Institute of Contemporary Arts

Spatial politics: The physical dimensions of curating

A talk held at the ICA on 29 April 2008.

In 1957, the ICA held An Exhibit, a show that took the organising of space and the visitor's movement through the show as its content. This architectonic art exhibition was followed, six years later, by Archigram's Living City, which resembled more an art exhibit than an architectural project. In 1982, the ICA's interest in the relationship between art and architecture was further developed with the conference Art and Architecture, which addressed the role of art in public environments.

Today, the possibilities offered by the interplay of art and architecture continue to capture the art world's imagination, with both the Serpentine Pavilion and the Turbine Hall installation being highlights in the art calendar. Such projects raise questions about the connections between curating and socio-political concerns about constructing and distributing space. Is there a politics of movement? If there is, how should the curator mediate the relationship between the human body, the art space and the physical dimensions occupied by the art object? Should the curator be responsible for the ergomomics of an exhibition? Should the curator be concerned with the physical experience of the audience at all?

Speakers: Dr Andrea Phillips, director, Curating Architecture research project, assistant director MA curating at Goldsmiths; artists Cornford & Cross; Celine Condorelli, whose practice is concerned with architecture as support and interface, developing critical models towards exhibition making and public space; and Secret Agent Bristly Pioneer, The Space Hijackers. Chair: Clare Carolin, senior tutor, curating contemporary art MA, Royal College of Art

Developed in association with Ben Cranfield and the London Consortium. Ben Cranfield is a collaborative doctoral award student at the ICA and London Consortium, currently working on an intellectual history of the arts in postwar Britain.

In association with the London Consortium.