Hama Goro
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.
Hama Goro's Conference Report
The CIMAM 2022 Annual Conference, which I discovered this year through my mailing, immediately caught my attention. Very excited to be among the beneficiaries of the scholarship to take part, I started the preparations with a hardship, visa, and ticket in compliance. But finally, with the commitment and efficiency of the organization team, I arrived in Mallorca in the early evening of November 10.
Arrived at Mallorca airport for the first time, despite the absence of a CIMAM 2022 welcome committee, I was touched by the organization of transport, as I had no problem reaching my hotel.
Friday, November 11, 22, from 8:30 a.m., the Auditorium, Ground Floor (Planta 0) of Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma, was packed with people (participants and organizers) with the presence of the highest authorities in Spain for the cause of art and thus marked the opening of the annual Conference of CIMAM.
Arrived, a little late, but I was personally impressed by the organization and the presence of Francisca Armengol, President of the Government of the Balearic Islands, His Majesty, the king of Spain with several Ministers to mark their interests for the development of the art and culture.
The Museum started with the plenaries in a packed hall. Among the plenaries from November 11 to 13, four (4) presentations particularly caught our attention.
The first presentation was that of Bart de Baere, General and Artistic Director, M HK Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerp, whose presentation revolved around the issue of recovered objects according to my understanding. This allowed me to approach the piles of scrap found near our markets in Mali and used by young people for their survival, but not in an artistic context. Followed by a second presentation of Zoma Museum by Meskerem Assegued Bantiwalu, Curator and General Director, Zoma Museum PLC, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. According to my own analysis, the second was seen as a response to the first. It is also to say that in the perception and interpretation of contemporary arts it will be necessary to associate the social context.
Precisely, on the 2nd day with Sethembile Msezane, Visual Artist, Msezane Studios Cape Town, South Africa, whose presentation was on “The seed is the memory of the fruit”, we understood the cultural approach used to reach the local audience. While Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, Hong Kong, China, gave an estimate of around 50,000 million visitors per year. I am not a museum manager but imaginable for me, because with us the local public rarely travels to visit the Museums or exhibition spaces.
In short, this conference has allowed me to acquire new experiences, which will certainly help to improve my work and my vision as a manager and curator.
It was also an opportunity to make new contacts and find other colleagues and friends lost to sight, in order to develop our network of collaboration.
The group excursions in different spaces were very interesting, but unfortunately, I was a little handicapped by fatigue to take advantage of the maximum opportunity.
It’s a bit of a shame that I couldn’t take advantage of the additional activities to discover contemporary art spaces, because the opportunity was favorable. I take this opportunity to address my very sincere thanks to all the members of CIMAM 2022, to the entire organization team, and more particularly to Mercedes Vilardell and the staff of travel grant, who gave me the opportunity to take part in the first time at this annual conference of CIMAM 2022.
I sincerely hope to be able to take part more widely in the next edition of this conference and expect to participate in more workshops.