Curating as graphic design research
(2022)
author(s): Sara De Bondt
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
In 2019, I curated and designed Off the Grid, an exhibition on post-war Belgian graphic design at Design Museum Gent. The show included public events (Design Museum Gent, 2019–20) and led to a publication (De Bondt, 2022), all of which have been elements of my practice-based doctoral research at KASK School of Arts and Ghent University.
Curating Off the Grid allowed me to define my own research area, namely the investigation of graphic design from a specific country and period. The process also raised broader questions around naming, authorship, and canon-formation, which in turn have enriched my practice as a designer and educator. The curatorial thus became a methodology that allowed me to bring the two sides — my historical research and my graphic design practice — together. In this article, I discuss my engagement with graphic design via the curatorial, and how the latter can be deployed for practice-based graphic design research in and beyond exhibition spaces.
Exhibition Research Lab: As Real As You Want
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Tatjana Macic
connected to: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
As Real As You Want is a group exhibition on the edge of the physical and virtual world. We focus on navigating the virtual and real spaces, experiences and conversations.
The Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) is part of the Art Research Programme of the Lectorate Art Theory & Practice, at the Royal Academy of Art, the Hague. ERL is tutored by Tatjana Macic, a visual artist, writer, and researcher.
This interdisciplinary course offers students practical and theoretical knowledge and understanding of exhibition-making in general, and of the potentialities of exhibition-making in relation to their own artistic practice in particular. Is an exhibition a mere platform for presenting an artwork? Or is it an intrinsic part of the creative process? Where lies the difference and what are the implications of these different positions for the artist’s research process and artistic practice? Why do artists make exhibitions anyway?
During the Covid-19 pandemic, students decided to make the exhibition online. Working from Singapore, South Korea, Greece, Bulgaria, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands, they engaged in an experimental collaborative process, that resulted in the online version of As Real As You Want. When circumstances permit, the second part of the exhibition will unfold into the physical gallery spaces at KABK.
Students created new work, critically reflected upon this process, as well as investigated the possibilities of an exhibition as a framework for research, experiment and (re-)presentation. Special attention was given to the possibilities of artistic innovation based on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the rhizome.
Participating artists are students from the Bachelor Fine Arts and the Master Photography & Society: Juwon Lee, Bo Wielders, Marta Iwanek, Iver Uhre Dahl, Natsumi Sakai, Ryan Lim Zi Yi, Robin Pieterse, Yannis Androulakis, Todor Rabadzhiyski, Nurul Ain Binti Nor Halim, Lui MacRae Wolstencroft and Alexander Peter Lorenzo Koch.
Tatjana Macić is a visual artist, writer, and researcher. In her artistic practice, she is mostly exploring the intersection between visual arts, theory, exhibition-making, education, and language. She is teaching Artistic Research at the Bachelor Fine Arts, and tutoring the Exhibition Research Lab (part of the Art Research Programme). Together with Maarten Cornel, she leads Research and Discourse at the Royal Academy.