Now that we curate’ even lunch, what happens to the role of the connoisseur in contemporary culture? Curate’ is now a buzzword, applied to everything from music festivals to artisanal cheese. Inside the art world, the curator reigns supreme, acting as the face of high-profile group shows and biennials in a way that can eclipse and assimilate the contributions of individual artists. Curatorial-studies programs continue to grow, and the business world is adopting curation as a means of adding value to content. Everyone, it seems, is a curator. But what is a curator, exactly? And what does the explosive popularity of curating say about our culture’s relationship with taste, labour and the avant-garde? In this vibrant, revelatory and original study, David Balzer travels through art history and around the globe to explore the cult of curation, from superstar curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s war with sleep to Subway’s sandwich artists.’ Recalling such landmark works of cultural criticism as Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word and John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Curationism will change the way you look at art and maybe even the way you see yourself. This is an unusual art book. It is a book you should read and one that you can. Balzer traces the history and current hegemony of curationism, a practice of jumped-up interior decorators who double as priests explaining the gospel to the unlettered masses. A good read, if you don’t mind reading things that you don’t want to know.’ Dave Hickey David Balzer has contributed to publications including the Believer, Modern Painters, Artforum.com, and The Globe and Mail, and is the author of Contrivances, a short-fiction collection. He is currently Associate Editor at Canadian Art magazine. Balzer was born in Winnipeg and currently resides in Toronto, where he makes a living as a critic, editor and teacher.

Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else (Exploded Views)

Arts & Photography

Balzer, David

History & Criticism

Coach House Books

A massive artist’s book-cum-overview of the revered and subversive queer Canadian collective, exquisitely designed in collaboration with AA Bronson 
This 768-page volume stands as the most comprehensive source on the Canadian collective General Idea, founded in Toronto in 1969 by Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson and active until the deaths of Partz and Zontal in 1994. The book is arranged in three parts: Performances and Actions, In the Streets and In the Showroom. The first two parts focus on ephemeral, time-based and even disposable works. The third part includes a plate section offering a near-complete visual survey of General Idea's practice. Facing-page comparative images show works as they appeared in historical installations or other relevant contexts. These three sections correspond broadly to the collective’s development: from performances, actions, pageants and other practices (1969–78), through works engaging with mass-media formats such as the magazine, television and video (1972–’80s), and finally to works conceived for galleries and museums (1985–94). The publication features a prologue by AA Bronson, a conversation between him and Beatrix Ruf, and new texts by international scholars. The appendix includes a complete scholarly bibliography, exhibition and performance histories, and an illustrated chronology of the group. 
Conceived by AA Bronson in close collaboration with designer Garrick Gott and editor Adam Welch, each section has a distinct visual identity and graphic treatment. The book itself functions as a kind of edition by the collective, evoking General Idea's preoccupation with redeploying cultural phenomena: here, the museum exhibition catalog.

General Idea

Diederichsen, Diedrich

Jrp Ringier Kunstverlag Ag

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