Indigenous Perspectives in Curatorial Practice for a Different Future

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Indigenous Perspectives in Curatorial Practice for a Different Future.

Thursday, 29 February 2024 at 9:30 am CST (Central Standard Time), Mexico City

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Abstract:

This panel discussion aims to engage curators and museum directors in a dialogue on fostering sustainable ecosystems within modern and contemporary art museums. Delving into the intersection of curatorial practices and indigenous perspectives, the invited panelists will explore strategies for facing a relevant demand in the museum field nowadays. From ethical curation to incorporating indigenous knowledge, we will reflect on how these elements contribute to shaping a more engaged and diverse environment in the art world.

Guest panelists:

  • John Kenneth Paranada, Curator of Art and Climate Change, Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
  • Lucía Sanroman, Director, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico.
  • Tarah Hogue, Curator (Indigenous Art), Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada.
  • Lukretia Booysen, Founder and Artistic Director of Koena Art Institute, Cape Town, South Africa

Moderated by CIMAM Board Member, Amanda de la Garza. Director, MUAC, Mexico City, Mexico.

Biographies:

John Kenneth Paranada

Curator of Art and Climate Change, Sainsbury Centre, and Researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia

John Kenneth Paranada is a British-Filipino curator and researcher. He is the inaugural Curator of Art and Climate Change at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia. His appointment signifies a ground breaking initiative within the U.K.'s museum landscape, demonstrating a commitment to confronting the climate emergency through innovative and radical curatorial practices. Ken's work integrates social and environmental sciences with artistic and imaginative inquiry. His interdisciplinary approach constellates insights from climate change researchers, artists, anthropologists, philosophers, activists, and those with first-hand experiences of climate change.

Ken's curatorial philosophy is anchored in his unwavering commitment to fostering ecological consciousness, coalescing art with material and visual cultures to unpack the intricacies of sustainability, modernity, climate justice, Indigenous knowledge, land-use interpretation and the climate crisis. His work contributes significantly to discussions about activating art's power to enhance and activate climate consciousness, advocating hope and resilience amidst the ever-accelerating 'everything-ness' of climate change in daily life.

In his additional role as a researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Ken's curatorial projects gain an added dimension, fostering deep and meaningful collaboration between the arts and sciences. His dedication to interdisciplinary engagement and expertise in crafting intellectually stimulating and emotionally impactful museum exhibitions are directed towards influencing behavioural change. Ken's work aims to cultivate a safer and more sustainable world for future generations, highlighting the crucial role of art and culture in shaping our response to environmental challenges and the development of climate adaptation and resilience strategies.

Lucía Sanromán

Director of the Laboratorio de Arte Alameda (LAA), Mexico City, Mexico

Director of the Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, the premier experimental kunsthalle in Mexico City where since joining in March 2018 she has implemented a program that balances experimentation with social commitment to local social ecologies and dynamics through programs and exhibitions, including her recent curatorial projects: Escucha profunda: prácticas hacia el mundo al revés {Yutsil, María Sosa, Naomi Rincón Gallardo y Fernando Palma Rodríguez} (10/16/2021 to 02/13/2022); Amor Rojo: Dora García (24/09/2022 to 26/03/2023); Helen Escobedo: Ambientes Totales (summer 2023), and Pedro Lasch: Entre Líneas / Between the Lines (winter 2023). Previous to this she joined Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, as director of visual arts in October 2015, and became YBCA curator at large in September 2018. Under the program title Changing the Ratio she organized at YBCA a series of survey exhibitions of key women artists who are also pioneers of socially-engaged practice: Tania Bruguera: Talking to Power / Hablándole al Poder (2017, co-curated with Susie Kantor), Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place (2018), and Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here (2019, co-organized with SFMOMA curators Rudolf Frieling and Dominic Willsdon). In addition, she curated a series of exhibitions titled The City Initiative featuring architects, designers, planners, and artists creating provocative work in the urban environment responding to civic urgencies.

Tarah Hogue

Curator (Indigenous Art), Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada

https://www.tarahhogue.com/.

Tarah Hogue is a curator, writer, and cultural worker based in Treaty 6 and 7 territories and the homeland of the Métis in Canada. Working alongside artists and communities, she curates to nurture knowledge, relationships, and the emergence of otherwise worlds. Her practice often attends to the complexities of place, movement/migration, and Indigeneity through collaborative and conciliatory approaches. Currently, Hogue serves as the Curator (Indigenous Art) at Remai Modern in Saskatoon, where her curatorial and institutional efforts are focused on supporting Indigenous self-determination. Two recent curatorial projects include the group exhibition, Storied Objects: Métis Art in Relation, curated with advisor Sherry Farrell Racette, which received a 2023 AAMC Award for Excellence, and the mid-career survey, Adrian Stimson: Maanipokaa’iini. Hogue has authored catalogue essays for artists such as Maureen Gruben, Tania Willard, Henry Tsang, and Jin-me Yoon, and her writing has been published in C Magazine, Canadian Art, The Capilano Review, and elsewhere. Hogue is a citizen of the Métis Nation as well as having white settler ancestry.

Lukretia Booysen,

Founder and Artistic Director of Koena Art Institute, Cape Town, South Africa

Lukretia Booysen is a self-taught curator, creative entrepreneur and producer of visual arts exhibitions, projects and performances bridging art and culture focused on radical inclusivity of indigenous Khoe & San art and culture in South Africa. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Koena Art institute NPC gallery.

The Koena Art institute is an organization founded with an aim to celebrate and preserve KhoiSan/Khoe cultural heritage and identity through Arts. We engage diverse communities, incorporating Art, performance art, events and product lines centered around reintroducing Khoe and San Culture. The Koena Art Institute curates’ exhibitions and events which is led authentically by indigenous peoples telling their stories uninfluenced. Indigenous stories on a first account. 4+ Years experience in curation, management and administrative efforts for the production and installation of projects, exhibitions, and events at Koena Art Institute with a range of immersive installations and performances. Lukretia is the 2023 United Nations Indigenous Fellow, South Africa.

Amanda de la Garza

Amanda de la Garza, Director, MUAC, Mexico City, Mexico and CIMAM Boartd Member

Amanda de la Garza (Mexico, 1981) Lives and works in Mexico City. She is curator and art historian. She currently is the Head of Visual Arts at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and the Director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC - Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo). From 2012 to 2019 she worked as Adjunct Curator at MUAC. She has developed curatorial projects in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Spain and USA. She has been awarded the Emerging Curators Prize, Frontiers Biennial, and several research grants in Mexico and abroad. She has published poems, interviews, reviews and academic papers in local and international journals on subjects such as poetry, documentary photography, urban studies and contemporary art. She is interested in interdisciplinary practices in contemporary art that involve poetry, cinema, Social Sciences, archival research and contemporary dance.

Reading recommendations by the panelists:

Tarah Hogue:

John Kenneth Paranada:

  • "Planet for Our Future: How do we adapt to a transforming world?" at the Sainsbury Centre. An exhibition that presents a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing anthropogenic climate change, showcasing a diverse range of artworks and installations that provoke thought and discussion about our planet's future.https://www.sainsburycentre.ac.uk/whats-on/sediment-spirit/
  • https://tyndall.ac.uk/news/invoking-new-words-for-our-transforming-world-john-kenneth-paranada-on-his-latest-exhibit-sediment-spirit-the-activation-of-art-in-the-anthropocene/
  • Wade, S. (2023). Emerging Exhibition Ecologies: Curating Contemporary Art at a Time of Crisis. Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia.
  • Cooper, J. (2023). We Need A Planet for Our Future. Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia.
  • Minns, A. (2023). And What Now? Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia.
  • Paranada, J. K. (2023). Imagining a Kaleidoscopic Image of Earth's Life. Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia.
  • Boswell, J. (2016). Notes from the Wasteland: Competing Climatic Imaginaries in the Post-Apocalyptic Landscape. Avery Review. Lars Muller Publishers.
  • Scott, E. E. (2016). Archives of the Present-Future: On Climate Change and Representational Breakdown. Avery Review. Lars Muller Publishers.
  • Solnick, S. (2017). Poetry and the Anthropocene. Routledge.
  • Newell, J., Robin, L., and Wehner, K. (2016). Curating Connections in a Climate Changed World. Routledge.
  • Garcia-Anton, K., Gaski, H., and Guttorm, G. (eds.). (2020). Let the River Flow: An Indigenous Uprising and its Legacy in Art, Ecology and Politics. Verso.
  • Wheadon, N. (2022). Museum Metamorphosis: Cultivating Change Through Cultural Citizenship. Rowman and Littlefield.

Lukretia Booysen

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