Lo­cat­ing a gallery ed­u­ca­tion that op­er­ates with con­cepts of per­for­ma­tiv­i­ty

Why is gallery education interested in performativity? Between fights for recognition, reflection on one’s own status and a multiplication of agents interested in this field theories of performativity seem to provide models for having a share in the formation of institutions and their rules from a critical perspective. Concepts of performativity underline the aspect of «reality production through speech». For largely speech-based gallery education, this offers an argument for leaving the role of reproduction, claiming a position as a producer of knowledge and structures. The text discusses the possibilities for agency at the margins of power (Judith Butler) which are defined by the fact that any agent (critical or not) already participates in the production of the existing order. Still, it is performative gallery education which started to explore the transformative potential of dislocation, appropriation and reenactment of these conditions for action.