Critical Writing Index

LUX/ICA Biennial of Moving Images

by Erika Balsom

Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ), 2013, v. 2, no. 2, pp. 273-280

Erika Balsom delves into the modes of curating in contemporary art trhough a review of the LUX/ICA Biennial of Moving Images. Balsom discusses what role the contemporary film curator entails, and praises Thomas Beard and Ed Halter's curating of Luther Price films as a profound engagement, which unfolds aesthetic experience. She questions a contemporary phenomenon – the rise of "propositional curatorial programs" – and criticizes its tendency to privilege the authorial touch of curators over the vision of artists. Balsom gives an example: Martha Kirszenbaum's program in the Biennial uses artists' work to merely reiterate the tropes of body as commodity and obscures their work's individual merit in the process. However, Balsom advocates that "propositional curating" doesn't have to be rigid if it allows for multiple lines of entry into the programming, such as the programs devised by Ben Rivers, Michelle Cotton and Shanay Jhaveri.

ITEM 2013.159 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Little Stabs at HappinessMark Webber

Nine Films by Luther PriceBridget Crone/Plenty Projects

Puce MomentPicture This, Electra and Tramway

Plunderer's DreamLuther Price

Premier Reve d'Oskar Fischinger (Part One and Part Two)Kenneth Anger

The Galactic Pot HealerAgnieszka Polska

The Twilight Zone, The After HoursIsabelle Cornaro

Schweppes AdShana Moulton

Call of the WildGeorge Barber

VeniceSpartacus Chetwynd

The Games: Olympic VariationsAnthea Hamilton

A Voyage on the North SeaMichel Auder

The Strife of Love in a DreamMarcel Broodthaers

Brancusi's Sculpture Ensemble at Tirgu JiuCamille Henrot

Black and White Trypps Number TwoPaul Sharit

Colour FlightBen Russell

The SleepersLen Lye

Textile and Ornamental Arts of IndiaMark Lepore

Franz and paulinaRay and Charles Eames

We, The LivingUte Aurand

Story of HistoryGeorge Kuchar

I Thought It Was YouEmily Roysdon

Ryan McNamara