Curating Contemporary Music Festivals

Abstract

ing for influence and gaining power for himself.As Richter's analysis of Szeemann and his photos with Documenta artists concludes, what is visible is how Szeemann used the iconography of a seemingly anarchistic and emancipated concept of artistic production to establish himself at the top of a hierarchical system of meaningproduction (Richter 2008, 121). 20 This criticism of Szeemann and his character points to a further important point in the development of curatorial practice.It matters a great deal not just what the curatorial concept is on paper or what artists are presented, but also how 20 Richter's analysis contrasts Szeemann with the quasi-curatorial work of Maciunas and the Fluxus group.Maciunas, despite half-hearted attempts at becoming the central node in the Fluxus network, was rather more a facilitator.Richter argues, through the analysis of archival photos, that any such self-definition of Maciunas as in the centre of the network is non-existent; rather what is seen are the anarchistic and non-hierarchical moments that were a foil to Szeemann's centrality at Documenta (2008, 115-121).This can be connected to the case study analysis of Berno Odo Polzer's leadership of Maerzmusik, which is concluded to exhibit a similar contradiction in values, see the conclusion of that chapter in section 5.9.

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