Shifting contemporaneities: from multiculturalism to globalisation and the Anthropocene – towards a critical curatorial and institutional praxis

Tsionki, Marianna (2021) Shifting contemporaneities: from multiculturalism to globalisation and the Anthropocene – towards a critical curatorial and institutional praxis. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This doctoral research project aims to conceptualise the role of curatorial practice in addressing sociopolitical and environmental urgencies within a specific institutional framework. The study develops a theoretical analysis of the concept of the Anthropocene/Capitalocene as a contemporary condition and proposes that the role of the art institution is instrumental in shaping society through active engagement with current urgencies. This thesis is the result of a Collaborative Doctoral Award programme between the Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester School of Art and the CFCCA through which I conducted practice-based curatorial research. I consider this thesis' contribution to knowledge as twofold. Firstly, through investigating the interconnection between theory and practice, it provides a different theory of curating associated to the Anthropocene/Capitalocene as a conceptual framework for developing an original curatorial research-led project concerned with global ecological and sociopolitical impacts of digital technology. Secondly, the thesis considers this praxis as a mode of knowledge production within CFCCA’s institutional operations that brings new perspectives in the way the art institution regards research within the curatorial but also its role as a critical institutional space. The PhD project consists of both theoretical and practical elements as shown below: Part I: A critical examination of CFCCA’s institutional history born out of the multicultural debate of the 1980s and 1990s. This analysis of its history, institutional shifts and associations within a wider historical, social and political context is examined through the lenses of the curatorial and sets out the parameters within which changes can be introduced. Part II: A theoretical examination that contextualises and problematizes the concept of the Anthropocene as a means to inform curatorial thinking and practice. Part III: A practice-based curatorial research project titled Digital Matters: The Earth Behind the Screen, realised in the process of the doctoral study, which was informed by the theoretical explorations and operated as a testing ground (a model) of curatorial thinking within CFCCA’s institutional framework. This final part also includes an evaluation of the curatorial project and examines its expediency and limitations in the context of the institution, concluding that any fundamental shift in the curatorial operation must be associated with a relevant revision of the institutional framework.