ABSTRACT
Reiner Ruthenbeck’s slides, and Joseph Beuys’s missing felts in Venice show tendencies against institutional neutralization by including subjective knowledge that is based on curatorial production processes. This chapter seeks to address several key issues around a complex dilemma that emerges when it comes to exhibiting documentary material within a spatial situation that follows subjectivized curatorial decisions. It aims to contextualize the discourse on remaking and restaging art with documentary material. The chapter highlights the conceptually contradictive nature of curatorial subjectivity and its interplay with knowledge production often linked with the use of objectified media. It discusses an exhibition that raises a number of challenging questions about how curatorial models are exploring the limits of “traditional” exhibition making. The chapter focuses on curatorial and institution-critical questions that arise when it comes to the presentation of documentary photography. It provides attention once more to the multifocal dimension of art works on display.
