Nora Sternfeld

 
In the sphere of art and exhibitions, increased attention has recently been devoted to the mediation of art. Documenta 12 was accompanied by two large publications dedicated to the mediation of art, whereas Irit Rogoff even speaks about the “educational turn in curating”. Education as a critical practice has been attributed an emancipating potential. Rogoff focuses on the intermediate spaces and the spaces of action where publics are created and where unexpected encounters take place. In this way museums and exhibitions sometimes depart from their paternalistic history as spaces with open doors for everybody and they become public spaces: places of critique and agency. At the same time, institutions are under growing pressure because of neoliberal conditions. Therefore, education in connection with exhibitions has many other tasks: sponsors must be convinced that the mediation of art increases the value of their investment, institutions must fulfill their educational task, uncertain working conditions must be accepted, and last but not least, visitors must become interested and eventually satisfied. How radical can education be in these conditions? Where is the position of the mediation of art in the old conflict between the institutional critique and institutionalisation? And how can education be meant as a rebellious, reflective practice leading to changes?

Nora Sternfeld is an art educator and curator. Part of trafo.K, Office for Art Education and Critical Knowledge Production in Vienna and the network Schnittpunkt, exhibition theory and practice. She currently teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and is co-director of the ecm – educating/ curating/ managing – Masterprogramme for exhibition theory and practice at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

www.trafo-k.at
www.schnitt.org
www.uni-ak.ac.at/ecm

 
Saturday, 30.10.2010. at 19.00
Galerija Miroslav Kraljević
Šubićeva 29