#eugéne Atge

[thomasbreeton]

04/01/21: Curating Lecture

In this lecture Nico presented a historical and contextual explanation of the rise of curating in art. Curating encompasses both the art world and wider cultural realms. In the last two decades the term curating has become significantly more popular due to the rise of the internet. The internet—particularly social media apps such as Instagram and image-collecting sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr—provides a place for people to rapidly assemble text and images that are relevant to their chosen contexts.

In the lecture I noted down a few cultural figures whose work caught my eye:

Glenn Sestig Architects whose ‘architectural brand identity’ for Raf Simons (below) gives an insight into curation in fashion. Select garments hang from austere concrete boxes, the boxes providing a canvas and theatrical stage for the clothes. The architectural identity was commissioned for Dover Street Market where each designer’s capsule is elegantly curated and must compete for attention. 

Eugéne Atge documented Paris in a vast collection of photographs that attest to the changes that the city underwent in the mid-to-late 19th century. The images conveniently and purposefully showcase the arrival of modernity in the city. With most scenes completely absent of people, Atge's images serve as a curation of the architecture of a single city over a specific time period.

(Below) Coin Rue de Seine photographed by Eugéne Atge in 1924.

The architecture of Jon Jerde (b.1940)—specifically his designs of shopping malls in the US—was in effect a curation of multiple outlets that offered a jarring yet complementary visual language. (Below - the visual language of Jerde’s work.)