Everything is not under control
“You will be working on that space for the next eight months” is what our tutor, regarding our MA final curatorial project, has told us curators, not more than one month ago. Despite our experience and knowledge about curating still being in its initial stages of development, since the beginning we felt the huge responsibility of ‘taking care’ of such a challenging situation in terms of both time and contents. We felt privileged in having the freedom to express and materialise our curatorial ideas, doubts and concerns within such an interesting and empowering space as that Window on Whitechapel High Street. Since the beginning, we also felt the urge of tracing a sort of thematic and conceptual thread throughout the eight-months programme of exhibitions, as a valid way to communicate our curatorial desires within both the city environment and the MA course we were about to complete.
But where to find a point of departure? How to construct such a detailed curatorial plan able to survive throughout the eight months? How to create an expanded narrative able to support the multiplicity of interests we would have liked to explore? How to ‘cure’ such a complicated patient? We were missing the key factor of the ‘let’s do it’ whilst trying to figure everything out before starting. We were stuck in the attempt of taking control of this complex mechanism and we were not brave enough to let it go towards an improvisational and uncontrolled state. We wanted to reach that safe place where all the interactions, connections and clashes related to the ‘curatorial’ would have been directed by us, according to our will and taste. But this was not possible to realise. Not in such a short time. Not for such a long time.