PhD project
Queering the Museum: Contemporary Artists and Curators as ‘Critical Visitors’ and their Creative Interventions
Doctoral research on recent developments in museological practices by “critical” curators, interventionist artists, and personnel initiatives, focusing on ‘queering’ as an entrance point to broader intersectional issues; resulting in a report on the ‘Queer Baseline’ (to be launched in 2020), a popular and scholarly article, and a dissertation.
- Duration
- 2020 - 2025
- Funding
-
NWO Smart Culture Grant
The project ‘Queering the Museum’ explores contemporary LGBT+ curatorial and artistic interventions into the Dutch, German and English museums. It compares how in-house and guest curators revisit the exclusive model of museum conventions and reimagine alternative curatorial and collecting practices. Moreover, the project investigates multiple forms of sexism, racism and colonialism in museums, and how contemporary artists visualize and mediate such power relations through performances and installations. Interpreting curators and artists as the ‘critical visitor’, this project raises questions about processes of categorization and selection within museum collections and exhibitions, about inclusions and exclusions of queer histories, and regarding the intersection between sexual and racial marginalization. Conversing with intersectional feminist and queer theory, this project asks in what ways these curatorial, artistic and collective initiatives question the intersecting exclusions and inequalities within heritage institutions. These inquiries also point to the broader debate on the social role of the museum in contemporary society.
