Vincent Honoré: Curious Curator

@vincenthonore

You co-curated photographer Jeff Wall’s first European solo show. Tell us about the experience.

At that time, Tate Modern was the most magnificent museum I could dream of. Everything that was done there, from the collection displays, the programs and the Turbine Hall etc, looked so innovative and game changing. Tate was the museum for which I wanted to work. I worked on Jeff Wall’s exhibition with Sheena Wagstaff, who is now lea- ding the Modern and Contemporary art department at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Sheena, after Nicolas Bourriaud, is someone who had been very important in my formation. I guess she trusted me and wan- ted to push me. Jeff is one of the artists whose work positioned photography as a definitive contemporary art medium. Since he started, in the late 70s, he created these massive photographic tableaux which had a tremendous influence on our visual culture. He is also a respected teacher and theoretician. If I remember well, this exhibition was the first solo exhibition entirely made of photographs at the Tate Modern. The exhibition, like all exhibitions of this scale, was a complex project, working with lenders from all around the word. It was the first truly institutional exhibition in a museum I did, which allowed to understand how these big machines function.

Throughout your career, you’ve helped bring many shows to a variety of venues. What’s your favorite part about the curating process?

The best part is really to engage with artists. To research, to discuss, to debate, to share and to produce. I also really enjoy contextualizing artworks, positioning them in an exhibition to share my experience of them.

In 2011, you started Drawing Room Confessions, a series of books dedicated to one artist per issue, based on conversations and words only. Tell us about the inspiration and idea behind it.

I created it with artist Manuela Ribadeneira and designer Benjamin Reichen. We were getting bored with reading the same interviews with artists again and again. We wanted to create books in which artists would enter into deep real conversations with other creators, be they artists, writers, philosophers, scientists or politicians, so their true voice could be heard. We also wanted to be focused, and have only one artist per book, shining a light on lesser known aspects of their creations.

Vincent Honoré director of David Roberts Art foundation – Follow Art With Me

You are also a frequent contributor to Mousse Magazine and Cura Magazine. How do you go about finding the content for your pieces?

It often comes from my current field of research. The two last pieces I wrote, on Eleanor Antin and Lynn Hershman Leeson, were originating from my research on DRAG, my upcoming exhibition at the HENI Project Space at Hayward Gallery, on display from 22 August–7 October 2018.

Many curators who hold positions at public galleries sometimes leave to work for private collections as you did with DRAF. Do you see yourself doing that again or do you like the public sector better?

I don’t think that way. I don’t oppose public to private. It all depends on the project and how intellectually challenging I can be. DRAF was not a collection, it was an institution: we were not showcasing works for the collection for the sake of it.
I tried to find a different model and used the collection as library of forms and contents. But the program was not coming from the collection. Rather the other way around, the collection was the effect of the program. I fundamentally believe into the notion of public mission, be it sustained by public or private bodies.