We seem to live in a time when ideas of authorship cause a great deal of confusion. In the world of architecture the grand design houses of Rogers and Foster appear to be responsible for every major building project, but it is doubtful that the doyen of either company sits down in front of their iMac of a day to actually design or even co-ordinate the design of many buildings. The logistics of global corporatism would suggest otherwise. There has been a tendency in recent years, with the bieniallisation of the art world, for curators to take on the mantle of the auteur, to become the guiding genius providing meaning for the benighted audience, artist and market alike. Your biennale lacks balls? Send for Obrist. Need to sex up your city’s cultural calendar? Where is Catelan?
In this morass Edinburgh College of Art’s MSc in Contemporary Art and Art Theory provides both challenge and opportunity. In a course designed to engage with debates across the visual and cultural field, the chance to curate an exhibition at The Embassy gives us a valued opportunity to put theory into practice. The challenge comes with the need to do this as a group. Yet the problems of realising an exhibition of a professional standard with as diverse a band of collaborators as we have, has led to its own resolution. In challenging notions of authority which now seem outmoded as a theoretical model, the task of collaboration opens new perspectives. An international group working with galleries in different cities, collaborating with artists whose work examines the notions of space, location and interaction offers a model of working practice in diametric opposition to the exclusivity of the auteur theory. Theory, practice and practicality have come together optimally. Metteurs over mise any day.
Paul Steer – Joppa-sur-Mer Rapporteur
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