When Visibility Is Not Enough. On Choosing, Curating, and Creating Meaning

Who decides what deserves our attention?

The question appears everywhere. In the media, in exhibitions, at fairs, on social media, and even in the algorithms selecting the content that appears on our screens. We live in a world where images, events and information multiply at a pace that is increasingly difficult to keep up with. Visibility has probably never been so accessible. And yet, the more there is, the more something seems to be missing.

If abundance generates circulation, it does not necessarily generate meaning. Faced with a constant accumulation of content, understanding is often more difficult than seeing. We have almost unlimited access to information, but that does not mean we necessarily have the tools to read it, situate it or connect it to something larger. The more information there is, the more important the question of choice becomes.

These questions run across the entire cultural landscape, but they seem particularly relevant today within contemporary jewellery. Physical and online exhibitions continue to emerge, alongside events, platforms, publications and independent initiatives, and this is good news. The field is active. People are producing work, organising projects, creating opportunities and building communities. At the same time, however, another question emerges. As the landscape expands, who is still producing the reference points that allow us to navigate it?

Perhaps this is where the question of choice begins. Because reference points do not appear by themselves. Narratives do not emerge out of nowhere. Someone, somewhere, decides what to connect, what to contextualise and what to place in relation to something else.

Choosing inevitably means favouring some things over others. It means refusing the idea that everything can occupy the same space at the same time.

In an era that aspires to greater access, because visibility means inclusion, selection can sometimes appear arrogant, even elitist. And yet, I am not convinced that selection is the enemy of inclusion. The two are not opposed. Because selection builds a context, and context is often what allows meaning to emerge.

Making a choice is not simply a matter of pointing at something. It means proposing a reading of the world, building connections and provoking reactions, questions or even debate. Every act of selection tells something, even when it claims not to. To choose is to take a position. To affirm that certain questions deserve to be asked, that certain works deserve attention, and that certain conversations deserve to continue. 

And when there is zero selection, there is often zero shared discourse. Or at least, it becomes harder to establish common reference points connecting artworks, practices and ideas. Perhaps it is not that too many things are being shown. Perhaps it is that we have become more focused on making things visible than on creating the frameworks that help us understand them.

Giving visibility is not the same as making something understandable. We may have access to more images, more projects and more information than ever before, yet access alone does not automatically produce meaning. A collection of images can tell us what is there, but not always why it matters, how it connects, or what conversations are taking place around it.

Surrounded by images, we can see new works before exhibitions even open. We can follow artists, galleries, fairs and institutions from anywhere in the world. Information circulates faster than ever before. But what kind of knowledge is being produced alongside that visibility? Who is creating the frameworks that allow works to be read in relation to one another? And if visibility alone is not enough, then how do we decide what matters?
 

About the author

Cécile Maes has been Content Editor at Klimt02 since 2023. Her interest in jewellery stems from the human relationships it reflects and the ways in which historical references and everyday experiences can be connected to explore why we wear jewellery and the meanings we attach to it.

Mail: cecile@klimt02.net
Instagram: cilce_maes