Formalising ethics for the contemporary art curator?

Author: Dr Gabrielle Barkess-Kerr

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Philosopher Jean-Paul Martinon states that ‘the aim of ethics understood as moral philosophy is to develop and cultivate some kind of rationalist self- or social legislation. The most common example of this kind of ethics with regards to curating is, as mentioned earlier, museum and curators’ codes of ethics: short texts that put forward sets of supposedly rational principles that museums and/or curators should follow’ (2020, p.x).

For contemporary art curators, the notion of a delineated set of ethical codes dictated by a formal network of contemporary art curators arguably remains relatively obscure as contemporary art curators are recognised for their varied, complex, sometimes contradictory and nuanced expertise. Theirs is an expertise that is hard to pin down, nevermind making any attempt to streamline a series of ethical guidelines!

Therefore, what is viable about the mission of CEN? Currently, contemporary art curators are subsumed into various types of networks, but none exclusively orientated towards contemporary art curators as a professional group actively reflecting on ethics. CEN responds to this with a network committed to reflexive practice and discourse. CEN is a responsive and diverse community.

The purpose of CEN is to engage with a range of ethical challenges and to acknowledge complexities and opportunities that arise within a varied network of contemporary art curators. However, a degree of tangibility is arguably still possible. By engaging with curatorial discourse, we can further interrogate ethical dimensions of the profession. Ethics-orientated curating can also break out of abstraction and move into action in everyday terms. Regardless of the type of ethical focus or analysis of the profession that is being made, it is only through the commitments made within the everyday lives of curators that we can see the formulation of ethical questions and considerations.

There is the potential for destructive impacts to be made on behalf of the profession, therefore we cannot take for granted that curatorial expertise is guided by ethical approaches. As philosopher Meng-Shi Chen argues, ‘Ethics involves the combination of emotional insight and logical insight to help us make the right choices in our everyday lives. It’s an attempt to make reasonable decisions while taking the positions of others into account, which is exactly the situation a curator always confronts’ (2023).

CEN does not seek to create a formal set of rules, but rather a collaborative and questioning approach based around a community actively engaging with ethical practice and discourse. CEN is therefore formulated around a series of ethical provocations; constantly evolving, always responsive, and rooted in everyday experiences.

References

Chen, M. (2023) ‘Ethics of Curating’, Curatography, Issue 5 Curatorial Episteme. Available at: https://curatography.org/5-3-en/ (Accessed: 29 January 2024).

Martinon, J. P. (2020) Curating As Ethics. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.