Symposium #4: Writing as a curatorial strategy

Writing and the  “distribution of the sensible”
Ngô Thanh

Derived from a pivotal concept in the work of contemporary French philosopher Jacques Rancière, the paper takes shape on the frame of writing – an activity of weaving a web of words between/with objects, bodies, and discourses. Instead of being confined within the narrow scope of the smooth-running, mechanical meaning-packaging apparatus with effective communication and sender-receiver dynamics, writing emerges as an aesthetic-political focal point that stretches across the realm of speech and intervenes in the sensory community — whose foundation is based on a myriad of germinating forms of articulation, and literary moments that break the prevailing distributing orders, and in turn, fastening the body to position, position to authority. Shaping linguistic flow, sculpting words and meanings, dismantling, assembling, arranging, etc., writing is both a meticulous handicraft art and an experiment in creating complex configurations that unfold multidimensional imaginations of place, time-space, event, and entity, etc. It is labor, a struggle to wrestle with elements constantly slipping away from the writer’s will: reality, the work of art, or even the very words themselves. This paper not only draws out some scholarly discussions but primarily presents the autobiographical narrative of a Vietnamese writer stepping into the art world with accumulated layers of historical strata.

Translation as a meaning-making method in curatorial texts
Dương Mạnh Hùng 

In the contemporary context of Vietnam, as artistic concepts and approaches to immanent aesthetics are increasingly intermingling and interacting with diverse frameworks of knowledge and interdisciplinary ideologies, the task of meaning-making thus belongs to not only artists but also curators and other individuals involved in operational work within the art community. Curatorial practice has now become complex, requiring depth of understanding and flexibility – qualities also evident in translational practice. In this paper, positioned as someone who has traversed all three realms of writing, translating, and curating, the author aims to provide a preliminary comparison of the similarities between the work of translators and curators. Subsequently, based on practical experiences, the author will propose three suggestions for the production of meanings through translation when writing curatorial texts, including annotative translation, performative translation, and collective translation. Each suggestion will offer a way to approach, interact, or apply artistic concepts and theoretical framework, in order to arrive at a boundary-opening and complementary way of writing. In so doing, we can perceive curatorial texts as an invitation for contribution, whose target audience is not limited to artists and curators, but other multidisciplinary agents in the field, as well as the general public.

The act of citational writing in curation
Linh Lê 

In my personal practice, I find that writing takes up a considerable amount of my mental space and time. Writing allows me to organize my thoughts and those of the artists in the exhibitions I have had the opportunity to participate in, as well as convey messages and information to the audience. While not the only method, writing and its products, such as texts, serve as a curator’s presence alongside their other decisions regarding direction, artist and artwork selection, and exhibition design. In this paper, by examining some writing-related choices in several exhibitions in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, I propose that the act of citing can be understood as a strategy that curators use to contextualize exhibitions and artworks, create pathways to bring the audience closer to the artworks; and expand the boundaries of discourse on these exhibitions through open discussion. The paper also aims to view the act of citing beyond the academic scope, where its purpose is to consolidate the academic pedigree and reputation of scholars, while in the context of curatorial practice, it becomes a creative act that transcends the literal meaning of the phrase and the theoretical framework cited.