Week 13 | Final Synthesis: The Curatorial Gaze as Care
1.SICP Synthesis: Awareness and Material Agency
This thirteen-week journey has transformed my curatorial focus from the authority of grand institutions to the care for microscopic material tensions. My individual project, Awareness Through Materiality, successfully weaves together the works of Jiang Miao, Suyon Huh, and Guo Puyi. I have realized that a curator is not merely a spatial manager but a facilitator of material agency. Objects are not passive tools of human intentions. They have the potential to change social relations. In the planning of Custom Lane, I guided the audience to break free from the habitual logic of efficiency by showcasing the friction and companionship between these artworks.
2.Ji Ju Reflection: Care as Social Practice
The Ji Ju collective’s exhibition, Our Shell, served as a testing ground for my curatorial ethics. At Summerhall, we proved that curating is an art of flaw and negotiation. Instead of pursuing perfect unity, we use the metaphorical tool of the red line to weave the fragmented migration experience into a temporary archive. As Je Yun Moon notes:
What has to be emphasized here is the fact that the word ‘curatorial’ is not an adjective that describes the mode of operation of professional curators. In other words, the curator is not the first to exist and then the curatorial happens to be its mode of operation. The term ‘curatorial’ no longer dictates a specific role or position. It is a driving word through which we can begin to negotiate with the imperatives of the modern subject machine.
Our collective practice proves that the work of curators is to establish connections for plural voices, even if this connection has friction.
3.Curating as Continuous Research
This 13-week blog record itself is my curatorial research laboratory. It records every friction from the germination of the concept to the practical operation. The curator is not only a display of known knowledge, but also a process of producing new knowledge. This idea will serve as the cornerstone of my future career, guiding me to continue to explore how to connect alienated individuals into a caring community through art.
Notes:
1.Martinon, Jean-Paul, ed. The Curatorial : A Philosophy of Curating. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015, 27, Accessed April 21, 2026. ProQuest Ebook Central.
