Event overview
A conversation with curator and researcher Pablo Martínez to discuss the possibilities of the eco-social museum and the limits of sustainable modern cultural paradigms.
Centre for Visual Anthropology
MA in Visual Anthropology
MA in Anthropology & Museum Practice
Tuesday, May 30th at 16h30 – Department of Anthropology
Arthur Rimbaud, the poet of the Commune, called for a kind of art that would “change life.” To do this in today’s world, we must turn our desires on their heads. We must resist the urges of blind consumption, we must build cooperative communities, and thus aim to redefine the very notions of freedom, equality, redistribution, and limits. With these considerations in mind, and responding to the ongoing crisis of the museum-as-institution, two vital questions emerge: What sort of museum do we want in today’s world? And, what sort of world do we want to build, from within the museum? The first question invites us to build a museum that is conscious of its own material reality and ecological impact, thus modifying and defining its practices accordingly. The second question highlights the power of art in forming subjectivities and constructing shared imaginaries that might “change life” as we know it.
Pablo Martínez holds a PhD in Art History with a dissertation that analysed images of crowds taken at the funeral of Spanish anarchist Buenaventura Durruti. At present, he works as Margarita Salas Researcher at the Institute of History at the Spanish National Research Council (IH-CSIC). Over the last decade, his institutional work has challenged the limits of the museum-as-institution to imagine alternative eco-social institutional practices. He has served as the Director of Programmes at MACBA (2016–2021), the Head of Education and Public Activities at CA2M (2009–2016), and an associate professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University in Madrid (2012-2015). He has edited books, curated performances, activated collective processes of creation, accompanied artists in residence, and curated exhibitions. He has also negotiated with neighbours and communities, organised against the expansion cultural institutions and their gentrifying effects, moved chairs, placed bottles of water, and written applications. and danced until sunset. His current research and practice are oriented towards analyses of ecological crisis and the role of art in the construction of a new hegemony that might enable a less violent and more just futurity. He tries to dance until sunset whenever he can.
For questions, please contact Lee Douglas (l.douglas@gold.ac.uk).
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 30 May 2023 | 4:30pm - 6:30pm |
Accessibility
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