PUBLIC PROGRAM | ESTE FOCUS | Seeing Sound: Barbara London
Barbara London, curator
In conversation with Leonardo Secco, researcher at the Universidad Católica del Uruguay

With the collaboration of ARCA International Film Festival and Universidad Católica del Uruguay. This activity will be held in English, without translation.

BARBARA LONDON
American author and curator investigating new media and sound art in all corners of the world. She is best known for founding the video collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York, and for the leading acquisition of works by Nam June Paik, Laurie Anderson, Bruce Nauman.
London joined MoMA's staff in 1970. As a young Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, she founded the video collection and exhibition programs in the mid-1970s, and organized the exhibition “Bookworks” in 1977. At MoMA, she organized more than 500 cutting edge media art exhibitions showcasing the work of pioneering artists active internationally. She also initiated Video Viewpoints (1978-2002), a four-year lecture series in which media artists regularly presented and discussed their work.

London was the first to integrate the internet as part of curatorial practice, with “Stir-fry” (1994), “Internyet” (1998), and “dot.jp.” (1999); and organized one-person shows with such media mavericks as Laurie Anderson, Peter Campus, Teiji Furuhashi, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas, Shigeko Kubota,Song Dong, Steina Vasulka, Bill Viola, and Zhang Peili. Her thematic exhibitions at MoMA included: “Soundings: A Contemporary Score” (2013), “Looking at Music” (2009), “Video Spaces” (1995), “Music Video: the Industry and Its Fringes” (1985), and “Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto” (1979).

After four decades as curator of media and performance art at MoMA, in 2013 she changed hats to write, curate, and teach. She is the author of Video Art/The First Fifty Years (Phaidon Press, 2020), which traces the history of video art as it transformed into the broader field of media art. London teaches in the Sound Art Department, Columbia University, and previously taught in the Graduate Art Department, Yale (2014-2019). Her honors include: Getty Research Institute scholar, 2016; the Courage Award, Eyebeam, 2016; Gertrude Contemporary Residency, Melbourne, 2012; Dora Maar House Residency, Menerbes, 2010; a CEC Artslink award in Poland, 2003; a Japanese government Bunkacho Fellowship, 1992-1993; and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1988-1989.

LEONARDO SECCO (Montevideo, 1966)
Professor, researcher and artist based in Montevideo.

He holds a degree in electronics and telecommunications (ORT University) and a Master’s degree in electroacoustic composition (University of Montreal). He is PhD candidate in Arts at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina).

In Montevideo he is a professor at the Universidad Católica and at the Universidad de la República, where he teaches sound art, music technology and communication studies. His current research project is focused on online sound platforms as virtual representations of contemporary urban soundscapes.

As a sound artist he has performed and collaborated regularly in different projects and events, such as: Núcleo Música Nueva de Montevideo; Sound art festival Monteaudio; Proyecto Casa Mario; Festival internacional de danza contemporánea del Uruguay (FIDCU); International CSOUND Conference; Seminario internacional de Narrativas Hipertextuales (NHT); Museo Blanes; Centro cultural DODECÁ; Encuentro Internacional de Grabación de Campo (EIGC).