Beyond the Box : Diverging Curatorial Practices

Originating from a conference on curatorial practice at the Banff Centre in 2000, this book contains 13 essays by Canadian and international curators and artists who raise questions about their endeavours in this field. The book is divided into four sections that correspond with four areas of inquiry the editor Townsend describes as critical to contemporary curators: publications, biennales, the curation of new media, and the current state of art museums. Biographical notes. Circa 130 bibl. ref

"Where is the time to sleep?" Orientalism and citizenship in Mahasweta Devi’s writing

This article discusses the close relationship between Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi’s literary work and her activism in support of indigenous people in India, and considers the two activities as interventions in the field of law. Devi’s emphasis on the continuity between colonial and postcolonial legal frameworks invites us to look at law as a governing discourse that stigmatized Adivasis. The criminalization of indigenous people via the Criminal Tribes Act (1871) and the presumption that they belonged to a “state of nature” form part of an orientalist bias against the tribals that was legally sustained during colonialism and also through Nehru’s discourses on the modern nation. Through analysis of the short story “Operation? – Bashai Tudu”, where law appears as a non-democratic instrument for governing the poor, and using extracts from a hitherto unpublished conversation between the author and Devi, it argues that Devi’s work can be considered as a crucial analytical tool with which to explore the genealogy of Adivasi marginalization