Okwui Enwezor: Exhibition-Making as a Starting Point for the Overall Production Of Knowledge

Okwui Enwezor had curated several canonical exhibitions, such as The Short Century (2001), Documenta 11 in Kassel (2002), the 56^thVenice Biennale (2015) and the ongoing El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale exhibition at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2019). In his curatorial practices, Enwezor did not focus strictly on exhibition making but he often included the production of symbolically important catalogues about the exhibitions. By analysing those catalogues, one promptly realizes that the range of essays go beyond the curatorial choices made and artworks displayed in the exhibition space. Indeed, the essays can be understood as the exercise of creation, articulation and accumulation of knowledge that surprisingly cannot be restricted to a singular discipline such as exhibition studies. One of the main aims of my proposal is to discuss Okwui Enwezor’s theoretical elaborations. This study will be conducted through a horizontal approach that on the one hand could be classified as an accumulative process and on the other hand, traces the genealogical structure behind the creation of Okwui's elaborations.