Curating…A VORTEX

The word “Curating” might be perceived today as a Fashionable concept. To “curate” means to take care of, mostly of an object, or an idea, a vision or a dream. From a tangible object, a coat, a shoe, or a painting, we can transform the idea of curating to a never forgetting experience; space, light, sound, are adding dimensions in witch the viewer will be attracted by the object in order to reflect its meaning, its significance in the history of mankind, its context or influence in the way we perceive creative phenomenon’s and explosions of creativity and craft.

Today “Time” has a very different meaning than a few decades, even years ago; we are living “time” as a “Vortex” bringing together the “past “ and “future”. Today we are living simultaneously in the virtual and in the humanised world; The Vortex bring both experiences together in a new way of thinking, speaking, dreaming, working, curating.

If we think of “curating” an object we immediately think about “Space”. First the Museum space as the most natural environment for a precious object, discovered in the archives of a famous museum. The object, of a great historical value, cannot be exposed to heavy light, needs certain humidity, and cannot be touched. We have regulations made by ICOM, the International Counsel of Museums. (ICOM’s standards and guidelines supply models to museum professionals in order to facilitate the implementation of their good practices in terms of objects acquisition, personnel, conservation of art objects and museum specialism. These standards and guidelines are elaborated by ICOM’s International Committee experts and are recognised by the Executive Council.)

Not always is the museum space the ground to expose a garment, an object. Exhibitions “In situ” are sometimes the most inspiring location to share with the visitors and connoisseurs of fashion ad culture, looking at an object, reading its meaning, becoming a subjectfinalised in a project, the exhibition. The three aspects of curating are becoming the vortex we are going to study in this course.

The course is composed of different elements of learning:

• First theoretical background of museum management, archiving, the practise of collecting, display and the theory of the exhibition skills, subjects and meanings.
• Secondly we are going to do weekly practise of curating the “Object”, the “Subject” and the “Project”.
• Finally we will focus on writing, discussing, sharing knowledge with experienced Fashion and Art curators of today.

As space is an important player in “Fashion, curating the Vortex”, we will invite architects, philosophers,

Scientists, anthropologists and designers to understand the world we live. Society changed, museums management has to change as well. The “vortex” is equal to “dynamics”; we are going to give “curating” e new meaning by the use of new tools. We will use Internet to make our web platform, using text, video, manifests to innovate Fashion Curating to please and attract a young audience, a generation of timeless thinkers.

The course is designed for advanced students interested by the theory and practise of fashion as a social phenomenon, inspired to develop their skills in curating for museums, but not only. Art, Fashion and Architecture must be your passions to start this course.

Linda Loppa, January 20, 2018