Curators can respond more immediately to current events through smaller shows or by creating content that shows how art and life intersect, but there’s a fine line where Tandazani says they must do this “without becoming a newsroom.”Īs the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is, both, an art and history museum, Kim Sajet says the institution is well placed to examine anthropological subjects through images. Most major exhibitions require years of planning, and curators, therefore, need to think critically about what stories need to be told far in advance of when shows actually take place. It’s important to clarify that urgency shouldn’t be confused with reactivity.
I feel like their work hasn’t yet gotten the attention it deserves and I would love to collaborate with them. There are quite a few women artists from the African continent who are doing incredible video and performance-based works that I am really keen to work with in the near future. It is difficult to mention just one artist my list is too long. If you could curate a show for any artist, living or dead, who would it be? Apart from being an amazing curator who is able to present ideas in sensitive and thought-provoking ways, she is also a very generous human being. Who is another curator you really admire? Many of us saw elements of our own underrepresented narratives articulated visually and sonically through this exhibition.
The show was curated by Candice Allison and was Chiurai’s first solo exhibition in his home country. There are quite a few but if I had to choose just one that had an impact I would choose Kudzanai Chiurai’s exhibition We Need New Names, held at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in November 2017 in Harare. What is one exhibition you have been to that really blew you away? Prior to that, as a student, I had brought together different types of artists, poets and organisations for various causes, but at the time, the term “curating” wasn’t yet part of how I articulated the work I did.
The first professional exhibition that I curated in an art institution was a group show titled Engaging with ‘the Other’ at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. What was the first exhibition you put on? “I'm less guided by the specific medium or style and more guided by the story – more guided by the narrative.” Sometimes that requires looking back at history or reflecting on the past,” says Tandazani. “What guides me is an artist or a moment or a medium that can be used to articulate something that I think is critical and urgent and relevant for today. Ideally, shows should connect to the concerns and interests of the communities in which they take place. This might include metaphorical conversations, such as visual dialogue between artworks in a show or between the themes of an exhibition and current events, or it can refer to the literal discourse among critics and attendees. A key role of the curator is to ideate and facilitate exhibitions that encourage dialogue. It’s a helpful analogy to understand the ways in which curators mix, organize, and present artworks to create new experiences and reflect fresh points-of-view. Tandazani Dhlakama, an Assistant Curator at Zeitz MOCAA, recalls that her former colleague, Rafael Chikukwa, often said a curator is like a visual DJ. “I think in the past it really was this idea of a keeper, I think now it's more of someone who's a thought leader or coming up with new knowledge.” “To me, I'm less interested in somebody who's bringing the objects, and more interested in the person who is bringing original ideas to the table,” says Kim. When looking for curators to bring on board at the Smithsonian National Gallery, director Kim Sajet says her criteria has changed from what was expected in the past. Over the course of the 20th century, their purview has expanded to incorporate elements of a critic, tastemaker, and, at times, a position almost akin to an artist. But what is the role of a curator in an art context? The origin of the word comes from the Latin “curare,” which means “caretaker.” For a long time, curators largely worked for museums or collections as the keepers of artworks and objects. We curate our Instagram feeds, a local barista might curate a selection of roasts, and there was even a genuine article about whether “Curator boyfriends” were a summer trend a couple of years ago.
The idea of “curation” has increasingly infiltrated our daily lives in recent years.