Online
29 October 2022
Convened by Tor Scott, Helen Bremm and Emma Sharples
A programme of talks and panel discussion investigating the curation of magical art, magic and esotericism
Curating Magic aimed to consider how magic’s continued importance as counter-cultural force and epistemological strategy might be reflected in art, art history and curation, exploring how magic and esotericism can shape not only the content of an exhibition but how they might, in turn, inform curatorial practice itself.
Following a call for papers, speakers from eight countries were invited to facilitate a dialogue between academics, curators and artists on aspects including mediating the materiality of magic; the archival, institutional, and heritage context of occult artworks and collections research; as well as transnational and decolonial approaches to magic and art. The seminar had over 80 attendees over the course of the day.
The keynote by Daniel Zamani, curator at the Museum Barberini, Potsdam, and Gražina Subelytė, associate curator at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, discussed their recent exhibition Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity and the challenges faced from its conception through to its realisation across two venues. Art historian, filmmaker, and writer Gillian McIver and Hanya ElGhamry, senior assistant curator for Art d’Egypte, then spoke on their exhibition Alchemy!, which brought together sixteen UK and Egypt-based contemporary artists. PhD candidate Shareed Mohammed subsequently examined the magical logic and attendant aesthetics of Haitian Vodou in art.
Two papers on the subject of sacred heritage sites and the staging of magical rituals in museums followed. PhD candidates Anna Milon and Claire Slack invited attendees to participate in a discussion exploring the balance between contemporary pagan practice and heritage conservation and environmental concerns at Avebury, Wiltshire and St Nectan’s Glen in Cornwall. Marisa Karyl Franz, clinical assistant professor of Museum Studies at New York University, examined three dioramic displays of magic in domestic settings, at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall, the Salem Witch Board Museum in Massachusetts, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, through the lens of museum theory.
In the final session, artist Alexander D’Agostino shared how his ritual and performance-based practice has informed his work with queer histories at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Lastly, Oksana Gryshchenko, co-founder and curator of Doroshenko Gryshchenko Clinic in Ukraine spoke on the subject of defying post-colonial constraints through magic in contemporary art exhibitions. New Zealand-based art historians and curators Aaron Lister and Chelsea Nichols were sadly unable to participate due to illness.
The concluding panel discussion addressed issues such as the ‘overintellectualising’ of magical thinking and practice, the removal of magical objects from their intended worship site, altar, or environment, as well as the problematics of curators interpreting art as artefacts and vice versa. Due to time constraints, some questions could not be fully explored, including archives or collections as magical spaces in themselves, as well as a more in-depth exploration of the term ‘alchemy’ and its modern-day uses. Attendees networked with one another over the course of the day, and some were put in touch with speakers to continue discussions after the event.
The full list of abstracts and speaker biographies is available to download below.
