Theater of Exhibitions analyzes “art after the end of art,” questioning whether inherited frameworks of making, theorizing, and exhibiting art still apply to contemporary practice.
This volume considers the current commodification of the art industry and the distribution of images in the digital age. Drawing from his formation in theater and his own curatorial work, Jens Hoffmann reflects on the spaces of contemporary art—the gallery, the institution, the biennial—and ultimately positions the discipline of curating in the context of a larger cultural sphere shaped by the political, social, and economic conditions of its time, while demanding new attitudes and new thinking. Hoffmann's theater posits the exhibition as an anthropological endeavor, and the curator as its agent.
Jens Hoffmann (born 1974 in San Jose, Costa Rica) is a writer, exhibition maker, and educator. He currently is Deputy Director of The Jewish Museum, New York. He has published widely in journals and museum publications and has written over 200 texts on art and exhibition making over the last 15 years. His most recent books include “The Studio” (2012), as well as “Show Time: A History of Exhibitions” (2014). He is the founder and editor of “The Exhibitionist: Journal on Exhibition Making.” Most recently he co-curated the 9th Shanghai Biennial (2012/13) and the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011).
