goldsmiths, Knowledge Production, Vienna. With
University of London, where she also Irit Rogoff, Stefano Harney, Adrian
taught from 2014 to 2016. She lectures Heathfield, Massimiliano Mollona,
internationally—in Europe, South and Louis Moreno, she is part of
America, and the Middle East—on her freethought, a platform for research,
research and curatorial practice. education, and production in London.
She publishes on contemporary art,
ruangrupa is a Jakarta-based artists’
exhibition theory, education, the
collective established in 2000. It is a
politics of history, and anti-racism.
nonprofit organisation that strives to
support art within urban and cultural
Sian Vaughan is a Reader in Research
contexts by encouraging artists and
Practice at Birmingham School of Art,
individuals from other disciplines—such
Birmingham City University. Broadly,
as social sciences, politics, technology,
her research interests concern the
and media, amongst others—to
pedagogies that underpin research in
foster critical views in relation to
art and design and the mediation of
Indonesian urban contemporary
issues. ruangrupa also produces public engagement with contemporary
collaborative works in the form of art as well as its interpretation. Her
art projects, such as exhibitions, research focuses on artistic practices
festivals, art labs, workshops, and that involve archives, history, and
research, as well as books, magazines, institutions, with a particular focus
and online journal publications. on creative research methods as
ruangrupa has been involved in many knowledge generation. Her educational
collaborative and exchange projects, research is focused on the practices
including participating in: Gwangju and pedagogies of doctoral education
Biennale, 2002 & 2018; Istanbul and, in particular, how these respond
Biennial, 2005; Asia Pacific Triennial to creative practice in research. She
of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, enjoys working collaboratively and
2012; Singapore Biennale, 2011; São across disciplines and has disseminated
Paulo Biennial, 2014; Aichi Triennale, her work widely through peer-
Nagoya, 2016; and Cosmopolis #1 Le reviewed chapters, journal articles, and
Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2017. In 2016, conference papers on the subject of
ruangrupa curated Sonsbeek 2016’s public art, museum studies, archives,
transACTION, Arnhem, Netherlands. and education.
ruangrupa is the curator of documenta
268 15, 2022.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project would not have been possible without the

generous critical advice, institutional support, and
practical help of numerous colleagues and friends.
We would, first of all, like to thank all the authors
for their participation in this publication, for the
time taken to respond to our invitation, for their
considered contributions, and, finally, for their patience
throughout the editorial process. This publication
was made possible thanks to the generous support of
No!ingham Contemporary, Midlands Higher Education
Culture Forum (Collaborative Research Working
Group), Arts Council England, and Sternberg Press. We
would especially like to acknowledge the support and
enthusiasm throughout of: Sam Thorne, Jennie Syson,
Rebecca Blackman, and Caroline Schneider.

The ideas that form the core of this publication were

first tested in public events, closed-door seminars,
and working group meetings that we co-convened in
No!ingham and Coventry between 2018 and 2019. We
are grateful to our colleagues who participated in these
debates and for the thought-provoking conversations
that started shaping this publication. We would like
to acknowledge especially: Manuel Ángel Macia, Sally
Bowden, Ma!hew Chesney, Heather Connelly, Tom
Fisher, Tom Godfrey, Suzanne Golden, Paul Grainge,
Duncan Higgins, Maria Hlavajova, Susanna Ison, Jill
Journeaux, Barbara Ma!hews, Andrew Mowlah, Lucy
Phillips, Irit Rogoff, Karen Salt, Joe Shaw, Nick Slater,
Pat Thomson, Gavin Wadde, and Isobel Whitelegg.

At No!ingham Contemporary, we would like to thank

all the colleagues who supported and were an integral
part of the “Institution as Praxis” research strand,
including the Public Programmes and Research team.

We also wish to thank Anna Canby Monk for her

meticulous and rigorous copy-editing, which was
essential to bring cohesion to a publication featuring
diverse contributions.

271
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS

NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS

FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Published by Sternberg Press

Editors
Carolina Rito
Bill Balaskas

Contributors Ÿ 2020 Sternberg Press

Bill Balaskas Ÿ 2020 the editors, the authors
Michael Birchall ISBN 978-3-95679-506-0
Mélanie Bouteloup
Carolina Cerón Publisher
Anthony Downey Sternberg Press
Pujita Guha and Abhijan Toto Caroline Schneider
for the Forest Curriculum Karl-Marx-Allee 78
Joasia Krysa D-10243 Berlin
Vali Mahlouji www.sternberg-press.com
Je Yun Moon
Andrea Phillips Distributed by The MIT Press,
Emily Pringle Art Data, and Les presses
Carolina Rito du réel
ruangrupa (farid rakun and
Leonhard Bartolomeus) This book was made possible
Nora Sternfeld thanks to the generous support
Sian Vaughan of the following partners:

Copy-editor Midlands Higher Education &

Anna Canby Monk Culture Forum
www.midlandshecf.org
Design
Rafaela DražiÊ Nottingham Contemporary
Weekday Cross
Nottingham
NG1 2GB
www.nottinghamcontemporary.org
4
INSTITUTION AS PRAXIS
NEW CURATORIAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH