During an Art Basel talk about the Istanbul Biennial, Jens Hoffmann quoted an article about the rising popularity of the curator, and how it is eclipsing the actor or athlete as the most desirable profession. He directed me to this article in Die Zeit - which prominently features a beaming photo of Hans-Ulrich Obrist, before stating that curators have the same function as a DJ (the dream-job of the nineties), providing ‘the right mix for us and discovered the hot new trends’.

A few months ago, in a conversation with a friend at none other than ArtNet, she referred to art as the ultimate luxury - which may be a debatable cliche - but if it’s true then the contemporary curator is the steward of this ultimate luxury, and a ‘secret creator’ of it. This can be used to explain the growing attraction of the career path, and the hemorrhaging of it’s sincerity.

The article states that ‘scientifically minded’ museum employees make up only a small percentage of the current crop of curators, however we will be focusing the majority of our attention on their perspectives.