SOUTH SOUTH (SS): This is the 12th edition of the Experimenter Curators’ Hub and the first in-person edition since the pandemic. What have your considerations been for transitioning back to hosting curators in the same space? Why do you think it is important that this be held in physical space?

Prateek & Priyanka Raja (PPR): The Curators’ Hub is essentially about dialogue and intimacy and unlike a traditional conference or a symposium, it is crucial to have free flowing dialogue and real time conversation and constructive debate. As a viewer one can see the proceedings of the Hub online, but as a participant and someone who is present on site, the experience is completely different and holistic. One of the crucial objectives of the Hub is the creation of a fearless free space that allows a certain candidness between the curators and the audience. This is further enhanced by a closeness that the Hub has traditionally enabled. Hence, we were very keen to return the Hub to its physical iteration. Of course, the Hub will be streamed online on our channels and that of our partners for wider reach. However, the magic of the Hub is in person.

SS: What are your thoughts on curatorial practice and the importance of continuous engagement around it?

PPR: We feel that curatorial work is not periodical. It’s a continuous flowing stream of thoughts and actions that is influenced by several aspects; from artist interactions, to encounters with works, to dialogues with other thinkers and writers and fellow curators, amongst many other things. Therefore curatorial practice and thinking are also ever-transforming, growing ideas. Similarly, our work and engagement around curatorial work cannot be seen in silos or with a hands-off engagement. We need to be continuously and constantly engaged with it and keep ourselves and our audiences abreast with curatorial practice. Only then can a constructive language around contemporary art and practices can be developed, and only then can we truly build a discourse around what the current moment upholds.

SS: What are your thoughts on the significance of having the audience engage in the conversations, and expanding beyond the curators selected to participate?

PPR: Interaction and audience engagement have been crucial aspects of the Curators’ Hub since the very beginning. The structure and seating of the Hub are such that even architecturally, it allows for more immediate and personal interaction. Therefore, the audience plays an equally important role at the Hub. The questions, answers and interactions at these very intense sessions become the building blocks for further discussions, and open up new possibilities and renewed understanding of the participants’ work. Also, this platform is intentionally called a Hub because questions and their answers reflect upon each other like a hub does and establishes a ground for curatorial inquisition.

On the programming side, we realize that curatorial practice cannot be in turn viewed and understood in isolation. The work that contemporary curators do is after all a reflection on contemporaneity and that is influenced in turn by a myriad of other factors. We have used the opportunity of the Curators’ Hub to invite in addition to the curators, other practitioners and thought leaders in their fields. Often times the invited speakers are people who are voices of dissent and fearlessness in a rapidly shrinking space for free debate and the emergence of hostile responses to ideas of plurality. This year too we have invited Karuna Nundy who is an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and is an active voice in defending the pluralities that define us.

SS: What are your thoughts on the significance of having the audience engage in the conversations, and expanding beyond the curators selected to participate?

PPR: Interaction and audience engagement are a crucial aspects of the Curators’ Hub since the very beginning. The structure and seating of the Hub are such that even architecturally, it allows for more immediate and personal interaction. Therefore, the audience plays an equally important role at the Hub, and question answers and interactions at these very intense sessions become the building blocks for further discussions, and open up new possibilities and renewed understanding of their work. Also, the Hub which it is intentionally called such is because questions and their answers reflect upon each other like a hub does and establishes a ground for curatorial inquisition.

On the programming side, we realize that curatorial practice cannot be in turn viewed and understood in isolation. The work that contemporary curators do is after all a reflection on contemporaneity and that is influenced in turn by a myriad of other factors. We have used the opportunity of the Curators’ Hub to invite in addition to the curators, other practitioners and thought leaders in their fields. Often times the invited speakers are people who are voices of dissent and fearlessness in a rapidly shrinking space for free debate and the emergence of hostile responses to ideas of plurality. This year too we have invited Karuna Nundy who is an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and is an active voice in defending the pluralities that define us.