The entire process of curating or presenting work involves defining work in some way. You always have a range of choices of how to define work, whether to keep existent definitions, find new ones or create a dialogue between definitions. This page looks at the influence of these definitions and how to question and reflect upon the role they play.

Adding value

The various debates surrounding how we define art revolve around the context. Art is that which is made by artists, but more relevantly to this project, art is that which is shown as art.

Curators are directly involved in the classification and definition of work as art. This role of allocating value extends outside of the gallery to other spaces that curators or artists define as art spaces. Part of the role of curators when showing artists' work in cinemas, for instance, is to change the meaning of the space through creating a context for the presentation of work – redefining the space and mode of engagement relevant to the work being shown. As Mark Prince states:

“At best contemporary art galleries are more than the sum of their parts; they provide coherent cultures which strengthen the position of each artist. […] Above all the function of the gallery as a controlled environment in which to breed credibility, and consequently market value, depends on the skilful promotion of context.” (1)

Value is allotted to work based on the context within which it is seen. Value is defined in many ways and something seen as valuable by one group may not be by another. For instance showing work in a respected commercial gallery in London will add value to your work in the commercial art world but this could easily devalue your work and its integrity in alternative art circles.

Defining work without restricting work

When seeking to describe the work you will show, be aware of how your definitions will influence readings of the work. Be careful not to restrict works ramifications, rather seek to expose the work's many facets. Have confidence in the work you are showing. Without your confidence you can’t expect audiences to take an interest in the work.

If possible consult with artists about your intention and how you plan to show their work. Be careful with labelling or placing work in a certain context. For instance, labelling a film programmes such as 'woman filmmakers' or 'black artists films' is to define the work based on the artist, which is not necessarily what is interesting about the work. To be grouped solely with other artists based on your race, sex, age or nationality, especially if you are in a minority group, is not welcomed by all artists. It is not common to have a film programmes labeled 'white male filmmakers' so why should there be programmes labeled 'women artists'?

Art and cinema are dominated by a history of labels and especially in the art world a wide range of 'isms' (Minimalism, Conceptualism, etc.). Cultural is also widely defined on national lines with artists' often tied to their nationality. These definitions can be immensely helpful to access work and explore many areas but for these terms to really activate work they need to be challenged and tested. These boundaries can help energise and project and provide something to react against.

Previous exhibitions and writing about art can provide something to explore or respond to. Most distributors have a range of catalogues and even specific guides to an area of their collections. Most will link work under artists but others have historical, national and even stylistic definitions. The BFI have a range of catalogues for specific facets of its collections (animation, gay and lesbian film, documentary, art and design). LUX also have an online thematic guide to their work on their site allowing you to search work under different categories (from landscape to video art).

Avoid becoming illustrative

Although it is important to find ways for your project to fit into the contemporary cultural/political/social landscape, also be aware that the work does not become subservient to a thesis or theory. There is a tendency to host contextual film programmes without regard to the work and artists. Be wary of making the project derivative as this will devalue the work and the audience's experience. It's important to think about screenings / exhibitions as events in their own right. Positioning them in a context should enhance the work and your argument for its contemporary relevance not to dominate and suffocate the work's own rhythms, textures and meanings.

Shifting context of work – responsibility to artist & their work

Curating is essentially a speculative practice and is importantly not definitive. Every exhibition is a proposal, a claim on the value or meaning of a specific collection of work in a specific context. As such each exhibition will shift or propose a new context for work and new meanings.

When preparing for an exhibition or screening, be aware of what responsibility you have to the artists and work. You are quite literally re-presenting them. Be aware of the context within which you are showing work and reflect on what it will do for the work and artists. In what way will the context affect the work and reconfigure it?

When curating historical work its important to re-evaluate what has gone before. This might not always work out positively. Part of the interest of art history is how work#s meaning shifts, how its relevance changes or is reconfigured in a new context. Don’t be too trusting of what precedes your project and what other past curators or writers proposed for people's consideration.

Curating 'non-art'

Finally the other side to curators adding value and defining art is when curators present 'non-art' within an art context. This process, for instance, presenting commercial cartoons alongside artists' film and video, works in a different way as generally it's not claiming art status for the work but instead challenging received notions about work and attempting to shift its meaning though shifting its context. When curators present work from outside artistic practice this can make explicit the curators role as not only presenting art but contextualising works from different arenas' within an art context.

The presentation of work from outside the art context is increasingly common (artists from Marcel Duchamp to Douglas Gordon have made a career out of recontextualisation) and presents various problems. Firstly there is a difference between showing work within a programme in an artistic context and artistic work that re-appropriates material. Work that re-appropriates material can bring up potential legal issues to do with rights to the original work. Rights clearance is required for showing any work as part of a public event no matter what it is. Films commercially available on DVD for instance will need to be cleared for public exhibition.