THOUGHT EXHIBITION · The significance of Bruno Latour's art exhibition concept for his work and as a model for art institutions

Thought Exhibition: The significance of Bruno Latour's art exhibition concept for his work and as a model for art institutions

The research project investigates the concept of “thought exhibition”, a curatorial approach developed by Bruno Latour, Peter Weibel and collaborators during four exhibitions at ZKM | Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe. These exhibitions aim at challenging problems in representation (in art, science, religion, politics) as well as the dualistic mentality (nature/culture, object/subject, etc.) fostered by European modernity which is, according to Latour, at the heart of current crises such as climate change. Following Latour’s work in science studies and philosophy the concept of “thought exhibition” (TE) is an art and science exhibition format. Derived from the notion of thought experiment it critically examines the dualistic “modern” mindset that strongly influences how the so-called Western cultures conceive the world; a view that was historically imposed on other cultures. The TEs at ZKM addressed dualisms such as the nature-culture distinction, which is the basis for other dualisms and bifurcations (Whitehead), e.g., the distinction between art and science, or the juxtaposition of subject and object or the seemingly objective “outside” perspective of science vs. the subjective “inside” perspective of nature. Implying hierarchy and dominion (culture over nature, subject over object, etc.), these distinctions are at the core of major challenges the world of today is facing and of which climate change may be the most far-reaching. The TE concept was practically developed in the course of four exhibitions at ZKM. The research project analyses the four TEs as case studies, to investigate their significance for Latour’s general work as well as the concept’s assumptions, curatorial methods and implications as a new format for art institutions. The last TE, “Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics” (2020–2022) invited visitors to face the critical situation of our planet and “to explore new modes of coexistence between all forms of life”. Other TEs at ZKM Karlsruhe were “Iconoclash. Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art” (2002), which explored the notion of iconoclasm and how it positions (in a cultural and spatial sense) the visitor, “Making Things Public. Atmospheres of Democracy” (2005), which extended the notion of political representation to non-human actors, and “Reset Modernity!” (2016), an invitation to explore what we actually are if “we have never been modern” and to consider alternative future developments beyond globalization’s imperative narratives of growth. Despite the relevance of both Latour’s work and ZKM Karlsruhe as a leading art museum, little research on the TE concept has been done so far. The research project fill this gap by investigating the curatorial approach and the underlying theoretical or epistemological conditions. In this regard, the research project is situated within discourses on an expanded notion of curating (involving processes of research and collaborative knowledge production) where the aesthetic and participatory capacity of the arts to address crucial issues and to involve individuals into processes of change is central.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union