ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the efforts to activate exhibition visitors have been compromised by the increasing tendency of curators to employ anti-authorial strategies that do not shake the ‘myth of museum neutrality’. It describes the manifold strategies that curators have employed to negate, deconstruct or delegate their own authorial control over the exhibition in the name of viewer empowerment. The chapter reviews the growing body of literature relating to contemporary curatorial practice in art museums, galleries and biennials for examples of effective activist approaches. It seeks to demonstrate that anti-authorialism is a misdirected and often counter-productive route to boosting the political agency of the visitor. The chapter also argues that curators might better mobilise and activate audiences by instead harnessing the most unique, engaging and affecting attributes of the exhibition medium to articulate a political position. It draws on experience at Tate Liverpool, to highlight what institutional beliefs and practices might inhibit curators using the approach in museums.
