What constitutes curating in the context of the global art fair?

Susan Gladwin

Over recent years we can observe a proliferation of global art fairs that have come to be recognised as annual events. Bringing together a fastidious selection of international galleries, each fair acts a showcase for the latest tendencies in contemporary art. This mode of exhibition can be traced across many leading cities in the art world including London, Paris and Dubai, where each display is developed with an aesthetic sensibility that responds to the cultural context of the site. The realisation of such an event is a complex operation, one that raises vital questions about the visibility of artworks and the production of critical discourse within an environment that is fundamentally market driven.

Enter the curator, the practitioner who is appointed to facilitate a discursive space where we can critically engage with artistic practice, despite the visual saturation that often comes as part of the art fair experience. It is now customary for every fair to incorporate a curated programme of lectures, artist projects and symposia as a means to validate the commercial event as a credible platform for intellectual debate. In certain cases this can be extremely successful, for example Mike Nelson’s Mirror Infill at Frieze Art Fair 2006.

This extraordinary installation was commissioned as part of Frieze Projects and was realised within an inconspicuous location between the stalls. Positioned at the core of the main tent, the installation could only be entered through a fire exit door that slipped by unnoticed to many visitors, especially those whose attention was focussed on the search for the next big investment. Away from the commotion of the crowded fair, Nelson constructed a labyrinth of dark corridors. The experience was disorienting, as though taking a wrong turn that results in sudden isolation. The corridors lead to a functioning darkroom with partially developed photographs covering the ceiling and walls. On closer inspection it became clear that the series of photographs documented the construction of the fair and incoming visitors in obsessive detail, producing an unsettling awareness of clandestine surveillance by an anonymous observer.

The success of Nelson’s installation is the self-reflexive awareness of the problematic relationship between artistic practice and the market. Mirror Infill affirms that there is no means of escape from the capitalist world in which we operate. The work is caught in a loop; it is produced both of and about the art market. Nelson comments on the structures that provide artists with visibility and simultaneously conveys his awareness of the commercial value of critically engaged work. The installation functions as an intelligent methodology for any curator looking to produce a discursive space within the context of an art fair. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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