The canon of the author. On individual and shared authorship in exhibition curating

The writing of the history of exhibition curating in contemporary art has been largely based on the study of a few pioneer curators, such as Harald Szeemann, Lucy Lippard or Seth Siegelaub, who have been lent the status of authors, occasionally comparable to the artist as author. Nonetheless, if one studies systematically innovations and transformations in exhibition-making since the 1960s, which have given to curating the status of distinct profession and its current high prestige, one may find that the image of a charismatic single-author is, to some degree, a construction. Several crucial historical moments in curating, even when labeled by an individual’s name, were nonetheless connected to collective or collaborative endeavors.