Why curators are the caregivers of the art world

From managing people to solving logistical nightmares, curators are the unseen presence behind every successful exhibition

- Somak Ghoshal

same short- and long-term perspectives."

Galleries run the risk of becoming too focused on sales and demand an assembly line mode of supply. Artists, on the other hand, can "become myopic, even tone deaf, and need to be reined in", he adds.

Beyond the inner circle of art enthusiasts, the role of a curator tends to remain shrouded in a haze of confusion. Is a curator's job analogous to what a translator does for a writer? Or does their role entail writing jaw-breaking jargon-filled concept notes that only a chosen elite can make sense of? How does the curator connect the artist with the public?

The word "curate" comes from the Latin root curare, meaning "to care". At their core, curators are supposed to be caretakers and caregivers. They can do so in several, often intersecting, fields—be it the arts, culinary experiences, hospitality, travel or consumer internet. Influencers can become curators of taste, as can critics and pop-culture icons.

In the world of the fine arts, thanks to the expertise of legendary curators like Hans Ulrich Obrist, curation has become a multidisciplinary field, with its distinctive vocabulary and politics. It is offered as a course in several institutions across the West, though not yet in India, where exhibitions have long been a joint enterprise of artists and gallerists. With the rise of conceptual art in the 2000s, along with the growth of a global market for Indian art, the curator's role has become ever more important—as an arbiter between the artist and their audiences.

EARLY ADOPTERS

In the 2010s, when Prateek and Priyanka Raja opened Experimenter, a space to bring together emerging artists and their practice, in Kolkata, the couple were in their early 30s. "From the beginning, we thought of ourselves as a curatorial collective, not a white cube," says Priyanka Raja. "We wanted to learn from practitioners how to put together a show, work with artists and engage the public."