Tertulia 16: TOWARDS A NON-HEGEMONIC MUSEUM

Presented by: Agustín Pérez-Rubio

When we speak of contemporary art, the museum has gone from being a receiving institution to a space that seeks to generate a curatorial discourse through exhibitions, research and public programs. The importance of generating local content that is in turn connected globally is one of the current challenges for most institutions. How to move towards a museum that decolonizes the structure of knowledge, what practices help us to trace this new concept of a non-hegemonic museum?

Curator Agustín Pérez Rubio will talk with Beatriz Salinas about expansive experiences that allow us to question or sustain the idea of a museum: radical museology, urban intervention, territory and institutional critique. Taking as a starting point both his work as Artistic Director of the MALBA in Buenos Aires and the curatorship of VERBOAMERICA as Permanent Collection of the Museum and his work as curator of the Chilean Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale with the project Altered Views by artist Voluspa Jarpa.

Moderated by: Beatriz Salinas

AGUSTÍN PÉREZ-RUBIO: was born in Valencia, Spain in 1972. He has a degree in art history from the Universidad de Valencia. He has curated over one hundred exhibitions at important museums and art centers, biennales, etc. mainly in Europe and Latin America. Before he was Chief Curator and Director of MUSAC 2003- 2013, he organized monographic exhibitions of major artists like Pierre Huyghe, Julie Mehretu, Dora García, Pipiloti Rist, SANAA, Elmgreen & Dragset, Harun Farocki, Ugo Rondinone, Azucena Vietes and Lara Almarcegui. Later, as an independent curator, he curated projects that include solo shows by artists such as SUPERFLEX, Sophie Calle, Rosangela, Rennó, Carlos Garaicoa, Yoko Ono and many group shows thematically related to gender, linguistics, architecture and politics.

He had been the Artistic Director of MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires from May 2014 till June 2018, where he developed a socio-political programme dedicated to female Latin American artists and Latin America queer context. In addition, Pérez Rubio together with Andrea Giunta, curated the script of MALBA’s collection titled VERBOAMERICA a postcolonial revision of the Collection.

Recently, he has been curator of Chilean Pavilion at 58th Venice Biennale with the project Altered Views by Voluspa Jarpa. He is also member of the board of the Istambul Biennale.

He has been appointed co-curator of the next 11th Berlin Biennale together with Lisette Lagnado, Maria Berrios and Renata Cervetto. Finally, he has been invited to be a Guest Professor 2019-2020, at Institut für Kunst im Kontext, Universität der Künste Berlin.

Image: Altered Views. Voluspa Jarpa. Chilean Pavillion 58th Venice Biennale. Photo: Felipe Lavin.