SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.
SELECTING IS GIVING AWAY RESPONSIBILITY.

My curatorial statement engages a phrase printed repeatedly in order to stress its content. It is neither a particular quote nor a borrowing from a conceptual piece. It is a statement, my statement, which stresses freedom and generosity (it is inspired by Harald Szeemann). It is an expression that concerns letting things go. Responsibility is one of the most urgent and debatable commodities of our times, being responsible one of our most desirable attitudes. Comparing the manoeuvre of selection to that of giving away responsibility, the latter is the stronger act. What I want to express herewith is: selecting (in the sense of curating from the side of the so-called curator) is less powerful than giving away, giving away is less powerful than receiving responsibility (in the process of giving away a receiving is indispensable). However, this attitude of selecting and of giving or receiving responsibility is twofold. On one hand it is saturated by the view that the process of selection (curating) is weakened and the importance of the transfer of what one could call transfer of power or energy is intensified (supposing that the receiver is the artist). In this sense, selecting and giving away still share equivalent sensitivities. On the other hand the emphasis is not about the weakening of selection but instead upon the accentuation of responsibility as a commodity. The artistic work is considered a point of departure. Its interpretation is let loose. It is in the artist’s hand. Therefore, the idea of selecting as a means of letting go – not in terms of hiding away from being responsible for one’s action – is an emancipating idea. It is not encumbered by categorizations. It is a ‘pointing out to’ in order to let something happen ‘on it’s own.’ And if selecting is really about making possible, the best.

This text was published as “Selecting is giving away responsibility. Curatorial Statement”, in: Arco Catalog, Madrid: Arco, 2010, p. 434.