ABSTRACT

Beatrice von Bismarck’s contribution traces the implications of the spatial and temporal traverses that exhibitions perform in the process of their continued existence. Attention will be primarily directed towards a conception of the curatorial as an act of translation that clearly emphasizes the performative character of exhibitions and their transitions over time (and spaces) by which they participate in meaning production. Since exhibitions are, as a context, more than just the sum of the presented works – their constitutive relations are, after all, up for debate – a focus is secondly directed on the meta-level of exhibitions. Von Bismarck investigates recent examples of presentations by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Sarah Pierce, both referencing bygone exhibitions and insisting on the redefining effects of this process for the character, meaning, and effects of the relations which originally constituted these shows. The changes inherent in these artistic meta-conceptions reveal the politically relevant potentiality of the relations among all participants of the curatorial constellation.