2020

Date: January 31 – February 2

Organization: Johannes Ismaiel-Wendt and Fiona McGovern
in collaboration with Nora Brünger, Nadiah Riebensahm and students of the seminar „Ethics of Curating“ at the University of Hildesheim

In the current discussions about curating, the ethical aspects are pervasive. They play a central role in the redefinition of the museum, proposed by the International Council of Museums, as well as in the curating of major exhibitions by non-Western collectives, and in the 2018 restitution report commissioned by the French State, written by Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Saar. What would be an appropriate response to the increasingly louder demands on Germany to return unlawfully acquired museum pieces to their countries or cultures of origin? Where are the ethical boundaries of what can be shown by whom in exhibitions or made accessible in digital form to everyone? What is the relationship today between curatorial activism and curating in an „off space“ or in established, publicly funded cultural institutions? What role do aspects of concern and sustainability play in current curatorial approaches? And who bears responsibility?

This symposium wishes to address these questions under the heading „Ethics of Curating“ by bringing together critical positions from different perspectives, while looking for possible answers.

International guests and protagonists from fields in the Sciences, Fine Arts, Music, Museum Technology as well as from political-social movements will debate and discuss critical questions in relation to curatorial decision-making processes and exhibition practices from interdisciplinary, theoretical, practical as well as artistic perspectives – partly through direct application. In lectures, panels, film screenings, and workshops, the following topics will be reviewed: „Codes of Ethics and Structural Exclusions“, „To Restitute, to Decolonize, to Mediate“, „Curating Sound“, „Ethics of The Visible and Displayable“ and „Caring, Curating and Sustainability“.

Participants: Golschan Ahmad Haschemi, Ulrike Bergermann, Eva Birkenstock, Dagmar Brunow, Thomas Burkhalter, Diversity Arts Culture Berlin, Michael Fuhr and Matthias Lewy, Ayse Güleç, Agnieszka Habraschka, Fatima Hellberg, Claudia Höhl, Banafshe Hourmazdi, Vika Kirchenbauer, Elke Krasny, Kanzlei Laaser, Nora Landkammer, Elisa Liepsch and Julian Warner, Michael Loebenstein, Olle Lundin, Carla J. Maier, Carmen Mörsch, Pedro Oliveira, Sophia Prinz, ruangrupa, Aurora Rodonò und Nanette Snoep, Mona Schieren, Andi Schoon, Nora Sternfeld, The Canine Condition, Workshop Team Ipek Burçak, Isabel Paehr, Johanna Schaffer, nicole voec and Cilian Woywod and many more.

Program