Ximena Gama

Ximena Gama Chirolla is a professional curator from Colombia who has expertise in contemporary art from Colombia and Latin America. She has earned a degree in Philosophy from the National University of Colombia and a postgraduate degree in History and Theory of Modern and Contemporary Art from the University of Los Andes. Gama frequently contributes to various catalogs and publications related to art and culture. Her work has been recognized with the National Criticism Award from the Ministry of Culture in 2018.

Gama has made valuable contributions to the cultural landscape through her work in management, education, and research roles in cultural institutions across Colombia and the United States. As an independent curator, she has organized exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Museo de la Memoria (Bogotá), and Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (Bogotá). Her work has been instrumental in the National Center for Historical Memory in Colombia. Ximena's notable exhibitions include "Sweetening the Word: Indigenous Memories for Survival” at the National Museum of Colombia, and "Persisting Bodies: Traces and Testimonies of Women Survivors of Sexual Violence in War” exhibited at the Claustro de San Agustín and Museum of Antioquia.

In 2019- 2021, she joined the programming team at the Cinemateca de Bogotá as a curator for the expanded program. Her involvement in this role allowed her to co-curate the film program and organize exhibitions showcasing contemporary artists. Gama´s dedication to expanding the discourse around contemporary video art and film in Colombia led to her invitation by the Jeu de Paume Contemporary Art Center in France to present the project "Borders of Everyday Life: Notes for Another History of Contemporary Video Art in Colombia."

In 2021 and 2022, Gama worked for the 46th SNA (Inaudito Magdalena) co-curating the exhibition and educational program. The curatorial focus was on shedding light on the realities and communities of the river. This involved showcasing works in situ and featuring artists who explored the potential of both utopian and dystopian futures, including semi-submerged landscapes, human amphibians, and multispecies relationships. The aim was also to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and foster a more nuanced understanding of the various fields of experience and knowledge.

For the past two years, Gama and her colleague Carolina Ceron have been researching Latin American curatorship from a feminist perspective. Their goal is to shed light on the voices that are often marginalized in the art world. Unfortunately, the dissemination of knowledge about curatorial practices in Latin America has been influenced by colonialism from the global north. This perpetuates epistemic violence in our region, as it erases and excludes local processes favoring Anglo-Saxon and European perspectives. To counteract this, Gama and Ceron have highlighted the work of Latin American female curators who prioritize collective care as a way of managing projects. Their work culminated in publishing "Lo curatorial desde el sur" (The Curatorial from the South). https://galeriasantafe.gov.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Lo_curatorial-VERSION-WEB.pdf

Today, Gama holds the position of Public Program curator at the National Library in Colombia. It is her responsibility to lead and design the development of exhibitions and educational programs for visitors.