Navigating New Realities: Curatorial Work and Global Challenges
Teresa Margolles, El poder (The Power), 2023, concrete mixed with narcotics, 3 tables of 274 x 152 x 76 cm, 16th Cuenca Biennale Ecuador
Date: Monday, 27 January 2025
Time: 2PM GMT
Location: Online (via ZOOM)
Open to: Everyone
Admission: Free
Register: To register for the workshop, please complete the form at the bottom of this page by Saturday, 25 January 2025
This webinar aims to explore the strategies curators can develop to address major geopolitical and social challenges. In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, curatorial practices have become vital platforms for reflecting on and responding to the intricate realities of our global landscape. Contemporary curators are not merely organizers of exhibitions; they play a critical role in addressing pressing geopolitical, social, and environmental issues. Through the artists they present and the narratives they shape, curators offer audiences the opportunity to confront and reflect on a range of urgent global challenges, from regional tensions and migration crises to environmental threats, social inequalities, and systemic violence.
The idea for this webinar stems from a recent curatorial experience at the 16th Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador. Through the work of around thirty artists, the Biennial sought to reflect on the political and social realities of Europe and Latin America, defining a landscape that was both political and emotional. The Latin American states were founded on Enlightenment ideals of progress, yet many of the promises of Modernity dissolved over the course of the 20th century. The Biennial was deeply influenced by the region’s major challenges: growing inequalities, the increasing power of drug cartels, the personal and collective toll of migration, and the rise of populism in the face of democratic fragility. The title of the Biennial, Maybe Tomorrow, was a utopian and admittedly naïve optimistic proposal that things can and must improve. However, just weeks after the opening, Ecuador plunged into yet another constitutional crisis, with violence erupting in the streets. Someone wrote, “The artists of the Biennial were already warning us. All of this was possible, not maybe tomorrow but painfully today.”
This webinar will seek to explore how curatorial practices can shed light on these regional and global dynamics, encouraging dialogue and imagination. In a world where hard and soft power continuously battle for dominance, cultural production becomes a battleground in itself, framing narratives that help make sense of complex, often contradictory realities. Today, art has taken on an urgent role in navigating the escalating cultural wars that mark our era, where public and private spheres collide and opposing narratives fiercely contend.
The webinar will delve into the ways in which art can amplify subjective experiences, question institutional structures, and evoke emotional responses that challenge established power dynamics. As authoritarian regimes expand their influence, and as social and political polarizations deepen, the role of the curator becomes more crucial than ever. By highlighting artistic works that provoke, inspire, and challenge, curating has the potential to foster new epistemologies and ethical frameworks for reimagining democracy, justice, and freedom.
Moreover, art, in its capacity to operate on both the sensory and intellectual levels, holds the power to create spaces for critical reflection and envision alternative futures, even when they seem distant or unattainable. This webinar will engage curators, artists, and audiences in a dialogue about how art can not only critique existing power structures but also propose imaginative and bold solutions for a world in urgent need of change.
In the face of growing global crises, curating can serve as a powerful tool for navigating today’s fractured realities, inviting collective reflection on the world as it is—and the world as it could be.
The webinar will address these issues with experiences from three continents:
Fredi Casco, artist and curator, director of the Texo Foundation in Asunción, Paraguay, will provide insights from Latin America.
Kati Kivinen, head of exhibitions at HAM Helsinki and co-curator of the Helsinki Biennial, will discuss European perspectives.
Alima Kairat, artistic director of the Tselinny Center for Contemporary Culture in Almaty, Kazakhstan, will offer a Central Asian viewpoint.
SPEAKERS:
Fredi Casco
Artist, Artistic Director at Fundación Texo para el arte contemporáneo
Visual artist, curator, and filmmaker. Casco is the co-founder of El Ojo Salvaje, Month of Photography in Paraguay, and a member of the editorial committee of the magazine Sueño de la Razón. He currently works as the artistic director of the Texo Foundation for Contemporary Art and is a member of AICA International.
His work has been presented in group exhibitions such as the 3rd and 5th Mercosul Biennials in Porto Alegre (2001 and 2005), the Valencia Biennial in Spain (2007), Efecto Downey at the Telefónica Foundation in Buenos Aires (2006), the 2nd Biennale of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece (2009), and the 10th Biennial in Havana, Cuba (2009). He was also part of the El Atlas del Imperio exhibition organized by the Italian-Latin American Institute at the 55th Venice Biennale and America Latina, Photographies 1960–2013, organized by the Fondation Cartier pour L'Art Contemporain (2013).
Now You See It: Photography and Concealment (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2014), and his first solo exhibition in Europe, La Fascination des Sirènes (Maison de l'Amérique latine, Paris, 2014); BIENALSUR (Buenos Aires, 2017); Postcards: News from a Dream World (Musée Départemental Arles Antique, Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, 2019); Nous les Arbres (Fondation Cartier pour L'art Contemporain, Paris, 2019); and the solo exhibition Lo Que Brilla (Centro de la Imagen, Mexico, 2019, and CAV/Museo del Barro, Asunción, 2021).
He has also participated in The Missing Circle (MAMM, Medellín, Colombia, 2020; Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico, 2020; Kadist Foundation, San Francisco, CA, 2021); Whispers: Citizen Practices During the Pandemic (BienalSur, 2022); and Les Vivants (Le Tripostal, Lille, France) and Siamo Foresta (Triennale, Milan, Italy), both organized by the Fondation Cartier in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
His latest solo exhibition, The Medium and the Scribe, was held at the Fuga VM gallery, Asunción, in 2022.
Kati Kivinen
Head of Exhibitions, HAM Helsinki Art Museum / Head Curator, Helsinki Biennial 2025
Kati Kivinen (PhD) is an art historian and curator based in Helsinki. Her curatorial practice orientates itself towards examining contemporary artistic approaches in relation to diverse cultural processes and socio-political and ecological issues, within the specific framework of an art exhibition. She’s also interested in exploring the diversity of current artistic practice and its associated aesthetic, formal and media-related issues, especially within the temporal and spatial art forms, and the artists’ moving image and sonic practices.
Currently Kivinen is the Head of exhibitions at the HAM Helsinki Art Museum (2022–). Her recent and up-coming curatorial projects at HAM include Haegue Yang: Continuous Reenactments (2023, co-curated with S. Tuulikangas), Nastja Säde Rönkkö: Survival Guide for a Post-Apocalyptic Child (2024, co-curated with S. Metsola) and Helsinki Biennial 2025 with Curator Blanca de la Torre (up-coming 2025).
Previously she has been Chief Curator for Collections at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2017–2022) and Curator for Temporary Exhibitions also at Kiasma (2003–2017).
Her independent curatorial work includes numerous interdisciplinary exhibitions, most recently Acts of Care, the Finnish Pavilion exhibition at the 15th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2024, with Pirkko Siitari), Fragile Times at Galerie im Körnerpark in Berlin (2020, with Dorothee Bienert) and Materiell Tanke at Varbergs Konsthall, Varberg, Sweden (2017).
Alima Kairat
Artistic Director, Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Alima Kairat is an artistic director of Tselinny Centre of Contemporary Culture in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tselinny center, a leading contemporary art institution in Central Asia, aims to empower the local general public and enhance an intellectual community by building a dialogue within Kazakhstani latitude and therewith the wider Central Asian perspective. It has been operating since 2018 now and will move in 2025 to its permanent venue after which it was named. She obtained her BA in History of Art in 2014 at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and MA in Contemporary Theory in 2021 in Goldsmiths University, London. Having experience in various jobs in the art sector such as art consultant, assistant curator, curator, a deputy head of exhibition department in both state and private cultural institutions, currently is passionate about raising the bar for the emerging artists creating a prodigious set for public dialogue and systematic studies on artistic and cultural processes.
Moderator
Ferran Barenblit
Independent Curator
Ferran Barenblit (Buenos Aires, 1968) is a museum director and independent curator based in Barcelona, Spain. His curatorial interests encompass the subversive potential of irony within contemporary cultural production; the dynamic interplay between visual art and popular music, including punk; and the capacity of art to navigate and decode the intricate social and political realities of today’s world. As a museum director, he specializes in examining the broader implications of cultural institutions, such as its governance models, exploring how they can address the evolving concerns of their communities while crafting narratives that connect history with the most pressing contemporary issues.
Over the past twenty years, he has led three prominent museums, transforming them into influential institutions that reflect, provoke, and drive positive societal change. His last postings were as director of CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid (2008-2015), and MACBA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (2015-2021).
His recent curatorial projects include Fictions: Narrativity in Contemporary Art (Museo de Arte Zapopan, Guadalajara, 2024); Max de Esteban: Dies Irae (Muntref, Buenos Aires, 2024); the 16th Cuenca Biennale, Ecuador (2023); Ben Vautier: Death Does Not Exist (MUAC, Mexico City, 2022); and Action: A Provisional History of the Nineties (MACBA, 2021).
Registation
This webinar is open to everyone, and you do not need to be an IKT member to attend.
To register, please complete the form below by Saturday, 25th January 2025. The Zoom link will be sent to your email on Sunday, 26th January 2025. If you don’t see it in your inbox, kindly check your SPAM folder.
Important Notice: Please be aware that the online session will be recorded. By participating in the workshop, you consent to the recording of the session, which will include audio, video, and any shared content. The recorded webinar will be published on the IKT YouTube channel and website for future reference and for the benefit of members who are unable to attend the live session.
This webinar is part of a series of four webinars selected through an open call for IKT members. The proposals were reviewed and chosen by the IKT Board. Each of these webinars offers an opportunity for curators, artists, and art professionals to engage in deep, thought-provoking conversations, while also providing actionable insights into how curatorial practices can respond to contemporary challenges. Together, the webinars will create a dynamic exchange of ideas and offer a comprehensive look at the intersection of curating, art, and society in an increasingly complex global context.
The upcoming webinars in this series include:
Curating in the Post-Indexicality Era (10 February 2025): This webinar will explore how AI influences our understanding of time, representation, and cultural signs, creating a “post-indexical” reality where artworks lose their original context. It will examine the challenges curating faces when AI can't account for historical context and material conditions, and how these issues might be addressed in museological practices such as provenance research and restitution.
Curating ‘Disability’: Challenges and Opportunities for the Inclusive Museum (Date TBC): This webinar will explore the increasing recognition of art made by artists who self-identify as disabled, focusing on how they are breaking boundaries and entering the mainstream art sector. Curators Elinor Morgan, Aidan Moesby, and Iarlaith Ní Fheorais will discuss the challenges faced by these artists, curatorial approaches, and the barriers encountered by both curators and audiences. Participants will gain insights on collaborating with artists who self-identify as disabled and learn how to create more inclusive spaces for their work.
Longing / Belonging - Just Places (November 2025): This webinar will focus on the timely and complex issue of repatriation of art and cultural objects, exploring the roles of contemporary art curators in addressing this topic. It will highlight the importance of curators understanding the challenges surrounding repatriation, particularly in the contexts of colonialism, disappearing cultures, and restitution. The webinar will also delve into the impact of technological innovations on art presentation, covering topics such as digital repatriation, 3D printed replicas, virtual museums, big data, provenance analysis, and the role of generative AI in curation.