PC2:SS:RR

Interesting Possibilities

An imagined exhibition celebrating the curatorial practice of Hayward Gallery Director, Ralph Rugoff examining the openness and edge that defines his curatorial approach.

Ralph Rugoff

There’s a (small but growing) history of exhibitions about curators, such as Harald Szeemann’s Agent of Intellectual Guest Labour, and Seth Siegelaub’s curator-as-conceptualist. I’d like to add to that list with a retrospective solo show dedicated to Ralph Rugoff.

Rugoff, Director of London’s Hayward Gallery since 2006 and curator of the 2019 Venice Biennale May You Live in Interesting Times, is, to me, one of the most exciting curators working today. He’s politically urgent but never preachy, wildly funny without losing edge. His shows like Invisible: Art About the Unseen, At the Threshold of the Visible, Psycho Buildings, and Laughing in a Foreign Language, are brave, unusual, and generous. They feel like invitations to audiences and artists, rather than lectures.

What I admire most is Rugoff’s ability to hold contradiction: absurdity and gravity, critique and comedy. He dares to put ludicrous ideas on the wall and asks us to take them seriously — or at least to consider the view.

“An artist comes along and looks at [things] differently and then suddenly it looks exciting to people again. This fashioning of alternative perspectives I think is one of the most valuable capacities of art, because it really enlarges our universe. ”
Ralph Rugoff

From rooftop boat rides to invisible artworks and speculative universes, Rugoff’s exhibitions don’t just show us new things, they show us new ways to see.

My connection to his work began when I transcribed an interview between Rugoff and my then-mentor, Andrew Price. What struck me most wasn’t just his insight, but his kindness, his matter-of-factness. He talked about showing work by friends not out of nepotism, but reciprocity, acknowledging shared journeys and creative kinship. That approach showed an emotional intelligent, loyalty, and light subversiveness that made me feel like there was space for curators like me.

Rugoff isn’t interested in curating answers because he curates questions, punchlines, paradoxes.

To curate Rugoff is to curate the act of curating itself. It’s a hall of mirrors and a playground, a blueprint for future exhibitions that don’t quite behave.

In this imagined exhibition, I’d celebrate his curatorial CV, not as a timeline, but as a constellation of ideas. I’d highlight key shows, invite audiences to think like curators, and perhaps most selfishly, curate with him. To be mentored by Rugoff, to explore his instincts and infrastructures up close, would be a dream.

Or better yet, an interesting time.

---

​PlanChest1: chairs, corridors, corners, curtains, portals to play, after the instruction
​​PlanChest2: Louise Lawler, Vishwa Shroff, Ralph Rugoff, Kobby Adi, john ros
PlanChest 3: gallery seating, vitrines, four rooms, drawing the gallery