Emanuel Diaz Ruiz

Conference Report. November 2023

Participating in the international meeting of museums and collections of modern art contributed to the exchange of experiences developing museum programs, curatorial contents, and educational experiences. It is a stimulus to rethink the management programs and social and political contexts that define our realities; to redesign alternative actions, in search of new territories and languages, inclusion and equality as the political mission of our institutional practice.

As director of the Museo Franklin Rawson in the province of San Juan, Argentina – a museum in the interior of the country that, with much effort, has positioned itself on the national scene and impacted territorial development – it is essential we develop strategies to consolidate networks of museums, managers, curators, artists, scientists, educators and critics to coordinate federal projects. Institutional policies and goals can be understood as a conjunction between the disruptive changes of recent years and the continuity of traditions, evidencing the dynamic processes between the past and present. Collections must be understood for the capacity to symbolically represent identities, and our museum can be thought of as being part of that cultural construction through its different views of art, including its discontinuities, coincidences, and changes in direction. Participating in CIMAM 2023 looks to activate versatile mechanisms of the museum, through raising the profile of the changing relationships between aesthetic values and social realities.

Relationships are essential for the development and understanding of the art scene and museums, and represent the work of decentralization, understanding territorial development as an important cultural policy that considers not only the geographical space but also cultural practices and historical constructions. The values that must be taken into consideration when strengthening collections – in terms of works, archives, and memories – beckon us to think about our social role, to investigate art so that we can contribute from culture to the shaping of a plural and democratic society.

The experiences shared by the speakers at the 2023 edition of CIMAM stimulate new writings and new questions when generating audiences. Far from applying systematic recipes or actions, strategies are sought to update the contemporaneity of art and museums, possibly calling for future events, or simulacra or essays that question the false scheme of art that does not find the argument for its existence in the real. And that prioritizes the richness of an archaeological gaze of being and doing in its possibilities for change.

Bio

Emanuel Diaz Ruiz is director of the Museo de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson in the province of San Juan - Argentina, coordinator of the Regional Unit of Conservation and Rescue of heritage assets of the CUYO REGION, under the National Directorate of Cultural Assets and Sites, Ministry of Culture of Argentina.

He is a researcher and art historian at the National University of San Juan, teacher in the careers of Professor and Bachelor of the Department of Visual Arts of the FFHA.

He participates in scientific and patrimonial research projects with researchers from: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - Santiago de Chile, Museo de Arte de Lima - Peru, Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo - Brazil, Centro Nacional de Conservación y Restauración de la DIBAM - Chile and TAREA/UNSAM. Coordinated for Argentina the International Seminar Monvoisin in America (2018) Centro Cultural Matta Bs As; Binational workshops for the scientific analysis of 19th century paintings Bs As - San Juan (2018) MPBAFR; Fashion, accessories and attributes in Argentine painting (2019) MPBAFR; International Seminar Monvoisin in America: avances, perspectivas, proyecciones (2020) MNBA - Santiago de Chile; Bienal Nacional de Dibujo (2021) MPBAFR; Proyecto Grabado (2022) MPBAFR - Embassy of Belgium in Argentina, Premio Franklin Rawson a las Artes Visuales (2022) MPBAFR.

He coordinates the cataloguing raisonné of heritage assets and has curated numerous exhibitions. He writes and publishes regularly on modern and contemporary art and acts as a juror in regional and national competitions. He has obtained research and improvement grants from the Consejo de Investigaciones Científicas, Técnicas y de Creación Artística; Fondo Nacional de las Artes; Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; Fundación TyPA and American Alliance of Museums, Fundación Grupo Petersen.