Directed by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Christine Yuan, Making Exhibitions takes a look behind the scenes at the making of The Fifth Sense's final project Just A Second: A Digital Exhibition Curated by Palais de Tokyo curator Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, inspired by CHANEL Nº5 L'EAU, and a look at other leading curators and collectives from the art world including BUFU, Rozsa Farkas from Arcadia Missa, Fatos Ustek from Fig, Angelina Dreem from POWRPLNT and Yana Peel CEO of the Serpentine Galleries. Watch below to learn of the different ways in which the modern curator co-exists between physical and virtual spaces, how they aim to enhance the ways works are presented and experienced, and the responsibilities each have to canonise culture and reflect the curiosities, insights, and concerns of modern society.
'We’re a collective, but we work collaboratively mostly. We’re all very different artists and we’re coming from very different backgrounds, artistically, but also politically too. one of the things we’ve said a lot is that both black and Asian folks are oppressed but the language that they have to express that oppression is different but still, it often looks very similar. We’re interested in coming up with a way of unpacking that relationship that has existed throughout history. We all subscribe to the belief that the personal is political and that manifests through the work that you do and the way that you carry yourself in the world.' - BUFU
'I have a kind of non-curatorial approach to curating as I didn’t study it but did a BA in fine art instead. The confidence to think that your opinion is valid enough to frame a whole exhibition definitely comes over a period of time and, for me personally, my way of learning is always through doing. The context of an artist’s work is equally as important as the concept or the theory because they can’t be separated, and so I think the role of a curator is to provide an appropriate context for the work, to allow the work to be what the work wants to be.' - Rozsa Farkas
'I think curators have many responsibilities in the sense that it’s not only that you’re responsible of what you’re putting out into the world, but also the relationships that you’re fostering with the artist and audience. At the same time, you’re responsible for the artistry, as it were, and artistry is something that is very subjective and very cumulative. You’re responsible for fostering or choreographing those relationships as well, and perhaps formulating those ways of being. You can claim it as a political responsibility, a social responsibility, or an intellectual, sensual, contextual responsibility - it is very wide.' - Fatos Ustek
'Space holds energy and everyone has a subjective experience with a particular space - whether it’s a venue or a gallery, you’re bringing all of your concepts or preconceptions to the venue. I enjoy engaging with new and exciting places because it’s exciting for me and it doesn’t have all the baggage of another space. I think there’s a lot of power with building relationships and working with venues that really care about their heritage. POWRPLNT is rooted in the whole idea that if you give someone access to tools to express themselves, you have no idea what’s going to come of that because it’s not your job to dictate what does, it’s just your job to trust that magic will happen.' - Angelina Dreem
'Whether it’s physical or virtual, what we’re always trying to do at Serpentine Galleries, by showcasing creativity, is challenge preconceptions, and show people the world through a lens that may be like theirs, or may be diametrically opposed. My goal is to create a very safe space for unsafe ideas, and to really catalyse conversations and experiences and be a very open landscape for potentially very opposing views. ' - Yana Peel
