During the Roman Empire, curators were state officials appointed as guardians for individuals unable to manage their own affairs – minors, the mentally ill, spendthrifts. Their duty was to protect these individuals from the world and, more importantly, from themselves. Over the millennia, the definition of the curatorship profession has undergone a radical change: we now call people who organize art exhibitions "curators." But as Vesna Madzoski shows in her work, the essence of this ancient profession has, in fact, never changed. Curatorship, just as in the Roman era, is still a job of "protection" and "confinement."

Madzoski traces this complex relationship between protection and confinement through three cases. These include documenta, a contemporary art exhibition held every five years in Kassel, Germany; Manifesta, a European biennial of contemporary art whose every edition takes place in a different location worldwide; and, surprisingly, a film: James Cameron's magnificent 3D spectacle, Avatar. In all three cases, Madzoski uncovers the "confinement" practices – violence, exclusion, limitation, suppression, discrimination, censorship, othering – cleverly hidden by the discourse of "protection."