„There comes a time for every curator when they realise that their work is not about the pictures that end up on the wall. It is about the people who created those pictures.”
For a long time, I thought that a curator’s main role was to organise exhibitions, select artworks and arrange exhibition spaces. However, as I worked with more and more artists, I came to realise that the true nature of curatorial work runs much deeper than that.
An exhibition runs for a few weeks or months.
A single thought, however, can live on through the generations.
That is why, for me, curatorial work is not merely about organisation. It is about interpretation. It is about forging connections. It is about documentation. And, above all, it is about responsibility.
A responsibility to ensure that the human stories that give rise to each work of art are not lost to time.
Curator’Desk is the personal and professional platform of Beatrix Jakab, an independent curator. It is here that the vision linking CoolturArt’s exhibitions, artistic collaborations, Journal publications and Critical Notes articles comes to the fore.
For me, curatorial work is not merely about selecting artworks and organising exhibitions. It involves interpretation, documentation and building connections between the artist, the artwork and the audience.
Behind every painting there is always the person who created it: their decisions, their questions, their losses, their fresh starts and their hopes. That is why, for me, getting to know an artist always comes before presenting their works.
CoolturArt was established not only to showcase contemporary artists, but also to build up and document their bodies of work over the long term.
An exhibition eventually closes, and social media content disappears. However, a carefully compiled professional archive preserves the key milestones in an artist’s career, even years later.
CoolturArt therefore not only organises events, but also helps to shape cultural memory.
The Journal is a visual and professional diary. It not only shows what took place at an exhibition, but also the ideas, encounters and personal stories that made it significant.
The articles in Critical Notes do not pass judgement, but rather open up new perspectives. Their aim is not to tell readers what to think about a work, but to raise questions that bring them closer to understanding it.
CoolturArt is a meeting place where artists, audiences, cultural institutions and partners can connect with one another.
I believe that every encounter marks the beginning of a new story – and every story deserves to be preserved in a fitting way.
Beatrix Jakab
Independent curator
The founder of CoolturArt