Cura (Sui)

This article proposes cura (sui) as an ethico-aesthetic technique for reconfiguring subjectivity in curatorial performance practice. Drawing on Michel Foucault's understanding of cura sui (care of the self), it argues that care of the self—as a critical and enmeshed process of self-transformation—can be enacted as a form of care for others. It elaborates the concept with Karen Barad's new materialism and proposes cura (sui) as a socially respons(able) practice that is accountable to the curatorial forces and entanglements it generates. As such, cura (sui) might offer an approach to curatorial practice that neither privileges the individual curator nor underestimates the very real ethico-aesthetic force of curatorial subjectivity. Located in the field of Western art music, this article examines the specific agential configurations of materiality and gender in experimental performer, musician, and curator Jennifer Torrence's performance Border Loss at the Frau* Musica Nova festival in Cologne.