Configuring Hospitalities: dialogic relations between artists and curators

Abstract

This research seeks to explore the dialogic relationship between artists and curators in Scotland through the lens of hospitality. Taking an interpretive approach informed by post-structuralism, I examine the discursive construction of hospitality as it applies to contemporary art, and the meanings ascribed to it, drawing from relevant literature and qualitative data generated through a focus group and interviews with eight artists and curators working in the contemporary art sector in Scotland. As such, I pose the question: how do artists and curators understand their corresponding roles in relation to the concept of hospitality? At various points, hospitality might signify a practice, a theme, a situation, an exchange, a facade, or a set of laws, and with it brings its subjects: the host and guest. By analysing these subject-positions in relation to the roles of the artist and curator, one might then articulate some of the complexities of social relations and working conditions within the field of contemporary art.