Teresa Riccardi

Conference Report. November 2023

The CIMAM Annual Conference, titled The Co-Creative Museum: Social Agency, Ethics, and Heritage, took place in Buenos Aires between the 9 and 11 November, thanks to the initiative and management of Victoria Noorthoorn, Director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and the sponsorship of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, hosts of the event. With this enormous gesture and the lineup of programs, platforms, exhibitions, and visits to studios, galleries, museums, foundations, theatres, institutions, archives, and publications from the art ecosystem, the Museo Moderno organizers demonstrated their excellence, their ability to work together, and their commitment to making knowledge and practices connected to Argentinian art available and to sharing it in such a vibrant manner and with an extensive community of colleagues and cultural actors at the local and international levels.

Every year, speakers present [topics] to think about and work on together, different lines of thought related to the development of agency, ethical practices, accessibility, diversity, and sustainability in different modern and contemporary art museums around the world. The speakers who presented during the conferences at CIMAM did not fall into this context alone; there were also speakers from the Global South who raised discussions of regional topics. Highlights included: Elvira Espejo Ayca, discussing museum experiences and territory; Pablo de la Fuente at the MAM Rio, establishing diagnoses for past and future contingencies; and the outstanding commitment in Brazil to carry out accessibility practices and affective care proposals with visitors through the training teams from the Instituto Moreira Salles. These are just a few of the relevant topics that were presented, and which were meaningful in terms of my field of interest and professional activities.

The ArtHaus grant I received ensured I had full access to all of these presentations and to all of the programmed activities over the three days of the conference, as well as membership to CIMAM. Within this framework, the design of the tours for conference participants was very precise provided an enjoyable overview, and was related to the particular interests of the participants. In addition, the creation of a map to be able to navigate the multiple offerings available in the city was thorough, generous, and practical for following the circuit I visited after the conferences, and which will remain installed in order to continue expanding and consulting this valuable database of Argentinian artists, museums, institutions, and galleries.

The evenings were enjoyable and the activities provided an atmosphere of exchange among peers that was vital and friendly, with a cross-cutting approach that flowed and allowed for connections with both diverse and specific affinities at the same time. It was as intense and vibrant as the artistic ecosystem that brings us together today. And, knowing that Los Angeles will be the next stop, I am interested in participating in CIMAM again next year. I am profoundly grateful to have received the grant and been part of this important meeting of colleagues.

Bio

Teresa Riccardi holds a BA in Arts, is a professor and doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires. She teaches the seminar on Heritage, Museums and the State in the Master's Program in Cultural Management at the Universidad de San Andrés and is a professor of Latin American Art in the Postgraduate Program in Curatorship at the Universidad ESEADE.