...IT'S HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME is a collaborative, conceptual exhibition project which will investigate the curatorial process and reveal how curators' choices are reflective of their aesthetic and critical values. The show is conceived of as a game in which the participants, five curators of contemporary art - Thelma Golden of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Nancy Spector of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Robert Storr of The Museum of Modern Art, and Jeanette lngberman and Papo Colo of Exit Art/ The First World will each take turns selecting and installing works of art chosen in response to the other curators' selections.
.. .IT'S HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME opens on november 5th with each curator first selecting and installing several works of art in Exit Art / The First World's galleries. In the succeeding weeks the five curators will take turns independently choosing and installing new works in response to the previous curators' selections. In this way, ...IT'S HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME changes and expands both physically and visually each week, reflecting and reinforcing a curatorial dialogue.
The works can be of any medium. The only criterion for eacg curator's selection is that it must on some way respond to the artwork already installed in the exhibition: on a conceptual, formal, political, aesthetic or historical basis. The curators may parlay their "turns" in ...IT'S HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME by moving or re-installing pieces in the exhibition, or even removing works of art.
Each selection of artwork in the exhibition will be displayed with information on who selected the piece and when it was added to the show. The curators have the option of adding a text or statement to further explain their choice.
In addition to borrowing works from artists and private collections ... ITS HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME provides the guest with a unique opportunity to interact with their collections, there by presenting work from museums on a different context.
Ultimately each curator will choose appoximately 15 works of art over the course of the exhibition, resulting in appoximately 75 works that will make up the final exhibition. The curatorial process will end the weel of December 23 and the installation will be complete ...ITS HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME will remain on display in its final form through January 28, 1995. A closing party, open to the public wil be held on Saturday January 28.
...ITS HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME is meant to stimulate dialogues among curators, artists, and the public on issues such as; the role of the institution; the philosophy of collections; the criteria dtermining curatorial choices; the artists' position within this process and exhibbition installation and its influence on our understanding of a work of art.