ERL participants are students of the BA ArtScience, BA Fine Arts, BA Interior Architecture & Furniture Design, BA Graphic Design and BA Photography at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) and Contemporary Art Theory at Leiden University.

Is an exhibition a mere platform for presenting an artwork? Or is it an intrinsic part of the creative process? Where lies the difference and what are the implications of these different positions for the artist’s research process and artistic practice? How do various curatorial roles relate to notions of artistic autonomy? Why do artists make exhibitions anyway?

"The Middleman" reflects in the agency of contemporary collective and participatory exhibitions and its relation with power interplays. "The Middleman" is an ambiguous figure, who can be thought of as a curator, an artist, or a curious spectator. This flexible and and in-between identity set the tone for the decision to include in the exhibition not only individual artworks by the ERL participants but also a collectively produced installation.

The exhibition aims to become a communal and festive atmosphere generated by all of us, including the visitors, as performers of non-fixed meanings who collectively participate in this ephemeral moment of time and space. The exhibition will be accompanied by the symposium: ‘A Shared Authorship: On the collective and participatory nature of exhibition-making today’, a series of artist talks between the ERL 2018, invited guests and the public, which will be held on Monday June 4th at the KABK.

Exhibition Research Lab 2018 participants:
Lily Hudson (ArtScience)
Christian Roncea (Fine Arts)
Lisa Eva Hens (Interior Architecture and Furniture Design)
Violet Luu (Interior Architecture and Furniture Design)
Daniele Formica (Fine Arts)
Steven Pul (Photography)
Louiza Charitonidou (Photography)
Anastasia Kiseleva (Fine Arts)
Jinzi Liu (Interior Architecture and Furniture Design)
Eva Sigurðardóttir (Fine Arts)
Denisse Vega de Santiago (Contemporary Art in a Global Perspective)
Tor Schening Johannesen (Graphic Design)

Tutor: Tatjana Macic