Komisaritza Program II will give continuity to the line of work started last year in relation to reflections around curatorial practices within the art practice. This program will be developed in two work session. The first session will be developed around open presentation given by the curators Beatriz Herráez, Antonia Alampi, Martí Manen and David Armengol. The second part will take part on the following day, which will consist of a workshop, directed by the curators Martí Manen and David Amengol.
PROGRAMME. 18th of December
10AM. Exhibitions, programmes, institutions. Beatriz Herráez.
This presentation will start referring to a text published by Helen Molesworth in the frame of the exhibition Solitaire: Lee Lozano, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Joan Semmel (Wexner Center for the Arts, 2008), in which the historian expounds that the negativity to accept the norm as something given is one of the major methodological legacies of feminism. Molesworth points out, as well, that the rejection of the status quo has resulted in the critical questioning of the institution. This statement and the presentation of Solitaire will serve as a starting point for questioning the definition and function of the curatorial practice as an space for meaning and knowledge production ¿is it possible to elaborate stories which will question the official discourses?, ¿is it possible to introduce these narratives as a part of an ongoing and steady program?
12PM. Desires, crystal balls and the museum. Antonia Alampi
The will to institute is often related to desire, to collective desires, to creating desire-based reasons for action. By involving notions of survival, of care and of love, of emotional involvement and of over-identification, of political engagement, of wishful thinking, of failure and conflict, this talk will revolve around the relevance of forms of organizing and of instituting in Cairo and elsewhere, by sharing some insights into the practice of Beirut and the Imaginary School Program. Beirut (2012-2015) was an art initiative considering institution building as a curatorial act. During its existence Beirut presented a year-round public program of exhibitions, events, research and educational activities at its residential premise - a 1940’s villa surrounded by a disheveled garden - in Agouza, Cairo. The Imaginary School Program was an educational project spanning art practice, philosophy, cultural and political theory. Comprised of workshops, lectures, fieldtrips, reading groups and other hybrid activities, the program provided a space for critical reflection on institutions and forms of organizing with the aim to collectively understand how they can manifest and articulate their political potential. It took place in Cairo from September 2014 to May 2015. (Lecture in english)
4PM. Contact Systems. David Armengol and Martí Manen
David Armengol and Martí Manen understand curatorial practice as a system for defining possibilities. The exhibition and its derivatives represent a starting point for approaching the existence of writing modes and contact systems considered from areas that are not necessarily predefined. The exhibition as a flexible environment where the contents and the initial intentions of artists and curators are expanded in a constant exercise of speculative reading by specific users. From this idea on, both curators, will make a review on the work they have done, individually and as a team, based on three main concepts: sound, narration and time.
Komisaritza Program II will give continuity to the line of work started last year in relation to reflections around curatorial practices within the art practice.