Terry Smith & Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Artistic Director of Documenta 13 and art historian Terry Smith discuss his latest publication, Thinking Contemporary Curating, published by Independent Curators International (ICI), at the New Museum in New York City on October 14, 2012. Hear about Christov-Bakargiev's "allergic reaction" towards curatorial discourse, and listen to Smith's thoughts on his constituencies of contemporary curatorial thought: ... "exhibit arts work (exhibit the work that art does, not just works of art), renounce reticence, proliferate alternative exhibitionary venues, advocate the infrastructure."

Thinking Contemporary Curating offers an in-depth analysis of the volatile territory of international curatorial practice and the insight that underpins it. In five essays, renowned art historian and critic Smith describes how today curators take on roles far beyond exhibition making, to include re-imagining museums; writing the history of curating; creating discursive platforms and undertaking social or political activism, as well as rethinking spectatorship.

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is an American writer, art historian and curator. She is the Artistic Director of DOCUMENTA (13), which opened in Kassel on June 9, 2012. Previously, she was the director of the contemporary art museum Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Torino at Castello di Rivoli in Turin until 2009, and chief curator of the same museum from 2002 to 2008. In October 2012 ArtReview magazine named her number one in their annual Power 100 list of the most inflential figures in contemporary art

Terry Smith is an Australian art historian, art critic, and artist who lives and works in Pittsburgh, New York, and Sydney. From 1972 to 1976 he was an active member of the Art & Language group. Since 2001 he has been the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh.

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