/ecm diskurs 74: Investigative Curating: The Exhibition as a Crime Scene

Thursday, March 27, 2025, 7pm 
Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Flux 1
Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, 1030 Wien

Lecture: Marie Fraser, Professor Études supérieures en muséologie, Université du Québec à Montréal
Moderation: Nora Sternfeld, Professor of Art Education, HFBK Hamburg, /ecm Directors's team

This presentation is part of a research project entitled "Investigative Museology." At the crossroads of art history, museology, curatorial studies, and anthropology, this research documents and analyzes the trajectory of artworks through an approach inspired by forensic investigative methods. Specifically, I examine how artworks are handled, exhibited and displaced throughout their history. How are they presented, and for what purposes? Under what circumstances do they travel from one country to another to be displayed in various museums and contexts worldwide? How and why do artworks cross geographical borders, engage in geopolitical conflicts, and undergo transformations as a result of these interactions? I will focus on two investigations that were the subject of exhibitions, as well as the work of artists such as Simon Starling, who also inherently employs investigative methods.

Marie Fraser is a professor of art history and museology at the University of Quebec in Montreal and holds the UQAM Research Chair in Curatorial Studies and Practices. She is a co-founder of the CIÉCO research and reflection group, which has been working on museum collections since 2014. She is involved in several research projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), including Investigative Museology: Rethinking Exhibition History Through the Trajectory of Artworks and the partnership project New Uses of Collections in Art Museums. She co-edited Réinventer la collection. L’art et le musée au temps de l’évèn ementiel (PUQ, 2023), issue 40 of Marges. Revue d’art contemporain on activism in collections, and issue 43 of RACAR, What Is Critical Curating? Her recent publications have appeared in Culture & Musées, Intermédialités, Muséologies, Plastik, and Stedelijk Journals.
She was Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal from 2010 to 2013 and curator of the Canada Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.