Alina Serban

Curating the Post-Socialist Condition

Discussions around Eastern European culture (regarding its development and difference) appeared dominated by a certain populist rhetoric towards the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Since 1990, Western curators have been mapping the positions and movements of art production in the East in terms of certain symbolic or political connotations. Alina Şerban’s lecture discussed the challenges facing Eastern European curators at that time, which appear situated between the reflection on this paradigm and the practice in a successful Western framework. How can the curator define and interpret his or her own post-socialist condition? Is he or she still an author, or only a consumer?

Alina ŞERBAN (*1978) is curator and art critic. She is co-founder and co-director of the Centre for Visual Introspection in Bucharest and was curator of the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2009. Alina Şerban lives and works in Bucharest.
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