The relationship between artist and curator has changed fundamentally. Although this did not resolve the old conflicts, they took on a completely different form.
It is simple to state why this situation changed: Art today is defined by an identity between creation and selection. At least since Marcel Duchamp, it has been the case that selecting an artwork is the same as creating an artwork. That, of course, does not mean that all art since then has become readymade art. It does mean, however, that the creative act has become the act of selecting. Since that time, producing an object is no longer sufficient for its producer to be considered an artist. One must also select the object one has made oneself and declare it an artwork. Accordingly, since Duchamp, there is no longer any difference between an object one produces oneself and one produced by someone else—both have to be selected in order to be considered artworks. Today an author is someone who selects, who authorizes. The author has become a curator. The artist is primarily the curator of him- or herself, because he or her selects him- or herself. And he or she also selects others: other objects, other artists.
Groys, Boris. “Multiple Authorship” In The Manifesta Decade. Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe, edited by Barbara Vanderlinden and Elena Filipovic, 93–102. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
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