PUBLIC PROGRAM | ESTE CHARLA I Constructing local and regional narratives
Charlotte Laubard, Curator (France)
Veronica Cordeiro, Curator (Uruguay-Brazil)
in conversation with Ivo Mesquita, Director, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil)
Sigismond Vajay, Artist (Suizterland)
Constructing local and regional narratives
In the last thirty years there has been an increasing interest in the artistic and cultural production of regions such as Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, promoting self-reflection and reconstruction. In Latin America, how have public and private institutions, contemporary cultural events and policies and independent initiatives contributed to the construction of local, regional and national narratives? The guests will discuss the different institutional and independent approaches towards the development of artistic platforms in Latin America, and their commitment with academic research.
Ivo Mesquita (Brazil), is the Technical Director of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo since May 2012, where he also was Chief Curator from 2006 to April 2012, in São Paulo. He worked as researcher and assistant curator at the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo (1980-88), and collaborated as guest curator in the 20th (1989) and 24th (1998) editions of the Biennial. In 2008 he was Chief Curator of the 28th Bienal de São Paulo. From 1996 to 2007 he was Visiting Guest Professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, in New York, and Director of the Museu de Arte Moderna, in São Paulo (1999-2000). Working as independent curator between 1989 and 2006, he collaborated and developed curatorial projects with institutions such as Winnipeg Art Gallery, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico, National Gallery of Canada, The Bronx Museum, Fundación ‘laCaixa’, Museo Reina Sofía, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona, among others, and was the curator of the Brazilian Pavilion in the Venice Biennials of 1999 and 2009, as well as being one of the curators for the binational project InSite’97 and 2000, in San Diego/Tijuana. Among his publications are Carmela Gross, a body of ideas, Leda Catunda 1988-2008, Beatriz Milhazes Collage Paintings, Iran do Espírito Santo, a general vision (all São Paulo, Pinacoteca do Estado, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007); Eliane Prolik, in another place (Curitiba, artist’s edition, 2005); F[r]icciones (Madrid, MNCARS, 2001, co-author Adriano Pedrosa); Daniel Senise: She who isn’t here (São Paulo, Cosac&Naif, 1998); Leonilson: Use it, It’s Legal, I Guarantee (São Paulo, Cosac&Naify, 1997 and 2007); American Visions (New York, ACA Books, 1995, co-authors Noreen Tomassi and Mary Jane Jacob); and Cartographies (Winnipeg, WAG, 1993). He contributed towards the publications inSite97: Private Time in Public Space (Sally YARD, ed., San Diego: Installation Gallery, 1999); Latin American Art in the XX Century (Edward J. SULLIVAN, org.; Phaidon Press, 1996); and Modernity: Artistic Avant-gardes in Latin America (Ana Maria M. BELLUZZO, org.; FMAL/UNESP, 1992) among others. He lives and works in São Paulo.
Sigismond de Vajay (France) is a Swiss, Hungarian and Argentinean artist. He currently lives in Buenos Aires with a permanent link to Vevey, from where he still produces works and projects for Europe. He works in different formats such as installations, drawings, video, public interventions and sculpture. He also coordinates art projects through three cultural associations based in Buenos Aires, Vevey and Barcelona. In 2002 he settles in Barcelona where, with a group of cultural activists, he creates a platform from which to produce contemporary artworks and projects, the KBB ((Kültur Büro Barcelona). He has exhibited widely around the world and more recently in Haus der Kultur, Salzvedel, Germany; Images Biennale, Vevey, Switzerland; Matucana 100, Santiago de Chile; MIS, Museo da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo, Brazil; Centro Cultural Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela; Museum of Modern Art, Nueva York; Fundación PROA and CCEBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; PCdV, Valparaiso, Chile. He also worked with commercial galleries such as Zavaleta Lab, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Galeria Animal, Santiago de Chile; Arróniz Gallery, México DF, México; and since 2012 he works with Xippas contemporary art, Geneva, Paris, Montevideo, Punta del Este, Uruguay. In parallel to his artist activity, he also works actively as an independent curator for specific projects and took part in juries for numerous festivals and art schools. He published more than ten art books, most of them between 2009 and 2014, initiating as one branch of his cultural non profits a publishing house KBB / Toit du Monde mostly focused on Swiss and Latin American contemporary artists. Argentinean artists such as Adrian Villar Rojas, Jorge Macchi, Matias Duville, Diego Bienchi and Juan Becú were the first ones to be Published. One of his important international editorial projects, Of Bridges & Borders, published by JRP l Ringier, was a great success; a special edition of this publication, in collaboration with Ai Weiwei, came out recently in Switzerland, France, Argentina and Chile.
Charlotte Laubard (France) is Art History and Theory professor and researcher at Geneva University of Art and Design since 2013. She directed CAPC Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux (2006-2013), was the consultant for Viktor Pinchuk Foundation in Kiev (2005-06), assistant curator at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea of Turin (2002-05) and curatorial associate at PS1 COntemporary Art Centre in New York (1999-2000). She has also created several projects as an independent curator and currently develops the Nouveaux Commanditaires in Switzerland.
Veronica Cordeiro (Brazil-Uruguay) is the curator of the Photography Centre of Montevideo (CdF) since January 2013, where she commissioned new work by Rosângela Rennó (2011), Dias & Riedweg (2013), among others. Co-curator of the Uruguay Pavilion at the 55th Biennale di Venezia (2013), recent curatorships include residencies and survey exhibitions of Cao Guimarães, Tamara Cubas, Ernesto Vila. With the support of ICI-NY in 2011 she founded Surcontexto, an organization devoted to researching curating in trans-disciplinary and ethnographic contexts. She writes regularly for catalogues and magazines and participates in the Jury of prestigious prizes in Uruguay, Argentina, Canada and Holland.