Fiamma Montezemolo, New Orleans 2010.
No longer content to theorize the ends of the discipline and possibilities of new media, new locations, or new methods of asking old questions, Ethnographic Terminalia is working to develop generative ethnographies that do not subordinate the sensorium to the expository and theoretical text or monograph. The terminus is the end, the boundary, and the border. It is also a beginning, its own place, a site of experience and encounter.
Ethnographic Terminalia is a curatorial collective grounded in a commitment to pushing the boundaries of anthropological scholarship and contemporary art through interdisciplinary exhibitions. Since 2009 we have been curating group exhibitions and projects in major North American cities. These projects demonstrate how contemporary artists, anthropologists, and institutions are engaging with ethnographic methodologies and art. The majority of the exhibitions have been mounted as ‘para-sites’ or ‘off-site installations’ to the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association. They have facilitated and championed works that explore new media, new locations, and new methods in anthropology and cultural studies. The collective has worked with more than 140 artists and anthropologists to date, generating ongoing creative collaboration between anthropological researchers and practicing artists. Our exhibitions and the works in them have been widely reviewed and publicized in both discipline-specific journals and the popular press. In 2015, we were honoured to be awarded the American Anthropological Association Council for Museum Anthropology’s Michael M. Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology.
