08/09/2026
lecture
What happens when an archive becomes a site of negotiation and power?
Curator talk with Rael Artel
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On Tuesday, September 8th at 6:00 PM, we invite you to a meeting with curator and art historian Rael Artel, which will take place at the CSW ZU Studio. Admission is free.
- What happens when an archive becomes a site of negotiation and power? In this presentation, curator Rael Artel reflects on the making — and eventual cancellation — of an exhibition based on the photographic collection of the Estonian National Museum. The exhibition was titled “The Photography Collection as a Mine of History” and approached the photo archive as a layered repository of everyday life, values, fears, rituals and changing self-images, offering a glimpse into how a nation photographed itself into being.
- Drawing on this experience, she examines how exhibitions are shaped through negotiations between curators, institutions, collections and different understandings of meaning. What happens when an institution changes its expectations after a concept has been approved and the work is already underway? And what does this reveal about the limits of curatorial autonomy when formal agreements coexist with unequal institutional power? The lecture connects these questions to the broader concerns of “This Cat Was Drawn During the War”: how meanings are negotiated, how dominant narratives are challenged, and whether critical reflection can remain possible within conditions of crisis and institutional pressure.
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Rael Artel
- is an independent curator and art historian based in Estonia. She has been working in the field of contemporary art since 2000 and has curated more than 100 exhibitions in Estonia and internationally. Her curatorial practice focuses on questions of memory, identity, history, nationalism and the political conditions of contemporary culture. Artel has also held institutional leadership positions, including Director of the Tartu Art Museum (2013–2017), and has initiated numerous international exhibitions, seminars and platforms for critical exchange. She holds an MA in Art History from the Estonian Academy of Arts and completed the Curatorial Training Programme at De Appel Art Centre in Amsterdam.
