Exposition / Disposition

"New Ways of Exhibiting," "New Institutionalism" and "New Museology" are the keywords of a recent interdisciplinary debate, in which exhibitions and curatorial practice are subjected to a critical review. The exhibition is examined as a place of profane enlightenment, an indicator of the social state, or as a testing ground for social change; the curator's position is analysed as a seeker of truth or in their artistic performance through curatorial actions. This volume responds to the diversity and polarity of new approaches to interpretation with a systematic "exhibition archaeology". Kai-Uwe Hemken shows: The art exhibition is not a purely aesthetic structure, not a mere result of curatorial practice, but rather a process of shaping public opinion, in which structures, dynamics, patterns of action, and role allocations are visualized, reproduced, and ideally questioned. Thus, this volume makes a fundamental contribution to the understanding of contemporary exhibitions.

Kai-Uwe Hemken (Prof. Dr. phil.) lehrt Kunstwissenschaft an der Kunsthochschule Kassel. Kuratorisch tätig war er u.a. am Sprengel Museum Hannover, K20 Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Neues Museum Weimar, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.