The Workshop

Curatorial Practice: Research and Storytelling 

Workshop Flow

Curatorial Practice: Research and Storytelling by Rahul Bhattacharya is a weeklong curatorial workshop held in The Department of Art History and Aesthetics, The Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda from 19th February to 24th February 2024. Rahul Bhattacharya, an alumnus of the college is a contemporary art curator, and educator who is trying to curate a pedagogy for curation. 

This year the model of the workshop is a theoretical one rather than a practical approach to curation. It is because the exhibition design was not the aspect of interest. The main aspect of interest was the dissertations of the Master's second-year students. Day one started with an introduction to curation; the role of an audience and curator in an exhibition, different types of curatorial approaches etc. The main focus of this workshop to be taken in the Department of Art History is to practically experiment that the curatorial approach can also be an Art Historical methodology. This workshop elaborates on how the core skills of art historical curation could stand out from the other curations. Looking at an image through an art historical lens is to peel the layers of its meaning with your eye. This is what was done mainly on the first day. 

There are two ways of approaching a curation. One is the curator creating a narrative through his meticulous observation of the available works of art; the second is choosing the artworks as per the narrative. Some narrative styles are used by various scholars which are given as an example for the activity to be done in the later part of the day. 

In the latter half, the students are divided into pairs of the Masters first and second year. Each pair has to create an unexplored narrative from the boxes of archival plates in the archive room of the department and present it to the class. The main term in curation discussed on day 1 was Intertextuality- intertextuality between the words and images. The curator must know what should be expected from the audience. The audience responds in two ways, they refer to the text first and then the image or vice-versa. 

The second day begins with a presentation of some previous unconventional exhibitions by Rahul sir which helps to know the approach of a curatorial note. How the space matters and how the text along with the painting changes the way of looking at the exhibition. The limits of the curator were discussed considering how overboard they can go in representing the artist through their exhibition. Now some time is given for the pre-existing groups to discuss the seniors’ dissertation which is explained by the juniors to the class. The loopholes of narration and discussion are found through this. 

The third day takes the discussion to the next level where mind maps-  the documentation of the thinking process come into the picture. It is expected from the groups to explain their entire dissertation through mind maps and have detailed mind maps of the first three chapters of the dissertation. What is the main topic of the dissertation was clarified by each group on this day. A curatorial workshop cannot end without a curated show, hence not focusing much on the exhibition design, a simple conceptual or archival show is proposed. 

Days four and five continued with the brainstorming through the mind maps. The overall dissertation along with the introduction and first two chapters were finalized and displayed as per the proposed exhibition. The juniors or the students of the Master's first year individually curated the exhibition using the mind maps of their senior or the Master's second-year partners. The exhibition began on the last day of the workshop- Saturday in the Department of Art History and Aesthetics, The Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, Vadodara.

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Post author: Pranali Dighe.