Harald Szeemann


Simona Vendrame: The opening of ever larger and more expensive private spaces is forcing gallery directors to organize enormous exhibitions, which means that artists must turn out a greater number of works, often in a short time, aimed at grabbing the public’s attention. Even museum shows tend to follow a similar logic; to a certain extent they are driven by the kind of media coverage that values a show in proportion to the number of visitors it attracts. As a result, the pressure to win wide approval casts its shadow over the validity of critical choices. Do you believe that the role of the curator today—in light of the ever more dominant art market and the increasing interference of economic considerations—has been weakened by the dictates of influential galleries and the interests of the “powerful”? Or do you think that curators still have enough independence and authority to be able to make critical choices based solely on their own theoretical and aesthetic positions?

Harald Szeemann: An exhibition that is open to experimentation without catering mindlessly to passing trends can only come together if it is grounded in philological precision and a coherent theoretical context...


The full text is published in "tema celeste" No. 84, March-April 2001.




Simona Vendrame