Growing with Covid: Curatorial innovation in times of uncertainty

This essay proposes an alternative curatorial approach in response to the Covid-19 crisis that has shaken the art world and its institutions. It analyzes an exhibition that opened shortly before the pandemic and reflects on the curators’ choice to consider Covid not merely a limitation or constraint, but also as an opportunity to reevaluate curatorial practices within a university gallery.

The exhibition Plan(e)t focuses on the relationships between humans and plants as key to future survival on our planet. In embracing the slowness that Covid has imposed upon humanity, it offers a version of ‘slow museology’ adapted to 2020. Instead of suspending, canceling, or digitizing the exhibition, it was both preserved and expanded, by adding a corresponding outdoor project. Together, the interior and exterior elements of the exhibition form a new interplay of viewing conditions, transforming the gallery’s function during times of uncertainty.