The curator

In Brazil in the nineties, the critic, due to the considerable income in the sector, also migrated towards curatorial practice. The problem is that the taste of the cultural marketing for blockbusters has given rise to so many spectacular exhibitions, which are destitute of any meaning. The number of competent and trustworthy curators increases at the same rate as those who do not take the trouble of writing about what they do, let alone from a critical perspective. In this sense, the exacerbation of the power of the curator, who is properly associated with the figure holding the money, has greatly contributed to worsen the situation. Clearly those who, entrenched among the independent ones, given their total dependency, should not refer to themselves as such. This situation continues and has acquired alarming features: curators of museums and similar institutions who re-orient the course of the institutions, ignoring their history; curators who are gallery advisers; artists that submit themselves to embarrassing situations in order to divulge their works, etc.


Conclusion

Given these aspects, I have come to the conclusion that for the market to acquire a healthy and productive configuration, achieving a desirable approach to the international scene, it is necessary to reverse this process. It is necessary to consolidate experiences, and we, Brazilian artists, critics and curators, who are committed to an experimental artistic practice, must consider the natural limits of the market, especially when it tends to present itself as an arena of free and fierce competition, which is where neo-liberalism is leading us. Only thinking with prudence and method will we manage to face these new adversities.