Studies of contemporary artistic and curatorial practices – Week 1

The contemporary artistic and curatorial practices study program consists of three intensive modules each offered on two days over three weeks. In these modules, participants will attend symposia and workshops with relevant agents (curators and artists, both independent and institutional) from the artistic context of Barcelona.

The program is an introduction to the widespread practice of exhibition curation, public programs, and artistic project production. The metavision of agents who work in diverse environments and from various points of view will allow a discourse to be built around issues that range from the pure production of an exhibition project and all the conceptual and logistical elements that compose it to declinations of what is meant by “curation”, and how curators and artists deal with it.

The treatment of care for works and people, hierarchies, and collaboration, the inclusion of non-hegemonic discourses or ecological awareness in the practices of curators and artists will also be transversal problems addressed in the sessions offered.

Workshops will be interspersed with moments of exchange and discussion, internally at lunch times and publicly with a weekly symposium at HAUS, the space for contemporary practices and art at BAU.

Students can complement this course with registration for Weeks 2 and 3 to complete the contemporary artistic and curatorial practices study program in full.

The course offers a broad view of the discourse and methodologies of various independent and institutional artists and curators of the current artistic ecosystem so that students can:

• Learn about different ways to understand art and art management.
• Understand the processes of institutionalisation of art and culture.
• Develop the ability to critique their own management projects and those of others.

The axes and topics on which Week 1 of the program will focus are:

• Institutional imagination and the political power of inventing methodologies.
• The possibilities of permaculture as a methodology in contemporary art.
• New communication technologies and the language of performance.

Program

Monday 3 July

• 14:00 BAU welcome lunch.
• 15:30 - 19:00 Symposium and workshop with Anna Manubens, the director of HANGAR.

Tuesday 4 July

• 10:30 Symposium and workshop with the artist Candela Capitán.
• 14:00 BAU lunch.
• 15:30 - 19:00 Symposium and workshop with Alba Colomo, the director of La Escocesa.
• 19:30 - 21:00 Public symposium at HAUS, the space for contemporary practices and art at BAU.

* The program includes lunch.

BAR project is a curatorial initiative in motion that promotes cross-disciplinary dialogue, hospitality, collaboration, and exchange between art and society. BAR project arose as a mobile, not-for-profit organisation in 2013. It is led by Andrea Rodriguez Novoa and Veronica Valentini.

BAR project has taken on more than 150 cultural workers, both independent and institutional, from all continents. It has collaborated with multiple spaces, projects, and local and international institutions.

In November 2023, BAR project signed a collaboration agreement with BAU (College Arts and Design of Barcelona) to manage HAUS, the space for contemporary practices and art. Together with BAU, this new exhibition space will allow efforts to continue promoting transnational dialogue between the local and international art scene from the suburb of Poblenou.