Curator and Epimelet: The Ritual, The Context and The Thing
The reconstruction of the classical entrance of Athenian Acropolis (source)
Epimelētai, translated from Greek as “overseers” or “carers”, were individually appointed in Athens for particular festivals, such as the Panathenaia. Their functions, as presumed by historians, was to oversee the festivities, orderliness and livelihood of the happenings.
‘Curator’ takes the etymological root from Latin “cura”, which stands for ‘healing’. Curator therefore is therefore ‘healer’, ethical and aesthetic ‘doctor’ for the communities (s)he is active in. Later on, curators role were redefined as guards and conservationists of the cultural memory.
As currently the status and role of the curator becomes more and more blurred, I’d like to suggest to look at the nature of activities that were carried out by epimeletai.
Available to us sources suggest that they were appointed to oversee mysteries - such as already mentioned Panathenaia, the most important event in ancient Athens, Dionysia, Eleusinian and other what we would call now ‘festivals’. They were responsible for appropriate ‘content’ - the staged ‘performances’, but mostly importantly rituals. In fact, they had to make sure that the whole festival doesn’t become a mere entertainment, but preserves its ‘magic’. The objects, that were used in the mysteries - such as statues of gods, gifts, costumes, masks, etc - had to carry holistic and ritualistic value, united in embodied and well-communicated to participants. Epimelet is a ‘civil servant’, that makes sure to remind about ‘thingness’ of life and its worth amidst the risks and hardships of existence through the vivid, lively and immersive ritual.
Art today is one of the creative industries, however its ‘magic’ is still referenced to be somewhat special. Totems of prestige, the withholders of value, an alternative to cryptocurrencies exchange mechanisms in the freeports, etc - the objects of art serve many functions, that weren’t imagined even decades ago. Silly melancholy through is felt when the discussion about the ‘magic’ or ‘mystery’ of it is on the table.
But perhaps, we’d still benefit as a whole more from a little less preservative healing and a little more lively magic?