Claudia Contu on Curating as Relational Practice

Claudia Contu describes curating as a relational process beginning with a handshake, not with exhibition planning. She emphasizes direct engagement with artists, valuing their obsessive study and curiosity that can overturn fundamental ideas. Contu references Philippe Parreno's question 'Is the exhibition a film without a camera?' and sees exhibitions as collaborative films where studio visits, openings, and messages are part of the narrative. Her approach is influenced by Harald Szeemann's phenomenological method and Georges Didi-Huberman's metaphor of Aby Warburg's moth. She rejects immobilizing artworks for analysis, preferring to observe a living mystery. Contu is working on a project questioning whether there is a right or wrong way to read an artwork and how judgment evolves when artists or mediators intervene. She criticizes curatorial practices that 'box in' meanings for display, driven by a contemporary fear of not having something intelligent to say. She calls for intellectual honesty and remembering the etymology of 'cura.' The article appears in Artribune Magazine #40, with related newsletters Incanti (art market), Render (urban regeneration), and PAX (cultural tourism).