F

or the past fifteen years, "curating " has been a particularly popular code word in the world of contemporary art exhibitions. But what practices does it refer to exactly, and why has this Anglicism come to supplant the term "commissariat" in the French language? Answering these questions is not simply a matter of highlighting the role played by artists, curators, authors and exhibition "makers" in the revival of the exhibition field from the 1960s-1970s onwards. The idea behind this book is that curating, far from being a recent phenomenon, relates to earlier and successive (r)evolutions, both in the field of hanging and scenography, and in the professional and institutional sphere within which exhibition organizers evolve. Since the mid-nineteenth century, curatorial activity has passed through the hands of an ever-increasing number of protagonists, and now oscillates between hyper-professionalization and increasingly tangible deprofessionalization. Indeed, it would seem that today, the profession - recognized as such - is within the reach of everyone, and in particular of those whom the author calls "curatorial outsiders ".

Julie Bawin is professor of contemporary art history at the Université de Liège. Her publications include L'Artiste commissaire. Entre posture critique, jeu créatif et valeur ajoutée (Éditions des archives contemporaines, 2014), Art public et controverses. XIXe-XXIe siècles (CNRS Éditions, 2024). Since 2017, she has directed the Musée d'art contemporain en plain air du Sart Tilman in Liège.