Curating and the Educational Turn

Curating and the Educational Turn Curating and the Educational Turn, eds Paul O'Neill, Mick Wilson, Open Editions, de Appel and Occasional Table publishing, 2010, 36opp, pb, /21, 978 0 9490041 8 5.

In the introduction to their new multi-dialogic curatorial extravaganza, Paul O'Neill and Mick Wilson repeatedly cover the assertion that a shift towards education is currently pervasive in curatorial practice. They claim that this argument is 'a profoundly contested proposition', which is affirmed, challenged and fought through forms of 'radical uncertainty' within the book's various contributions. Printed on cigarette-thin paper - except for the contributors' biographies, which rather disconcertingly appear on confidently glossy stock at the back - a wide variety of reflections are included on perceived alternative educational activities, and the new tome goes some way to create a coherent conversation about recent international events, with existing texts by Irit Rogoff, Uta Meta Bauer, Stuart Martin, William Kaizen, a collaborative essay by Sarah Pierce and Annie Fletcher, and 21 new texts including essays by Liam Gillick, Anton Vidokle, Marion von Osten and Eva Egermann and Annette Krauss, Emily Pethick and Marina Vishsmidt.

While the book attempts a 'dispersion of positions' to diffuse curatorial authority, this sometimes conceals the fact that many traditional forms of authority pervade its content. It is no coincidence that a standard uncritical promotional quote from Hans Ulrich-Obrist provides the most immediate sign of power and authority inside the cover. Partly because of this and the compliant tone of...