“微征集”延伸项目－新锐策展人工作坊圆满落幕
“Micro-Curatorial Project” – extended program – Emerging curators workshop completed successfully
文｜龙云
杨锋艺术与教育基金会在昨日结束了两天的新锐策展人工作坊。此次活动特邀策展人刘秀仪和鲍栋作为主讲以及评议嘉宾，参加的策展人包括卞卡、陈子徴、富源、王麟、王子云、吴天明、杨西、易鸿（以姓氏拼音顺序）。
活动从“策展人的工作是什么”、“一个展览形成的过程是什么”这两个问题拉开了讨论的序幕。刘秀仪以Jens Hoffman “Show Time”为起点，从“策展没有定律，每一个展览都是反思策展和图像历史的机会”的理论性思维展开，综合讨论了理论结构、空间把控、作品选择等几个基本策展元素，结合经典展览和时下国内外策展案例给大家做了深入分析。 鲍栋“展览的上下文”则是更加侧重实际经验，选取其不同时期的策展方案为切入点，和参加者们分享与剖析展览概念与形成的一系列实操性转换问题。
在第二天的策展人评议讨论环节中，大家更是从不同角度出发，各抒己见，热烈地讨论并延伸出众多现实中与策展息息相关的问题，如展览中财力物力与人力的分配、空间的特殊性，艺术家、策展人与观众三者的关系，个人性与社会性，艺术家的选择，策展方式的形成等，其中也不乏直击不足的尖锐问题和讨论。
“参加者是有策展性的策展人，已经有比较多的经验。这已是从一个学习班变成一个研讨班。”鲍栋在工作坊总结里谈到，“经过大家的陈述和评议，我们探讨了关于策展的空间、机构、人力物力等等问题，这些都很有趣，让我对年轻策展人一代有所期待。”刘秀仪表示这两天也是有惊喜的。起初从上交的只是策展陈述的方案，后来现场展示之后就显得更加详细。大家可以坦诚地交流和了解。每个人都有不同的策展方式，并不是只有某一个人的方式才是对的。同时她也提出了对策展人的建议与期待：“年轻，所以不要害怕犯错。这个想法不成熟，就不要着急呈现。目前不重要，要把自己做的空间推开。我们需要更多的想法。”
来自重庆的策展人王子云反馈，“讲师分别就各自的策展实践进行分析和讲述，收获颇多。大家都在具有话题性和针对性的讨论，对以后的策展工作很有启发。”
杨锋艺术与教育基金会创始人杨锋表示，举办工作坊的初衷是希望透过这样的活动来让更多的新锐的策展人参与、反思和讨论和受益其中，有针对性地能够给予他们一定的帮助和支持。希望看到更多的、成长更快的策展新兴力量。
随着工作坊的圆满落幕，“微征集”项目也逐渐接近尾声。首届“微征集”展览将于本周六结束，欢迎大家前来观展。
Text | Arie Long Translation | Fiona He
Frank F. Yang Art and Education Foundation successfully rounded off the two-day emerging curators workshop. For this workshop, we invited curators Venus Lau and Bao Dong to be the key speakers and guest commentators for the participating curators including, Bian Ka, Andre Chan, Fu Yuan, Wang Lin, Wang Ziyun, Wu Tianming, Yang Xi and Yi Hong (listed in alphabetical order).
The event opened with two questions for discussion, “What is the job of a curator?” and “How does an exhibition come together?” Venus Lau began with Jens Hoffman’s “Show Time”, and the theoretical postulation of “Curatorial practice has no rules, where every exhibition is an opportunity to rethink curating and image history, integrating basic curatorial components of theoretical structure, space management, artworks selection and etc., with examples of classic exhibitions and current exhibitions in China and overseas in her analysis. Bao Dong’s talk on the “context of the exhibition” emphasized on the practical experiences of putting an exhibition together. He selected a number of cases among past exhibitions he has curated in various periods, sharing and deconstructing their concepts and a series of practical issues concerning translating concepts into final presentations.
On the second day of the workshop, discussions evolved around various perspectives, opinions presented by the curators. Their heated discussions brought out a number of issues related to curating and practical problems they have encountered, for example, the distribution of funding, materials and staff, the uniqueness of the exhibition, the relationship between artists, curator and the audience, the individual versus social impact, the choice of the artist, and the formation of exhibition approach and etc., in which, poignant and controversial issues were also among the subjects of discussion.
“The participating curators have reflected deeply about their practice, most of whom have had many experiences in the field. This study group essentially turned into a discussion group.” Bao Dong concluded at the end of the workshop, “With everyone’s presentation and comments, we have discussed on issues such as the space of the exhibition, institutions, staff and funding, all of which were very interesting. I am looking forward to the works of these young generation of curators.” Venus Lau also felt impressed from the two-day workshop. From the initial exhibition statements and proposals received, to the presentation of exhibition projects in detail, everyone spoke and learned from each other earnestly. Everyone has his/her own approach to an exhibition, and there isn’t only one way being the right way. At the same time, she also advised and encouraged the curators, “Being young, one should not be afraid of making mistakes. If an idea is immature, there is no rush to realize it. The immediate present is not important, one should expand the framework of one’s work. We need more new ideas.”
Curator Wang Ziyun, a native of Chongqing, said, “I have learned a lot from the lecturers presentations and analysis of their own curatorial practices. Our discussions centered on problematic and focused topics, which gave me a lot of inspiration for future exhibitions.”
The founder of the Frank F. Yang Art and Education Foundation, Frank Yang expressed his intension of hosting this workshop is to allow more emerging curators to participate, reflect and benefit from an event like this, and offer them specific support in their practices. He hopes to see the more and more rapidly growing force in the field of curatorial practice.