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Shadow Curator

During March 2009, Nuno Sacramento was at The Blue House doing a short residency as Shadow Curator. The objective of this residency was to look at the programme of The Blue House over the past few years, as well as at its initial plans, and to try to gauge the relationship it has developed with the context.


We are particularly interested in the roles of small artistic institutions as agents in the shaping of the public realm. Most of the questions that have been developed ahead of the residency relate to practical issues, to issues of methodology, rather than strict theory. A dialogue between the Blue House and the Shadow Curator has started with a number of topics being discussed; there is no doubt The Blue House has proposed a very interesting approach to the question of how does an institution relate to its context. In a unique way it has proposed the institution as a blue screen onto which the desires and expectations of a community are projected.

The research period
Many issues will emerge as the result of the residency and we will maintain both a critical eye and a positive outlook, taking the opportunity to investigate a live project rather than speculating upon a distant reality. During the residency we will be gathering information, talking to people, and articulating questions into a concise report that will feed back into The Blue House. At the end a workshop will take place at The Blue Hose with several people directly involved in the project, as well as artists, scholars, architects, inhabitants and others whose work looks into these issues.

The workshop will take place on the 28th and 29th of March, between 11 and 5pm.

Some of the topics are:
1) How does The Blue House relate to the context, both physical and social? How does it relate to the people?
2) What happens in /through the institution? What are its tools of engagement? What is the degree of complicity it has with the social context?
3) What do we expect will happen as a result of The Blue House project?
4) The Blue House as been referred to as an empty vessel. By whom and how has it been filled?
5) Could this project be organized elsewhere? Could it be transferred to another location?
6) What is the role of such institutions in the shaping of public space?

Nuno Sacramento www.shadowcurator.com (under construction)



[1] Shadow Curator
The concept and the methodology

Shadow Curator is a dialogical art/curatorial project. The term is appropriated from the realm of British politics; the Shadow Curator is to the Curator what the Shadow Minister is to the Minister of the elected Cabinet1.

The positioning of the Shadow Curator in relation to the Curator is one of peaceful antagonism, also described in the words of Chantall Mouffe as ‘Agonism’. Shadow Curator emerged from the desire to understand the quintessential processes by which curators decide about which topics and issues to address, what artists or artworks to select, and about what formats and what contexts in which to present projects amongst other things. Shadow Curator aims to, first of all, critically record idiosyncratic curatorial methodologies and then, to publish them for later discussion.

The Shadow Curator methodology itself is conversational. It establishes two positions in constant critical interaction. It tries to understand the discrepancy between intention and action and aims at formalizing the discussion, leaving behind a trail that can and will be used by others. In order to achieve this, Shadow Curator embeds itself in the ‘workings’ of an institution, or alternatively creates a symbiosis with an individual curator.

[1] The opposition party appoints an MP to ‘shadow’ each of the members of the Cabinet. In this way the opposition can make sure that it looks at every part of the Government and can question them thoroughly’. (wikipedia)

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