The Curator’s Power

The presence of a curator at the origin of an exhibition is now accepted in the art world. Nonetheless, a flurry of discussions, symposia and debates regarding the discipline shows obvious commotion around issues of curatorial practice.1 1  - For instance, one thinks of two recent symposia in Canada: Manufacturing Exhibitions, at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in March 2011, and Are Curators Unprofessional?, at the Banff International Curatorial Institute (BICI) in November 2010. Sometimes mercilessly criticized, other times played up to a fault, the curator endures in various forms: from professional curator to cultural practitioner occasionally taking on the role, independent curator to institutional curator, curator-author to artist-curator — the role seems to adapt to every kind of exhibition and artistic event, and of course, to various institutional settings. After forty-odd years punctuated by the arrival of several star curators, what has become of curatorial practice? We thought it appropriate to take a closer look at some of these recent happenings, whether from a historical perspective or in view of current artistic preoccupations.

We need to clarify some terminology before engaging with the texts in this issue. While the English term “curator” (from the Latin curare: to take care of) denotes both the curators of museums and collections and the creators of exhibitions, in French, different terms are used. In France, influenced by the English, the terms curateur and curatrice (and sometimes even curator) are employed to denote the creators of exhibitions, while in Quebec, we use commissaire. Elsewhere, preferring to avoid anglicisms, esse has favoured the latter in all texts published in French. In this particular issue, however, we’ve chosen to respect the diction of each of the authors, who’ve opted for one or the other term according to context.