Curatorial Project _ in collaboration with Erika Martin and Fernando Spinach
¿Quién nos abraza? at Satisfactory, Costa Rica. 2020
The project arises at this historical moment of physical isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The open call is aimed at the local artistic community, current- ly facing an even greater vulnerability than the one that usually afflicts our sector, in economic terms and institutional recognition. We seek to research and imagine how new ways of relating and thinking together will transform the cultural, social and economic community fabric through a project that works on a multiplicity of levels:
» Reimagining public facing programs and exhibition formats, with commercial benefit for artists
» Reimaging models of artistic residencies
» Finding funding and creating scholarships for artistic production » Offering free professionalization workshops and producing and designing a guide for navigating the local and international art world
» Researching and documenting how COVID-19 is affecting a diversity of curatorial efforts within the national context
¿Quién nos abraza? at Satisfactory, Costa Rica. 2020
The project arises at this historical moment of physical isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The open call is aimed at the local artistic community, current- ly facing an even greater vulnerability than the one that usually afflicts our sector, in economic terms and institutional recognition. We seek to research and imagine how new ways of relating and thinking together will transform the cultural, social and economic community fabric through a project that works on a multiplicity of levels:
» Reimagining public facing programs and exhibition formats, with commercial benefit for artists
» Reimaging models of artistic residencies
» Finding funding and creating scholarships for artistic production » Offering free professionalization workshops and producing and designing a guide for navigating the local and international art world
» Researching and documenting how COVID-19 is affecting a diversity of curatorial efforts within the national context
Research Residency / Study Space _ in collaboration with Amelie Wedel
Listening to monotone voices while staring at one direction and sitting upright ~ Research Score at Grimmuseum, Berlin. 2019
For this project, we wanted to reflect on knowledges that strive to travel, be universal, abstract and concep- tual – usually put under the umbrella of „theory“. Sharing a background in contemporary art theory, we have often taken part in spaces where there is a strong expectation of accessing and producing theory in a hermetic way; infused with power games that include buzzwords and academic reference battles, praise of the author and the search for the original truth of a text. Common knowledge that this is reductive. Yet, we ourselves yield to these expectations.
For the period of two weeks, we slowly built towards social spaces where multiple knowledges create theory together. We set up a study space; an open structure of dense collaboration that included meeting other artists and writ- ers, whose practices speak to our own interests: the frictions arising from mac- ro cross-cultural dialogues within artistic global networks as much as from the micro conversational spaces (such as positions from where to speak, issues of translation, and discursive commonplaces). In order to continue unpacking these subjects differently – by thinking through dialogues and sensorial expe- rience, for example – we invented daily exercises that considered methods such as mnemonics, emotive responses, intuition games and associative learning.
The question of how to record ephemeral processes was central here, particu- larly when thinking of how such can be shared with others. We developed a system for annotating our research process, a way of documentation that inte- grates a level of abstraction – meaning having a certain degree of openness for interpretation and deliberately integrating fictional elements. This ended up being a visual text; a score
Listening to monotone voices while staring at one direction and sitting upright ~ Research Score at Grimmuseum, Berlin. 2019
For this project, we wanted to reflect on knowledges that strive to travel, be universal, abstract and concep- tual – usually put under the umbrella of „theory“. Sharing a background in contemporary art theory, we have often taken part in spaces where there is a strong expectation of accessing and producing theory in a hermetic way; infused with power games that include buzzwords and academic reference battles, praise of the author and the search for the original truth of a text. Common knowledge that this is reductive. Yet, we ourselves yield to these expectations.
For the period of two weeks, we slowly built towards social spaces where multiple knowledges create theory together. We set up a study space; an open structure of dense collaboration that included meeting other artists and writ- ers, whose practices speak to our own interests: the frictions arising from mac- ro cross-cultural dialogues within artistic global networks as much as from the micro conversational spaces (such as positions from where to speak, issues of translation, and discursive commonplaces). In order to continue unpacking these subjects differently – by thinking through dialogues and sensorial expe- rience, for example – we invented daily exercises that considered methods such as mnemonics, emotive responses, intuition games and associative learning.
The question of how to record ephemeral processes was central here, particu- larly when thinking of how such can be shared with others. We developed a system for annotating our research process, a way of documentation that inte- grates a level of abstraction – meaning having a certain degree of openness for interpretation and deliberately integrating fictional elements. This ended up being a visual text; a score
Exhibition _ co-curated with Camille Bréchignac and co-produced with Erika Martin
Nuestro devenir como la posibilidad de ser, ¿resistir? converger y depender at Satisfactory, Costa Rica. 2019
Artists: Tyler Eash, Christopher Hinojosa and Roberto Guerrero
Esta muestra de video ofrece un contraste entre el proceso artístico de Roberto Guerrero y el proyecto expositivo You Amuse Me / I Frighten You– curado por Camille Bréchignac y que comisionó trabajo nuevo de lxs artistas Tyler Eash y Christopher Hinojosa (Londres, junio del 2019).
You Amuse Me / I Frighten You explora el uso de la ficción con relación a la creación artística desde lo biográfico como una forma de proponer lecturas políticas.
La inclusión del video “Rito de paso: Tránsito rápido y suave hacia el otro equipo” (2015) de Roberto Guerrero es una invitación a reflexionar de manera más extensa sobre su trayectoria – la construcción de su subjetividad como una búsqueda y contestación, unas veces más intuitiva que otras, de su genealogía identitaria.
Al proponer un intercambio entre ambos proyectos, nos enfocamos en cómo las tres miradas contrastantes de Tyler, Roberto y Chris, a través de la cámara, permiten replantear una estructuración de los discursos sobre la identidad (en particular las queer) y de los espacios públicos/privados, conllevando a una negociación de la relación entre performance y violencia interseccional.
Por otra parte, proponemos una reflexión sobre las posibilidades de la práctica y la ética curatorial a partir de las distintas construcciones de identidades queer, entendiéndolas como coproducidas, sociales y compartidas. Nos preguntamos cómo lo curatorial puede existir como apoyo político para lxs artistas, en particular con relación a la presión de siempre enunciarse y representarse en público.
Nuestro devenir como la posibilidad de ser, ¿resistir? converger y depender at Satisfactory, Costa Rica. 2019
Artists: Tyler Eash, Christopher Hinojosa and Roberto Guerrero
Esta muestra de video ofrece un contraste entre el proceso artístico de Roberto Guerrero y el proyecto expositivo You Amuse Me / I Frighten You– curado por Camille Bréchignac y que comisionó trabajo nuevo de lxs artistas Tyler Eash y Christopher Hinojosa (Londres, junio del 2019).
You Amuse Me / I Frighten You explora el uso de la ficción con relación a la creación artística desde lo biográfico como una forma de proponer lecturas políticas.
La inclusión del video “Rito de paso: Tránsito rápido y suave hacia el otro equipo” (2015) de Roberto Guerrero es una invitación a reflexionar de manera más extensa sobre su trayectoria – la construcción de su subjetividad como una búsqueda y contestación, unas veces más intuitiva que otras, de su genealogía identitaria.
Al proponer un intercambio entre ambos proyectos, nos enfocamos en cómo las tres miradas contrastantes de Tyler, Roberto y Chris, a través de la cámara, permiten replantear una estructuración de los discursos sobre la identidad (en particular las queer) y de los espacios públicos/privados, conllevando a una negociación de la relación entre performance y violencia interseccional.
Por otra parte, proponemos una reflexión sobre las posibilidades de la práctica y la ética curatorial a partir de las distintas construcciones de identidades queer, entendiéndolas como coproducidas, sociales y compartidas. Nos preguntamos cómo lo curatorial puede existir como apoyo político para lxs artistas, en particular con relación a la presión de siempre enunciarse y representarse en público.
Lecture Series _
¿Qué puede ser la curaduría? at Instituto de Investigaciones en Arte (IIArte), University of Costa Rica, CR. 2019
Participating curators:
gastón j. muñoz _ "Líneas de vida. Arte y Activismo a través de experiencias curatoriales."
Juan Pablo Pacheco _ "Educacion y tecno-ciencia en el arte contemporáneo."
Cédric Fauq _ "Curating for the Age of Blackness."
Tamara Hart _ "Curating through Play: Reality as Bad LARP Design."
The learning of curatoring within this workshop was thought, first, as a experience of hospitality, of articulation and care of relationships. Second, it is considered impor- tant that an exchange of knowledge is made possible as a space for cross-border dialogues. Curating is considered as the possibility of experimentation with forms of contact be- tween agents, territories, affections, practices, themes and perspectives.
A questions arises: How can we develop a space for col- lective learning and sharing based on difference? Taking into account an association of distance and opacity of the other to power, what kind of relational ethics and mediation processes do we need to promote dialogue and enable hori- zontality? How, based on these contrasts, can we make the limits of our practices tangible, tune into what we ignore as well as what is beyond our understanding? How can we repurpose ourselves from the unknown?
¿Qué puede ser la curaduría? at Instituto de Investigaciones en Arte (IIArte), University of Costa Rica, CR. 2019
Participating curators:
gastón j. muñoz _ "Líneas de vida. Arte y Activismo a través de experiencias curatoriales."
Juan Pablo Pacheco _ "Educacion y tecno-ciencia en el arte contemporáneo."
Cédric Fauq _ "Curating for the Age of Blackness."
Tamara Hart _ "Curating through Play: Reality as Bad LARP Design."
The learning of curatoring within this workshop was thought, first, as a experience of hospitality, of articulation and care of relationships. Second, it is considered impor- tant that an exchange of knowledge is made possible as a space for cross-border dialogues. Curating is considered as the possibility of experimentation with forms of contact be- tween agents, territories, affections, practices, themes and perspectives.
A questions arises: How can we develop a space for col- lective learning and sharing based on difference? Taking into account an association of distance and opacity of the other to power, what kind of relational ethics and mediation processes do we need to promote dialogue and enable hori- zontality? How, based on these contrasts, can we make the limits of our practices tangible, tune into what we ignore as well as what is beyond our understanding? How can we repurpose ourselves from the unknown?
Exhibition + Public Programme _
La fractura en la espina de la bestia at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC), Costa Rica. 2019
The project began as a historical-theoretical investigation on the Isthmus of Darien, the southern border of Central America. It evolved into an artistic installation and curatorial project at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC) in Costa Rica, 2019. It sought to motivate collective thinking based on various themes related to Darien; the Isthmus was used as a trigger and node for a series of collaborative and interdisciplinary experiments around history and geography.
The project consisted of an installation in the Tank, Ideas Laboratory and a series of five events (four in the video library and one in the tank).
Programme:
Deniz Kirkali. Javier Calvo _ Charla + Discusión:
Un salto geográfico Modelos y practicas curatoriales desde Estambul
Amelie Wedel _ Cortometraje + Charla:
Visiones desde adentro + screening de Sunstone (de Filipa César y Luis Henderson)
Stephanie Williams. Emanuel Rodríguez. Sofía Vindas. Sofía Villena _ Conversatorio:
¿Suficientemente verdadero? Conversatorio sobre Historia / Ficción
La fractura en la espina de la bestia at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC), Costa Rica. 2019
The project began as a historical-theoretical investigation on the Isthmus of Darien, the southern border of Central America. It evolved into an artistic installation and curatorial project at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC) in Costa Rica, 2019. It sought to motivate collective thinking based on various themes related to Darien; the Isthmus was used as a trigger and node for a series of collaborative and interdisciplinary experiments around history and geography.
The project consisted of an installation in the Tank, Ideas Laboratory and a series of five events (four in the video library and one in the tank).
Programme:
Deniz Kirkali. Javier Calvo _ Charla + Discusión:
Un salto geográfico Modelos y practicas curatoriales desde Estambul
Amelie Wedel _ Cortometraje + Charla:
Visiones desde adentro + screening de Sunstone (de Filipa César y Luis Henderson)
Stephanie Williams. Emanuel Rodríguez. Sofía Vindas. Sofía Villena _ Conversatorio:
¿Suficientemente verdadero? Conversatorio sobre Historia / Ficción
Rosa Elena Ficek _ Charla:
El Darién y los limites de centro / américa. Puentes y fragmentos
David Mora. Daniel Cabezas. Josué Miranda. Jessica Gamboa. Jorge Salazar. _ Sound Installation:
Archivos del Darién: Experimentaciones Colectivas
El Darién y los limites de centro / américa. Puentes y fragmentos
David Mora. Daniel Cabezas. Josué Miranda. Jessica Gamboa. Jorge Salazar. _ Sound Installation:
Archivos del Darién: Experimentaciones Colectivas
Research Collective + Radio _ one month research collective with students of Spatial Biopolitics - professor Louis Moreno - MA in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths
Assemble. Record. Proliferate at Goldsmiths and Lewisham Art House, London. 2018
Assemble. Record. Proliferate at Goldsmiths and Lewisham Art House, London. 2018
