Renata Cervetto

Conference Report. November 2023

This is my second time as a grantee at CIMAM's Annual Conference, and I must say that this one was very special for several reasons. Firstly, because of the relevance of the topics addressed for museum practice today. I was particularly interested to hear how people are reflecting and acting on artistic and educational practices in dialog with the institution. In this sense, the presentations by Elvira Espejo Ayca, Pablo Lafuente, Nicolás Testoni, and Daina Leyton were particularly motivating from the institutional and community perspective. Ideas such as "mutual upbringing for life," the importance of detecting mono-culturizing patterns, and the replacement of the concept of heritage by that of "cultural inheritance" (Espejo Ayca), especially resonated with my research and current processes. I was also interested in Testoni's suggestion about the need for the museum to host different times and spaces that generate contradictory forms, in order to go beyond the material walls of the institution and avoid monolithic discourses. The question posed by Lafuente as to why we do what we do and for whom also helped me to position the work from the institution as an affective and responsible practice towards the community it inhabits. From the first two days of presentations, I also kept the idea of diversifying the ability to think through language and words, which, as Leyton rightly pointed out about her own work with accessibility at the Moreira Salles Institute, also includes a gestural dimension and the whole body itself.

Another aspect of the meeting that I would like to mention was the tours we took during the afternoons, which allowed me to reconnect with the city from a totally new and enriching perspective. Both the galleries, artists, and institutions that were part of the tour were extremely generous in opening their spaces to us, sharing their work and proposals, and answering all our questions. I especially highlight the work of selection and design of the contents for this edition, since it was tailored to the interests of each of the participants. I took the education and mental health tour moderated by Alfredo Aracil, where we visited the Borda Hospital and the “Frente de artistas” working there; the Isauro Arancibia School of struggle, and the powerful work they carry out with the community of San Telmo and La Boca.

The tour ended with a conversation between Diana Aisenberg and Marina de Caro, who shared their positions on art and education from their own experiences. In this line, it was also very moving to listen to Ana Gallardo. Her work, which often consists of processes generated in dialogue and reciprocity with various communities of elderly people, works the concept of old age from a radically loving perspective, leaving aside prejudices to put at the center the capacity of transformation that these processes generate, both for her as an artist and for the people who have participated.

Finally, during these three days, I have also been able to exchange views and experiences with colleagues and friends working in Argentina and abroad. This aspect is perhaps another reason why the CIMAM Conference works as a unique platform to generate projects and exchanges that otherwise could not happen. The presence of professionals from other provinces of Argentina was very enriching in terms of getting updated on what is being done in other regions of the country. The organization of the event (catering, production, and transportation) was impeccable, all the details were taken into account to generate a different type of exchange and learning experience in dialogue with the local scene.

Bio

I have a degree in Art History from the University of Buenos Aires, and I am currently finishing writing my Master thesis on art-education archives in museums and cultural intuitions in Museum Reina Sofía and Universidad Complutense (Madrid). I did my practices in the museum´s collection of drawings and prints from 1890 to 1936, assisting the Head of Department with the research of female artists in local magazines between 1920-1936.
Between 2013-14 I did de Appel curatorial program in Amsterdam, after which I received a curatorial fellowship to develop a one-year public program in the institution about censorship, boycotts, and contemporary art, which concluded with the publication The Fellow Reader #1. On Boycotts, Censorship and Educational Practices.
Between 2015-2018 I was Coordinator of the Education Department of MALBA Museum (Buenos Aires), where I edited together with Miguel López "Agítese antes de usar. Desplazamientos educativos, artísticos y sociales en América Latina", a publication which compiled various experiences from artists and educators in Latin America about their artistic-pedagogical practices. Between 2019-2020 I co-curated the 11th Berlin Biennale, "The crack starts within", together with Agustín Pérez Rubio, Lisette Lagnado and María Berríos.
Since October 2020, I am part of a research Latin American group led by Mônica Hoff and Jessica Gogan, "grupo de domingos", with whom we have collectively translated from Portuguese to Spanish a selection of essays by Frederico Morais including “Domingos da Creação”, a performative-educational project developed in the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro. Together we developed an online platform (osdomingos.org) and a publication (Frederico Morais. Textos críticos 1968-1975), launched in June 2022. Based on this research, I wrote "The body as engine of work. A comment", included in the ePUB "I Think My Body Feels, I Feel My Body Thinks: On Corpoliteracy", edited by the VanAbbe Museum (2021).
Between April and May 2021, I curated an online public program and workshop for DAAD gallery and KW Institute of Contemporary Art (Berlin), "You’re not muted. Negotiating new meanings through art and education". In 2021 I wrote an essay for the online platform La Escuela (a project by Miguel Brasceli): "Art as a form of knowledge. Processes of participation and active reflection in the work of Cecilia Vicuña and Lea Lublin".
In March 2022 I received a research grant by Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, hablarenarte and Fundación Carasso, to develop a project around archives in art education. My goal was to analyze the exchanges between Latin American and Spanish artists-educators and bring forward the projects developed in collaboration within museums and public space.
During the summer 2022, I was invited as an Artistic Tutor for the Summer Academy of the Hordaland Kunstsenter (Bergen) by Daniela Ramos, where I developed workshops and other type of gatherings with an interdisciplinary group for one week.
Between October-December 2022, I developed the syllabus “Contemporary Art and Education”, an academic course within the online Master in Art and Education offered by Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.
This semester I work as a Curatorial Tutor for the Artistic Residences in Matadero Madrid, where I also develop a public program that will take place in June 2023. To conclude, I would like to add I am currently editing, together with Macarena Hernández and Miguel López, "Agítese antes de usar 2. Proximidad y reciprocidad en las prácticas artístico-educativas". This is an independent publication that was accomplished by the support of PAC (Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City), Fundación Coppel and Fundación Jumex de Arte Contemporáneo.