Melanie Josefine Bühler
Curator, currently Senior Curator at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen
melanie@m-j-b.info
| CH | +41 76 566 38 31 |
I am a curator based in Zürich and St.Gallen. I am responsible for Lunch Bytes – a project on art and digital culture including talks, discussions and an online platform and the exhibition series Inflected Objects among other curatorial projects. I am the editor of The Art of Critique (Lenz Press/Frans Hals Museum, 2022) and No Internet, No Art. A Lunch Bytes Anthology (Onomatopee, 2015) and co-editor of The Transhistorical Museum (Valiz/Frans Hals Museum, 2022). My writings regularly appear in various exhibition catalogues, publications and magazines and I was the guest-editor of Metropolis M, August/September 2016. Between 2017 and 2022 I was the Curator Contemporary Art at Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem and in October 2022 I've been appointed Senior Curator at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland. I am the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship and hold an MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.
CV.pdf
- WRITING: Soft Science Fiction: Adriana Ramić, in: Mousse Magazine, October 2023
- WRITING: Beyond Narrative. Text for Jacqueline de Jong's exhibition at WOS, Zürich
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WRITING: Jiajia Zhang: You Left Something Behind, Jungle Books/Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, 2023
Publication to accompany Jiajia Zang's solo exhibiton at Kunstmuseum St.Gallen (April 2023-October 2023)
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WRITING: The Art of Critique (editor and contributor), Lenz Press/Frans Hals Museum, 2022
We live in a moment in which institutions, including those central to the art world, are facing a surge of public scrutiny. Propelled by social media, profound questions about how institutions operate—whether structurally, politically, or financially—have become an increasingly prominent part of public life and discourse in recent years.
In this context, The Art of Critique revisits the artistic practice of institutional critique to ask what it means today, and to consider its ability to respond to the urgent social, political, and economic issues of our time. Taking works by Tracey Emin, Andrea Fraser, and Sarah Lucas in the collection of the Frans Hals Museum as a departure point, The Art of Critique uses a feminist approach to broaden and challenge traditional art historical definitions of institutional critique. These expanded forms of critique function as precursors to the practices of the contemporary artists presented as part of this project. Collectively, the contemporary works shed a new light on the legacy of institutional critique while addressing structural issues as wide-ranging as labor practices in the creative industry, city development, gender inequality, and the intertwined histories of capitalism and colonialism.
The publication documents the long-term project at the Frans Hals Museum (2019–22) under directorship of Ann Demeester and based on a concept by Melanie Bühler—a symposium, Color Critique (chapter one); an exhibition, Image Power (chapter two: Image Critique); and artist commissions (chapter three: Structure Critique)—together with artworks, conversations, and newly commissioned and translated essays.
Edited by Melanie Bühler
With contributions by Marie Angeletti, Karen Archey, Ute Meta Bauer, Melanie Bühler, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Harry Burke, Ann Demeester, Clémence Lollia Hilaire, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Andrea Fraser, Simon Fujiwara, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Alex Kitnick, Lynne Kouassi, Erik van Lieshout, Lloyd Corporation, Sven Lütticken, Daniel Morgenthaler, Marlie Mul, Becket MWN, Grace Ndiritu, D’Ette Nogle, Ahmet Öğüt, Ima-Abasi Okon, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, María Inés Plaza Lazo, Bea Schlingelhoff, Hito Steyerl, Juan Uribe, Dena Yago.
Designed by Sabo Day
Co-published by Frans Hals Museum and Lenz PressThe publication was generously supported by Outset Contemporary Art Funds Netherlands and VriendenLoterij
Softcover, 288 pages, 21 x 29.7 cm
ISBN 979-12-80579-10-2 - WRITING: What’s in a Vibe?, in: Mousse Magazine, July 2022
- WRITING: Tortured Disney, False Truths and Conflicted Memes, in: Arts of the Working Class, 19, December 2021
- WRITING: Are Museums Like Parks? The “Public” in Public Museums, in: Mousse, July 2020
- WRITING: In Other Words, Please be True. The Persistent Promise of the Index, in: Echoing Exhibition Views, edited by A.R. practice, Onomatopee 2020
- WRITING: Colour Critique, in: Metropolis M June/July 2019
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WRITING: The Transhistorical Museum (co-editor and contributor), Valiz, 2018
Edited by: Eva Wittocx, Ann Demeester, Peter Carpreau, Melanie Bühler, Xander Karskens
Contributions by: Mieke Bal, Melanie Bühler, Peter Carpreau, Bice Curiger, Penelope Curtis, Ann Demeester, Olga Fernández López, Hendrik Folkerts, Hanneke Grootenboer, María Íñigo Clavo, Xander Karskens, Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Jean-Hubert Martin, Alexander Nagel, Ruth Noack, Nicola Setari, Jasper Sharp, Abigail Winograd, Eva Wittocx
Design: Sam de Groot2018, Valiz with Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem and M-Museum, Leuven | paperback | 224 pages | 23.5 cm x 16.5 cm | English | ISBN 978-94-92095-52-7
Since the turn of this century, we have witnessed a significant expanse in the field of transhistorical exhibition practices. A range of curatorial efforts have emerged in which objects and artefacts from various periods and art-historical and cultural contexts are combined in display, in an effort to question and expand traditional museological notions such as chronology, context, and category. Such experiments in transcending art-historical boundaries can potentially result in both fresh insights into the workings of entrenched historical presumptions and provide a space to reassess interpretations of individual objects in relation to their contexts and narratives.
Despite this surge of interest in art-historical writing and curatorial practices, and overview and theoretical mapping of transhistoricity has so far been missing. This anthology aims to fill this gap: it charts the territory for the transhistorical by bringing together contributions by leading scholars, curators, and museum professionals of the field. It looks at the concepts that undergird the transhistorical, describes the theoretical horizon it relates to, and illuminates the practical applications it has fostered. As such, it provides the grounds for further research and practical applications.
The book is divided into three parts: 1. Terminology & Theoretical Horizon; 2. Art & Time; 3. Curatorial Strategies. - WRITING: The Ever Curious Case of Seth Price – Metropolis M, April/Mai 2017
- WRITING: Producing Singularity. An Essay on Rubén Grilo, in: Generaciones, La Casa Encendida, 2017
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WRITING: Reverse-Engineering Disruption. Photography and the Dawn of Smart Geography, in: Photography Today: distant realities, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich 2016
Catalogue essay
As part of Photography Today: distant realities. An Exhibition Series on Artistic Photography in the Digital Age - WRITING: Visceral Upcycling, in: Metropolis M August/September 2016
- WRITING: Curating Holes, in: Mousse Magazine June/July 2016
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WRITING: Stuck in Present Tense: iFoMO, events, and the digital as an institutional category, in: The Born-Digital Art Institution, Sternberg Press, forthcoming 2016
Essay
Anthology edited by Zachary Kaplan - WRITING: Introduction No Internet, No Art, in: No Internet, No Art. A Lunch Bytes Anthology, edited by Melanie Bühler, Onomatopee, 2015
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WRITING: Ghosts on Tour. Kasia Klimpel’s Landscapes and the World of Google, in: Kasia Klimpel. The Grand Tour, Roma Publications, 2015
Catalogue Essay
- WRITING: What I Talk about when I Talk about Photography, Still Searching, Fotomuseum Winterthur, 2015
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WRITING: Internet Art Beyond the Internet, in: Run Computer Run, edited by Nora O’Murchù, Link Editions/ CRUMB 2014
Essay
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WRITING: Art and Digital Technologies. Producing, Distributing and Selling Art when the Digital Has Become Part of Everything, in: UNSEEN Magazine, Foam, 2014
Article
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WRITING: Immersive Brands, in: Megarave Metarave, edited by Raffael Dörig, les presses du réel, 2014
Catalogue Essay