Description:
Mieke Bal develops the idea that exhibiting is a significant form the contemporary can take. There, visitors are in the actual company of the artworks, which can exert their performativity. Framing the essay with a prologue and an epilogue where recent sculptures respond to earlier ones, the essay considers some recent experiences with shows of her own video work. Her usual close look at art as process makes the case that the being-together-in-time of exhibition visits encourages, and if the curation is well thought through, can heighten the sense of contemporaneity with art better than any other form.