My curatorial practice is drawn and underpinned on my own past perspective and experiences as an artist. Thus at the present day, I am concerned with widening the understanding and exploring exhibitions formats while seeking to facilitate nutritious spaces that contextualize the artists’ work. I have an inexhaustible curiosity about and respect for the artists’ work processes.
In fact one the most challenging aspects of my curatorial own practice is to deepen my knowledge about the artists’ oeuvre and their work processes for then, either, propose them a group exhibition or commission a project-based solo exhibitions. My professional development and experience as a curator has been a “learning by doing” process. During my curatorial work I have been concerned to address two main questions:
(i). What should be the curator’s role when art institutions and the local cultural infrastructure are weak?
(ii). What could be a curator’s statement towards a local artistic tissue confronting an evolving international art world?
So in this way, between 2006 -2007, I carried out 6 short length exhibitions in “non-conventional” spaces (or not art devoted spaces), which have been either chosen by the artists invited, or where I invited artists to exhibit in a given particular site.
These exhibitions or events that lasted for one day provided excellent options for performance budget productions. My aim with these exhibitions was to bring attention forward to debate, dialogue and exchange of ideas about one day lasting events.
I invited artists with a high quotient of performance in their work and who could potentially use these “limitations” as the motor to produce new work. I worked with artists such as Jorge Satorre, David Bestúe and Marc Vives, Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez, Antonio de la Rosa, Julia Spínola, Ester Mañas and Arash Moori, among others.
In 2008, and in collaboration with the S.M.A.K. (Belgium) we proposed “Harder, Better, Slower, Stronger!” the first international curator visit and symposium programme of this nature ever, which took place in Madrid.
Four international curators were invited on an intensive guided tour that’s lasted for a week into the local Madrilenian art scene, including studio visits and meetings with cultural producers and local alternative art spaces. The main goal of this programme was to unlock the local Madrilenian art scene to a broader international public of cultural producers and curators.
Moreover, it was followed by the symposium program ‘Harder, Better, Slower, Stronger!, hosted by La Noche en Blanco. This symposium brought four local curators together with six international curators. The main aim of this symposium was to develop a dialectical discussion of local versus evenemential curatorial practice Moreover, in 2008, together with Ramon Mateos we founded JULIO an audiovisual periodic online platform, www.thisisjulio.com, centred in the dissemination contemporary art of audio/video format of selected artists, rooted and influenced by music and films.
In this sense, JULIO’s image in movement is explicit in its contents: from the contribution of selected artists, curators’, to current thoughts and theories that aims at informing artistic practice in our present days.
Biografia
Manuela Moscoso (Colombia, 1978) studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London, UK. In 2001 she founded with Patricia Esquivias los29enchufes, Madrid. Since 2005 she is curating the los29enchufes programme, proposing exhibitions involving commissioning new work in context specific site with artist like Jorge Satorre (“The encounter”, Centro Cultural Conde Duque, La Noche en Blanco, Madrid, 2007), YProducciones (“EmbajadaYP”, Madrid), Antonio de la Rosa (“Triple X”, Madrid, 2006), David Bestúe y Marc Vives (“Actions in the body” Madrid, 2006), Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez (“Sin título“ Madrid, 2006), or the collective exhibition “Tomorrow is too late” (Naves Suances, Madrid). She has also curated exhibitions together with Patricia Esquivias like “Together they agreed to advance the darkening”, (Fundación Sa Nostra, Prize, Islas Baleares 2008), “Somewhere someone is travelling furiously towards you” (Caja Madrid’s Grant, Inéditos 05, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2005). Recently she has directed in collaboration with the S.M.A.K. (Ghent, Belgium) Harder Better, Slower, Stronger! the first program of residences and symposium for international curators in Madrid. At the begging of 2006, together with Ramón Mateos founded the audiovisual online platform dedicated to contemporary art JULIO (www.thisisjulio.com). She has also worked as a curatorial assistant of Joasia Krysa KURATOR in production and coordination of the Observatori Festival 2008 (Valencia). In 2007 she was a nominee to the Bonaldi Prize Young Curators Award of Gamec, Italy, and selected to participate in the international symposium for young curators Qui. Enter Atlas organized by GAMEC Bergamo, Italy and S.M.A.K, Ghent, Belgium.
