thomas weski

Talk

The Invisible Part of the Iceberg

When an exhibition opens, it is not just a process of research, selection and contextualization that lies behind it, but also a multitude of things that are not shown. That does not, however, make them less important, rather it provides the necessary foundation for everything that is shown. Thomas Weski calls this foundation “the tip of the iceberg” and discusses with Julia Kurz and Agnieszka Roguski, using the example of two exhibitions curated by him, how a body of work is made visible through various forms of attribution and authorship, presentation in space and the transfer of materiality.

Thomas Weski, born in Hannover in 1953, was Curator of Photography and Media at Sprengel Museum Hannover, and Chief Curator at Museum Ludwig, Cologne, and Haus der Kunst, Munich. He was Professor of Cultures of the Curatorial from 2009 until 2015 at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Since then, he is Curator of the Foundation for Photography and Media Art with the Michael Schmidt Archive, Berlin. Weski has curated numerous exhibitions on photography in his various positions. Currently, he is curating a retrospective of Michael Schmidt's work for the Nationalgalerie Hamburger Bahnhof—Museum für Gegenwart—Berlin, opening May 2020, which will travel to Jeu de Paume, Paris; Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Albertina, Vienna.