Thinking globally

Seminar #2. (Studio 2. Curating in Intercultural Perspectives)

Magazzino 6, aule M61.1 e M61.3

Giulia Paoletti and Leon Wainwright
in dialogue with Clarissa Ricci

How do we understand and exhibit art across differences of place, language and historical experience? This seminar considers how the movement of artworks and images brings different ways of seeing and interpreting into contact. It asks how the categories employed in exhibitions and histories of art shape those encounters. Terms such as ‘modern’, ‘contemporary’ and ‘universal’ carry assumptions about where artistic innovation happens, how different societies inhabit the present and what an artwork can communicate to its viewers. Thinking globally involves examining these assumptions and asking how they change when approached from different locations and experiences.

Bringing histories of photography in Africa into dialogue with Caribbean and Black British art, Giulia Paoletti and Leon Wainwright explore the consequences for historical understanding and curatorial practice. Artists working between the Caribbean and Britain have often been described as following developments initiated elsewhere, obscuring their participation in the making of modern art. The circulation of photographs between different languages and audiences raises further questions about how meaning is produced and shared. What appears immediately intelligible can depend on unfamiliar histories. These examples invite discussion of how research and collaboration inform the selection and interpretation of artworks, while close attention to their material and perceptual qualities can complicate their treatment. Through dialogue with Clarissa Ricci and questions from students, the seminar considers how a global understanding of art develops through sustained engagement with particular works, their histories and the people involved in making and interpreting them.