Re(Collecting) exhibitions: Are exhibitions and its histories falling into amnesia?

Streaming Media

Location

Lingnan University / Online Session via Zoom

Start Date

21-5-2021 10:00 AM

End Date

21-5-2021 11:10 AM

Description

Do exhibitions fall into amnesia because they are not collected by museums? Is it true that exhibition makers have tended to overlook earlier innovations in curatorial and display practices, assuming that each exhibition marks a new beginning? Unlike artworks that have conventionally been collected by museums and private collections, should exhibitions be similarly collected for research and study with its own autonomous histories? If so, how and what aspects of an exhibition are to be collected and archived? This lecture advances possibilities of how museums can collect exhibitions as materials containing materials, starting by understanding what an exhibition is, and developing methodologies in which to study it, which will enable a systematic way of collecting exhibitions that attends to the range of its materials from its exhibitionary discourse, archival documentation, artworks, as well as its curatorial and display practices. The need to consider the ephemeral nature of the temporary exhibitions, and how artworks are experienced spatially within the exhibition further complicates how exhibitions are documented and collected. This lecture proposes to rethink the practice of art collecting in museums and private collections by expanding into the exhibitionary in our collective effort to remember exhibitions.

Recommended Citation

Seng, Y. J. (2021, May). Re(Collecting) exhibitions: Are exhibitions and its histories falling into amnesia? Presented at Then and Now: Collecting Art and Exhibiting Cultures in Asia Conference, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

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May 21st, 10:00 AM May 21st, 11:10 AM

Re(Collecting) exhibitions: Are exhibitions and its histories falling into amnesia?

Lingnan University / Online Session via Zoom

Do exhibitions fall into amnesia because they are not collected by museums? Is it true that exhibition makers have tended to overlook earlier innovations in curatorial and display practices, assuming that each exhibition marks a new beginning? Unlike artworks that have conventionally been collected by museums and private collections, should exhibitions be similarly collected for research and study with its own autonomous histories? If so, how and what aspects of an exhibition are to be collected and archived? This lecture advances possibilities of how museums can collect exhibitions as materials containing materials, starting by understanding what an exhibition is, and developing methodologies in which to study it, which will enable a systematic way of collecting exhibitions that attends to the range of its materials from its exhibitionary discourse, archival documentation, artworks, as well as its curatorial and display practices. The need to consider the ephemeral nature of the temporary exhibitions, and how artworks are experienced spatially within the exhibition further complicates how exhibitions are documented and collected. This lecture proposes to rethink the practice of art collecting in museums and private collections by expanding into the exhibitionary in our collective effort to remember exhibitions.