Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else

Curation is an ever-evolving field that Balzer unpacks under the twin rubric of value and work. Considered primarily in the context of the art world, Balzer focuses on the modern period, which sees the curate as transformed from the impresario and arbiter of taste of the early 19th century to the imprimatur and interpreter needed to "parse" the conceptual art of the '60s. This led to the rise of many star curates such as Hans Ulrich Obrist functioning as bricoleurs whose assemblages not only provided orientation but legitimacy. The inheritance of this tradition remains in a diffuse sense through institutions and individuals. Not only the art world but consumer culture on the whole is not only based on selection and presentation, but is dependent upon this fundamental need for categorization and meaning making. Balzar argues that "curationism," as a generative act, now occurs on all levels from the endorsements of Madonna, whom people may heed as a bellwether, to how they decide to represent themselves on Facebook. This becomes the grammar of identity. Although this book is truly engaging, as a critical overview of curation, its extended use sees the term become almost bankrupt while the ensuing arguments are at once derivative and unconvincing. (Nov.)