LIVING IN A METAPHOR

The space of the exhibition is a provisional environment: it slides between permanent and ephemeral,

utilitarian and poetic as well as the fixed and fleeting. Exhibition is a public display of artworks or items

of interest in a gallery or museum. Through processes of categorization, organization and arrangement;

an exhibitory process elevates the experiential encounter of art works. The exhibition space is then a

laboratory where one can experiment with a host of relationships between resonant or disparate

entities. In being a potent medium of knowledge - transmission, exhibition practice trigger specific as

well as subjective readings. The practice of exhibition making is thus a production of space and

knowledge simultaneously. The act of collecting becomes significant in the curatorial process.

Collections, like constellations, work through diagrams in the accumulator’s mind. In other words, the

world appears in varied mental diagrams to the collector. These may not be readily visible on the surface

of objects, or even in its ready content - rather, they may speak to the deep psyche in which the collector

inhabits one’s world. The curatorial process becomes a means through which these latent patterned

worlds of the collection may be revealed. In crafting exhibitions, one is able to pose an alternative realm,

a world that may offer meaning to the otherwise variegated thoughts that humanity is inevitably

suspended in. How can exhibitory practice help us experiment new configurations for habitation or

encountering information? How can textual, literary, visual or vocal experiences come together in space?

How can such practice open up new journeys of teaching and learning? These are questions that

underlie the course. In this course of meaning-making towards spatial exploration, participants

interrogate aspects pertaining to politics of display, forms of perception and approach to knowledge.

This course aims for its participants to design their own learning trajectories and demonstrate them as

potential manifestations of space. It considers the environment of exhibition as a dialectic relationship

between the process of space making and knowledge making. The curatorial liberty allows participants

to dive into collecting, constellating and articulating their point of entry within a broader provocative

frame and make sense of the subject at hand through their own uncertainties and understanding.

Through such a methodology, the course aims at challenging existing institutional structures of

knowledge production and pedagogy. It allows mixing of forms, methods and modes while demanding

the synthesis of several skills of communication, graphics, information, interior design together.

The course will be delivered over four weeks where the following themes will be discussed:

1. Environment of the Exhibition: What do we perceive in a given setting? Seeing through

metaphor. Exhibition as a site of metaphor. The act of looking at a constructed space consciously.

Listening to the eye. Learning about the aspects and elements that make up an exhibition.

2. Worlding through Collection: The practice of collection and meaning-making; crafting a world

through synergies in objects. Archiving as a way of knowledge-production. Caring for objects.

3. Culture, Art and Aesthetics: What do these terms mean and constitute? How do they come to

inform curation? Can curation be spoken about without the reference to art and culture?

4. The Curatorial Dilemma - The architecture of curation: Histories and Theories: Who is a curator?

What does the curator do? What is the role of curation? How is the curator different from the

artist? How may/does curation elevate the reading of objects within a collection?

5. Structures of “Display”: The syntax of perception; politics of display; objects of knowledge.

6. Exhibitory Formats: A historical tracing of the forms of display from cabinets of curiosities, to

archives, to galleries to museums, festivals, biennales, etc. Their scalar and spatial politics.

7. Spatially Coded Knowledge: How does space lend itself to the reading of an object? How does

space become the object of knowledge? Meaning in a spatial encounter.

8. Storytelling in Space: Working/building through archives, learning about spatial narratives,

moving through objects and journeys of knowledge.

9. Reflection & Critique: The importance and relevance of exhibitions. Ethical frameworks and

methods. How do we locate exhibitions across time and space? Which geography do they belong

to? What are their changing forms and how do we critically ponder upon their scope?

10. Exhibition Media: Putting objects together in conversations with themselves and space. How to

exhibit different kinds of objects (from drawings, paintings to sculptures, to models to media)

11. Exhibition Paraphernalia: Forms and Meanings: Devices of communication and dissemination

and ways in which they expand upon the exhibition. A critical consideration of hidden ideas and

meanings in exhibition paraphernalia such as brochures, pedestals, panels, posters, placards,

wall texts, maps, invites, stands.

12. Affect & Effect in a temporary environment: What is temporary and how can temporality be

compelling? Effective and affective environments. How to translate ideas through materials and

detail? How to install various objects keeping in mind the curatorial idea.

13. Reading and Scripting a Site: Which spatial register(s) of the site do we further in an exhibition?

How do we “read” a site, and draw into the exhibition? How do we adapt to the conditions of

the site and fold them within the exhibition schema (or otherwise)?

14. Stratergising production: Budgets, mobilizing work on ground, anticipating timelines, preparing

worksheets. Protocols on site, uninstalling.

EXHIBITION PHOTOS :