2.4: The Curator's Exhibitionism

Overview

The Curator’s Exhibitionism, the third quadrant in Conquergood’s (1985) ethical framework, critiques the stance of performers or scholars who speak about a culture without engaging with its members. This approach treats cultural practices as objects for display, often lacking consent, collaboration, or accountability to the communities represented. While often masked as neutral or academic, this stance reinforces hierarchical and colonial dynamics by privileging external authority over lived experience, emphasizing the need for ethical engagement rooted in humility, dialogue, and respect.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Archeological artifacts found in Biala. (CC-BY-SA; Silar - 02023 0136 Archaeological Artifacts Found in Biała)

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze the ethical implications of The Curator’s Exhibitionism by identifying how authority without collaboration can result in cultural objectification and misrepresentation.
2. Evaluate real-world scenarios in which individuals or institutions speak about a culture without engaging with its members, and assess the power dynamics and potential harms involved.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of ethical cultural representation by proposing strategies for collaboration, reciprocity, and respectful engagement with communities being portrayed or studied.

What is The Curator's Exhibitionism?

By this point, we have examined two of the four ethical stances outlined in Conquergood’s (1985) influential essay, Performing as a Moral Act: Ethical Dimensions of the Ethnography of Performance. The Custodian's Rip-Off involves the appropriation of cultural elements for personal gain, often stripping them of their original context and significance. The Enthusiast's Infatuation, though typically well-intentioned, leads to the romanticization and misrepresentation of cultures through stereotypes and superficial portrayals. Conquergood then introduces a third problematic stance: The Curator's Exhibitionism. This quadrant highlights the ethical concerns that arise when individuals position themselves as objective authorities who display or interpret another culture without direct participation, collaboration, or accountability to the people whose stories they present.

Within The Curator's Exhibitionism, the performer adopts the role of an external observer who speaks about a culture rather than with or from within it. This stance positions the performer as a detached authority, making assumptions or interpretations without possessing a full or nuanced understanding of the cultural context. In doing so, cultural practices and people are often presented as artifacts for display, observation, or consumption rather than as dynamic, lived experiences. This objectifying approach typically lacks meaningful collaboration, consent, or reciprocity with members of the represented community. As a result, the performer reinforces hierarchical dynamics, often rooted in colonial or ethnocentric frameworks, by assuming the power to define and explain cultures that are not their own.

Imagine a male professor giving a lecture on feminist theory to a room that includes women scholars and students. The women attending the lecture have lived experiences that directly inform the subject. As the professor speaks, he positions himself as the sole authority on the topic instead of facilitating dialogue or referencing the work of women theorists with care. He explains basic feminist concepts to women as if they were unfamiliar or incapable of understanding them, often interrupting or disregarding their contributions.

This behavior reflects The Curator's Exhibitionism because the man is speaking about women's experiences without engaging with those who live them. He objectifies the topic of feminism as something to be displayed and interpreted through his lens, rather than recognizing and valuing the voices and expertise of those within the culture or movement. The performance becomes a form of intellectual display rather than an ethical, collaborative engagement.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Activity 1: Case Study Analysis – Who Gets to Speak?

Objective: Analyze real-world scenarios for ethical concerns related to The Curator’s Exhibitionism.

Instructions:
Read the following brief case studies and, in small groups, discuss the following questions for each:

1. Who is doing the "speaking" or representing?

2. Whose voices are centered, and whose are left out?

3. Does this example demonstrate Curator’s Exhibitionism? Why or why not?

4. What changes would create a more ethical, collaborative engagement?

Example Case Study Topics:

• A museum exhibit on Indigenous culture curated without consultation with Indigenous communities.

• A travel influencer posting videos interpreting spiritual rituals from a foreign country.

• A non-disabled speaker giving a keynote on disability rights to an audience of disabled activists.

This third quadrant serves as a powerful reminder that even scholarly or seemingly objective approaches to cultural performance can perpetuate harm when they lack collaboration, humility, and accountability. The Curator’s Exhibitionism highlights the ethical pitfalls of positioning oneself as an expert on others’ lived experiences without their involvement or consent. As we continue our exploration of performance as a moral act, it becomes increasingly clear that ethical engagement requires more than good intentions or academic authority. It demands active listening, reciprocal dialogue, and a deep respect for the voices, agency, and knowledge of the communities being represented.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Activity 2: Rewrite the Narrative

Objective: Practice shifting from exhibitionism to ethical representation.

Instructions:
Choose a paragraph or scene from a fictional or real account where an outsider interprets another culture without collaboration (you may also use the male professor example provided in the reading).
Then, rewrite the scene so that it reflects:

• Dialogue or collaboration with cultural insiders

• Acknowledgment of limitations or outsider status

• Respect for cultural context and agency

Reflective Question (to follow writing):
What did you change, and why? How did those changes alter the power dynamics?