Belen Coluccio

Conference Report. November 2023

My experience as a CIMAM grant beneficiary was extraordinary. On the one hand, it was my first time at a professional encounter of this level: an enormous organization ready to welcome participants from countries from all over the world with an intensive program of conferences and visits covering different topics and attending to all the needs and concerns that may arise, all of which were met over the course of three days. Those of us who have roles involving both management and creative tasks understand the value of these gathering spaces dedicated to listening and reflecting with colleagues, as well as how they resonate in our day-to-day work overtime.

In that regard, the conference program was very stimulating; it introduced both pragmatic as well as symbolic topics, and included the voices of people from different backgrounds, enabling a discourse that took on unique shapes and vocabularies that encouraged participants to weigh and establish their own ways of saying and doing (and, I should add, in my opinion, it was crucial that the conference was held both in English and the local language, as a basic strategy for constructing situated knowledge). In this sense, it was especially noteworthy that the conference did not focus on proposing proven ideas or standardized precepts, but rather sought to encourage each person to relate their experience at the institutions where they work and to discuss their concerns and difficulties, thus leading us to consider the roles or actions museums can undertake in critical contexts. In the casual conversations during the breaks and while on the tours, it was highly evident there was enormous interest in learning about the work and cultural contexts of other participants.

In terms of the specific contents of the conferences, I found the reflections of Pablo Lafuente and teresa cisneros to be extremely interesting since both, in their own way, pointed to the importance of strengthening the internal fabric of institutions in the face of the volatility and loosening of the social fabric. I also found the perspectives of Coco Fusco and Luis Camnitzer to be crucial. Likewise, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful introduction made by Chus Martinez on the first day, as well as her role as moderator during the Q&A with the audience. She had an incredible ability to connect the ideas of the speakers from a critical and sharp perspective, which was a definite plus. I would also like to note the importance of the tours, in particular, those that took place on the Saturday.

In addition to the potential, they offered for networking and new opportunities – not only among conference attendees but also with artists and other local stakeholders – I found them essential in terms of complementing the conversations that took place in the mornings. In that sense, it is a working method that should be implemented and replicated at the institutions in which we work; it provides the nourishment of the imagination that management needs, through life experiences, art, and local contexts.

Last but not least, I would like to extend a special thanks to Victoria Noorthoorn and all the team at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires for their excellent organization and the quality of the offerings, as well as their generosity and genuine interest in ensuring those of us who live in Argentina could participate in this event, thanks to the ArtHaus grants. I would also like to thank those who provided the funding and those who worked so courteously to make it all possible.

Bio

Belén Coluccio is a curator, artist and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Buenos Aires. She specialises in the development of artistic, research and exhibition projects in public and private institutions. She is a member of the Dirección Nacional de Museos del Ministerio de Cultura Nación and directs LAR-Local de Artes recientes, an independently run space dedicated to contemporary art.

Her latest projects as curator include Fundamental exhibition of art in the books of poetry and fiction (2023, LAR, with Juan Cruz Pedroni), Intus Foris by Cinthia de Levie (2023, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel) and La cueva del Sueño by Alfredo Frías (2022, Constitución galería). In 2021 she was part of the curatorial team for Gachi Rosatti's Welcome to the shade (Museo Histórico Sarmiento), Nicolás Robbio's La vigilia de las cosas (Museo Histórico Nacional) and did the research and texts for Reunión at Ruth Benzacar gallery. In 2019 she was Curatorial Assistant at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires for the exhibitions Una historia de la imaginación en la Argentina curated by Javier Villa and Sergio de Loof: ¿Sentiste hablar de mi? curated by Lucrecia Palacios, in whose book she also wrote a chronology of the artist illustrated with unpublished material.

As an author, she wrote essays for La cueva del Sueño, critical biographies of the artists Liliana Maresca and Diana Dowek for the AWARE Foundation, as well as texts and editorial collaboration for Franco Fasoli: Público/Privado. She collaborated in Andrea Giunta's book, Feminismo y arte latinoamericano (2018), and in the English version of The Political Body (2022, University of California).

At the National Ministry of Culture, she is part of the monitoring and consultancy team for the programming of twenty-three National Museums. In this context, she has designed and produced the programmes Generación Museos and De viaje al Museo, which bring school and secondary school audiences closer to museums, and Mi casa un museo, a virtual programme for children. She has also coordinated various editorial and exhibition projects related to national heritage, together with professionals in academic and curatorial research and a large number of artists. Among them are: the dossier on the Museo Histórico Nacional by El Flasherito, the programme Cabildo Abierto by Guadalupe Creche at the Museo del Cabildo, the website El salón de los rechazados by Nicolás Martella for Palais de Glace, the exhibition Sin Pedestal by Carolina Vanegas at the Museo Histórico Sarmiento and the workshop Salón de Baile by Josefina Zuain at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo. She was also a member of the jury for the Activar Patrimonio 2021 grants and is currently doing the research and textual production for the soon-to-be-published Guía de Museos Nacionales (Guide to National Museums).

She is founder and director of LAR, a space that promotes production and research in visual arts, performance and critical writing in Buenos Aires. Together with researcher Lucas Martinelli, she curated the annual programme of residencies, exhibitions, seminars and site-specific projects based on an open call for artists from all over the country. Between 2020 and 2023 they carried out more than seventy projects with weekly openings to the public and the accompaniment of more than eighty artists and curators, more than half of whom were under 30 years of age or making their first exhibition in Buenos Aires. Residents included Aimé Pastorino, Martin Farnholc Halley, Fernando Sucari, Ignacio Tamborenea, Carlos Gutiérrez, Lorena Fernández and Ivana Salfity, Agustina Triquell and Manuel Fernández, Jazmin Saidman, Amparo Viau.

Currently, Belén Coluccio is writing Ternura y crudeza together, like sisters. The paintings of Bernabé Demaría, a literary fiction project anchored in heritage research.