Cristina Anglada

In 2022, 41 contemporary art curators, researchers, and museum directors from 24 different countries were awarded to attend the CIMAM 2022 Annual Conference. The CIMAM 2022 Annual Conference, titled "The Attentive Museum. Permeable Practices for a Common Ground", was held in Mallorca (Balearic Islands), Spain on 11–13 November, hosted by Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma.

Cristina Anglada's Conference Report

It was my first time participating in a CIMAM conference. I applied for the grant thanks to the recommendations of colleagues, many of whom had already participated and found it enriching and beneficial from a professional point of view. It is true that without the help that Acción Cultural Española provided me with the grant I would not have been able to assume the total cost of the trip and participation as an independent curator, without the support of an institution behind me. Although it is true, I consider that the cost is justified by what it offers.

The attentive Museum is a topic that was and is of special interest to me in my latest research. During the last few years, I have combined my professional development as a curator with an intense activity as a member of an independent and activist pedagogical project in nature in a little village in Mallorca run by some families and educators. Is in this cross that it has developed more intensely my preoccupation for education and in how to apply the theme of care to the practices that concern us as workers in the field of contemporary art. Beyond the urgency, necessity, and relevance of the issue of care in our reality, it is of special interest to me to rethink culture as community building and how to propose an educational turn in these areas. It seems essential to me to rethink our social work as opposed to the inertia of feeding the machine of neoliberalism with its neutralizing contradictions.

I found the lectures uneven. Many of them seemed more like promotional pills for the museums in which these people worked, but others stood out for their luminosity and rigor. I would highlight those of Sethembile Msezane (the seed is the memory of the fruit; to remember as a weapon, rescuing indigenous languages, the new animism), Denise Ferreira da Silva's

(Disarming the transparent eye, community resistance), Nuria Enguita's (a strong museum requires a strong community) and Emily Jacir's (her activist zeal for the memory and visibility of the Palestinian struggle). It was very interesting to listen to and get closer to the practices of the Zoma Museum by Meskerem Assegued Bantiwalu.

The Workshop in which I participated on the second day (Saturday) was very interesting, active, and diverse in terms of participant profiles and themes around which the reflections and debate revolved.

I would like to highlight the wonderful organization of the event, and the venues where every activity took place, which made everything easy, friendly, and effective. As a grantee, I have enjoyed all the benefits, support, and care and it has been highly beneficial for me. I have had enriching conversations about the topics discussed and professional issues and future work collaborations. It has also been great to talk with friends who were also participating. The website with the who's who was very useful.

If I could modify something it would be the organization of the afternoon groups, that they were not the same on all 3 days, in order to encourage more meetings between different people.

I am very grateful for all the attention, effort, care, and work behind this annual conference. I hope we can meet next year in Buenos Aires.