Curating Means Learning to Sail

Quotation
by Thea Reifler,
Phila Bergmann

What is most important to you when curating?

To create spaces and situations in which people want to spend time – intrigued, comfy, curious, spaced out.

 

What are the biggest conflicts / pleasures you encounter when curating?

Making working conditions as good as possible while navigating all that is unknown, insecure, and precarious. Learning to sail in a boat that is still in the process of being built. 

 

What does curating mean to you?

It’s a practice, something to do rather than to be. A practice of weaving threads together to create a shared space. And of gathering a crew to embark on a journey of trust.

These quotations have been published in the Norient book Politics of Curatorship: Collective and Affective Interventions, edited by Philipp Rhensius and Monia Acciari (Norient Books 2023).

Biography

Thea Reifler works between Zurich and Berlin in the fields of music theater, opera, performance, installation and curation. Always in collaboration with other artists, she develops process-based interdisciplinary projects with a queer–feminist focus.

Biography

Phila Bergmann (no pronoun/they/them) works as a curator, artist, social justice trainer, teacher and researcher in the field of visual art and performance. Since 2020, Phila has been co-director and curator of the Shedhalle Zurich. Phila is also co-director of the Bone Performance Festival in Bern for 2021 and 2022. The focus of Phila's work is on the interface of discourses around intersectional queer and ecofeminism, science fiction and social justice. Follow them on Instagram.

Shop

Published on January 17, 2022

Last updated on May 28, 2024

Topic

Curation
All Topics

Special

Politics of Curatorship
print as pdf