Call for Papers: "Curatorial Challenges" | Denmark

The International Conference "Curatorial Challenges", organised by the Research Network for Studies in the Curatorial, will be held at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, on 26 and 27 May 2016. The conference is based on the understanding of the exhibition as a primary site of cultural exchange; part spectacle, part socio-historical event, and part structuring device, exhibitions establish and administer meanings of art and cultural heritage. Temporary exhibitions increase in cultural importance, while the traditional role of museums as institutions of Bildung transforms—even museums with well-known and established collections follow the call for ever-changing exhibitions. In this context, understanding the changing role of curating in this process calls for new research. As exhibitions gain in importance, so do curatorial strategies and thus new research and definitions are called for: What constitutes the curatorial? What sort of knowledge is produced in and through curatorial strategies? How do curatorial strategies inform museums in contemporary society and what sort of conservative, or perhaps critical and transformative potentials can be traced in exhibition cultures? The conference invites curators and academics from the interdisciplinary fields of art, cultural history, and museum studies in order to discuss the challenges of curating in contemporary society. Organisers are inviting interested professionals to send papers for 20-minute presentations on topics including:

• exhibitions as a form of research;
• interventions: contemporary artists working with or within museums;
• participatory practices and strategies;
• curating within the changing roles of museums as Bildung institutions.

Abstracts of 300 words should be sent by 5 February. For further information, please visit http://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/conferencecuratorial/call-for-papers/