Curating & Scenography: Book Presentation by Julie Bawin and Mathilde Roman (FR)
WIELS invites you to explore the latest publications by Julie Bawin (University of Liège) and Mathilde Roman (Pavillon Bosio, Monaco), focusing on curating and exhibition scenography. Presented as a cross-disciplinary conversation, this talk offers an opportunity to reflect on the evolving challenges and formats of exhibitions, both historically and in the contemporary context.
Julie Bawin, De quoi le curating est-il le nom ? Métamorphoses d'une pratique dans le champ de l'exposition, Brussels, La Lettre Volée, 2025.
The idea behind this book is that curating, far from being a recent phenomenon, relates to older and successive (r)evolutions, both in the field of hanging and scenography and in the professional and institutional sphere of art. Since the mid-nineteenth century, curatorial activity has passed into the hands of an ever-increasing number of protagonists and now oscillates between hyper-professionalization and an increasingly tangible deprofessionalization, embodied by those whom the author calls “outsider curators”.
Mathilde Roman, Habiter la scénographie. Quand le display fait œuvre, Paris, Manuella Éditions, 2025.
It is increasingly common today to experience scenographic gestures in contemporary art exhibitions, at the level of display, the body and architecture. In the porosity and hybridization between art and scenography, the rehabilitation of bodies and what supports them is at stake, paving the way for the reintroduction into the history of art of figures who have been neglected since the 1930s, such as Lily Reich, Edoardo Persico, Franco Albini, Carlo Scarpa, BBPR, Lina Bo Bardi, and Gae Aulenti. This book places them at the center of a dialogue with major artists and exhibitions on the contemporary scene, notably through a series of interviews.