The nightly talk before bed yesterday between Jooyoung and me was about the hardships of being a curator or organizer. Jooyoung is an artist and is not particularly fond of the downsides of taking on the role of the curator when artists, whom happen to be your friends too, make a mess or don't make anything at all or expect too much from the organizer and making sure no artist feel neglected or left out. I told her that I some years ago read a text written by a female curator who shared her experiences.
Basically she wrote about the fact that a curator takes on many different roles, and leaving the obvious things aside like being able to build walls, arrange transports, insurance etc, she was instead touching the topic about the personal relationships that quite naturally happen between curator and artist. The (female) curator turns into the grand-mother, mother, sister, best friend, partner, psychiatrist and mistress (and sometimes when the curator is co-producer and maybe even initiator of certain work, she turns into the delivery nurse or in some cases even mother of their "child" i.e. the art piece). This is inherent in the very nature of the relationship in a weird way. It is also very stressful.
I know the different roles by now pretty good why I am extremely content to in this project take (and actually really being able to) the back-seat, watch, learn, observe and at times try to calculate where my help is needed and make short interactions. Yesterday night in the project space there was a lot of activity as you can tell from the huge amount of documentation images from last night posted here on the blog. I couldn't work as in writing texts about artists or art. Neither could Erlend who was the first to take responsibility and leave the place. I stayed on and turned into the DJ of the night.
What is evident, and what was the main topic of mine and Jooyoung's conversation was that this time around and in this project - even though there are no "obvious" mama-curator around here (although we all are in a way) things are moving on quite smooth considering all the obstacles we have to endure (living on top of each other, no-sleeping, very simple arrangements in the gallery, no tool-box, hot humidity, monsoon rains, strong personalities around, no-budget, communication troubles yada yada yada) every one takes his' or her's responsibility and works with a smile on their face. It is evident that the reason for this is a hell of a great group dynamic. I've been through some "flat structures" before in my life that turned into the worst hell you would ever imagine (Villa Medusa is another TV-series I'd like to bring into the pot of TV-series references on this blog). We all like each other and respect the work of the other's why we (still) are having a great time together! This is most likely a new record too!
Today I'm taking some me-time at Jooyoung's, washing Jan's, mine and Jooyoung's clothes, doing dishes and writing this blogpost as well as doing some other stuff that needs to be done like ironing. I'm the house wife of today. But I will also of course get ready for this night's pre-opening and karaoke too! Can't wait!
