Ramiro Camelo

Ramiro Camelo (b. 1966) is a curator at Myymälä 2, an artist-run space in Helsinki. He is also a board member and project manager of Baltic Fellowship Network. Ramiro started his studies at the School of Sociology of Universidad Nacional of Colombia, Bogota, (1990-1996). Later he graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, Master of Curating Contemporary Art (2009). His curatorial internship practice took place at Stacion Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina, Kosovo (2008).

Ramiro relocated to Helsinki in 2017, where he started his curatorial activity at Myymälä 2 as a curator in 2019, and where he initiated the curatorial project Baltic Fellowship Network (BFN) - a curatorial initiative which aims to promote collaboration, foster partnerships and facilitate artistic exchanges among institutions, exhibition spaces, individuals and counterparts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Since then, he has been travelling regularly in curatorial research to the Baltic countries. His travels include studio visits, meetings with museum and independent curators, scholars and gallerists as well as guest lecturer on art schools, and academic events. So far seven exhibitions have been hosted — plus a dozen of performances— five more are scheduled for 2024-26.

Ramiro’s curatorial approach is grounded on studying the unique transition where a first generation of emergent Baltic artists growing in independent countries and local art scenes (including institutions, art schools, curators, etc) which are now fully integrated into the global art world context, in contrast with a region where migration, mobilities and cross-cultural exchanges were not available during the Soviet Union occupation and only became regular when the Baltics countries joined the European Union in 2004. Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius art communities rely strongly on reciprocal flows of collaborations, synergies and artistic kinships. BFN is an initiative that works across borders and facilitates artistic exchanges and fruitful interconnections between the Baltics and Finland.

Ramiro Camelo, Curator and Project Manager, Myymälä2, Helsinki, Finland, has been awarded by the Saastamoinen Foundation, Helsinki.