Curatorial practice generally involves a certain degree of research depending on its concept, purview, and institutional framing. To the visitor, this research comes to life in different forms, most tangibly in wall texts and exhibition guides, but also through the experiential and sensate dimension of their encounter with the exhibition. What kinds of knowledge do exhibitions and curatorial practices produce? Where are they located in the larger spectrum of knowledge production? And how might they be qualified and indexed, specifically vis-à-vis conventional institutions?

In this talk, Beirut- and Berlin-based researcher, writer, and curator Rasha Salti explores questions of curatorial practice, knowledge production, and challenging canons of art history. She focuses on Past Disquiet and Saving Bruce Lee, two research-based projects that resulted in archival and documentary exhibitions and events.

Past Disquiet is the result of a decade-long research conducted in collaboration with Kristine Khouri, which culminated in several exhibitions and a book. It explored the marginal histories of international solidarity between artists and “museums in exile” from the 1960s to the 1980s. Saving Bruce Lee was co-curated with Koyo Kouoh, and is based on research around the legacy of Soviet cultural diplomacy during the Cold War, with a focus on the African and Arab filmmakers who studied at the famed Moscow-based VGIK film school.

Free and open to the public with registration.

Rasha Salti is a researcher, writer, and curator of art and film. She lives and works between Beirut and Berlin.