The Exhibitions as Situation and the Curatorial Act

While history of art historical produces research on artworks and artistic oeuvre, and museology on the institutions, their techniques and purpose, we still need to great extent to explore the art exhibition. The thesis ‘The Exhibition as Situation and the Curatorial Act” explores the art exhibition by drawing on a performance theoretical framework, which can contribute to an understanding of the exhibition's specificity and its inseparability from the audience. While the works are traveling through centuries, the exhibition is always here and now, situated in time and place. The way in which the exhibition is compiled, staged and 'orchestrated' has an impact on how the audience will meet and engage in the art, on the narrative created, and - in the big picture - the relation to its current culture and social context. Based on this view of the exhibition, the thesis examines the curatorial act with departure in new research on curating and reflexivity in the work with contemporary art. In addition, the performativity of exhibition and curatorial constellation is being examined in three case-studies: Utopia Station (Munich 2003), Abstract Possible (Stockholm 2011) and ACTS (Roskilde 2014)