To Send a Kite: Simone Weil’s Lessons in Ethical Attention for the Curator

Abstract

As socially engaged practices grow within the curatorial field, the use of attention becomes a crucial ethical decision. How and to whom attention is given centers on concerns of visibility, belonging, and the determination of those characteristics within a community’s negotiated communicative space. Exploring Simone Weil’s ethics of attention through and alongside incarceration-focused curatorial projects, this article positions her writing as a potential framework for attentive curation. The resulting pathways found in Weil’s writing offer means of transforming the curatorial into a self-silencing act of witnessing that serves underrecognized voices. This research parses how Weilian attention redefines inquiry as the process of listening to and incorporating others’ perspectives as primary sources of knowledge. Looking towards an ethics of Weilian attention with examples of incarceration-focused curation reveals how upholding the insights and articulations of marginalized individuals promotes social wellbeing and works towards the realization of justice. Thousand Kites, a prison-based project connecting inmates and the public through the radio and internet, provides the central case study for a curatorial project aligning with Weilian attention.