What I wish curating would be like…

Curating/being curated is quite difficult for me as it comes with the baggage of the past centuries, of colonial attitudes being projected and exercised on my body. As an artist-curator I would like to question these patterns and go back to the origin of the word curator, coming from curare meaning “to take care”. Thinking of care as an interactive process of inclusion, care would be something I would aim for rather than exclusive practices.

The curator’s perspective

Let’s say I am throwing a dinner party. I will invite people I think it would be interesting to share time and space with. Some of them I might know more, others less, but it wouldn’t matter as I am keen to get to know everyone a bit more. In the invitation I would never write that I chose you because “you are a woman of color and I would like you to share your traumatic experiences with us”, “you have a disability and I have pity for you”, “I am not really interested in you as a person and your work, but you are just fulfilling a quota”, “I would like to see some ass shaking of yours as we (white) Germans think too much with the head and you have to do it with the heart” etc. First of all it would be simply rude. Secondly, I am interested in the person and their work, not obsessed about one aspect of them. I am also not inviting them “only” because of another short-lived interest and trend due to an important happening, such as for example this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, but then never ever speak to them again afterwards.
Among the guests, too, not everyone might know each other and have the same opinion or taste. But well that is okay. I hope that still everyone would be open for a dialogue or a discussion rather than saying, for example, out of white fragility and a particular power position “I will report this discussion to the host and this will have consequences for you”. The response for me as a host to a bully would be to first talk to them and if the situation keeps intensifying and the threats of power abuse don’t stop, the consequence would be to kindly kick the person out. Not because we have just different opinions, but because of the violence it (re)produces and well there is no space for that at my dinner party. In this case I would see myself as a moderator, but otherwise I would not be interested in micromanaging every conversation. Rather, I would trust the guests invited: a trust that the guests can speak for themselves and that I do not speak for or about them unless being asked for support by the guest.
I would never dare to do bold statements as “there is nothing to see in India, I have been there for three months, don’t even think of inviting an Indian, not interesting”, “if you lack money, invite a South Korean, they can finance your party as they are so looking forward to come to a German dinner party” or “I condemn the trend of inviting Africans to European dinner parties, how colonial is that! That is why I invited a Congolese”. Well, I don’t think I need to elaborate here on the why.

The artist perspective

Let’s say I am a guest, I would like to not be picked “only” for my ethnicity, race, gender, disability or sexual orientation (unless it is safer space for minorities). The reason why I am saying “only” is because, sure my ethnicity, gender, disability or sexual orientation are a part of me – being in a minority position, oh yes they are a big part of me in this society. However, I am a complicated human being where all threads of my visible and invisible identities are being interwoven. I am also not keen to keep talking about the traumatic experiences which I have had, if I don’t want to. If another guest insists, I would draw my boundaries and this should be respected. If the person keeps triggering me, I would ask my environment for support and expect to get it.
I would decline to go to a dinner party where I know that I am expected to show “my Asian side only” or let’s say perform “the Asian side” the other person wants to see. I would avoid dinner parties where I am supposed to play the role of the only Person of Color, so that the host keeps using me as the “Asian friend” to prove their openness and cosmopolitan attitude. I would get suspicious if the host keeps introducing me as their “Korean” guest, knowing very well that I grew up in Germany most of my life. Not because I am ashamed of my Korean heritage, but because I will not be (ab)used as a feel good token guest. Abuse of power or violence by another guest or even the host shall be taken seriously and well freedom of speech or freedom of the art would not be accepted as an excuse.
I would be aware of the power structure a dinner party can have, but I also know that without me or other guests there will be no dinner party and well that’s a point.