People's faith in democracy is crumbling. On one hand, political persuasions sway elections in ways that we have never seen before. On the other, communities have a real need for genuine dialogue within this splintering condition. There are multiple positions and histories from which a better understanding can be borne, before chasing solutions that politics give the illusion to provide. Museums play a vital role here, in enabling these positions to be understood and allowing them to be heard.
In this Dialogue, Bart De Baere (M HKA), Manuel Borja-Villel (Museo Reina Sofía) and Charles Esche (Van Abbemuseum) discussed the role the museum can play in allowing a new, perhaps more poetic way of navigating this terrain. Together, they asked what is the 'imaginative possibility' of art museums, which have a double responsibility for and to their publics.
Recorded at MACBA, Barcelona, December 2016
Video editor: Record produccions
The views and opinions published here mirror the principles of academic freedom and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the L'Internationale confederation and its members.
Related activities
-
–Van Abbemuseum
The Soils Project
The Soils Project, is part of the eponymous, long term research initiative involving Tarrawara Museum of Art, Wurundjeri Country, Australia, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands and Struggles for Sovereignty, a collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It works through specific and situated practices that consider soil, as both metaphor and matter. A further iteration of the project will open at the Van Abbemuseum in May - September 2024 as part of Museum of the Commons.
The Soils Project has been in development since 2018. An international collaboration between three organisations, and several artists, curators, writers and activists, the project has manifested in various iterations over several years including a three-part public webinar series titled The Soils Project: groundwork, and a two-week workshop, titled The Soils Project: On Country, for participating curators and artists. With a curatorium comprising arts workers from TarraWarra Museum of Art, the Van Abbemuseum, and Struggles for Sovereignty, the project’s approach seeks and facilitates opportunities to listen to diverse voices and perspectives around notions of caring for land, soil and sovereign territories.
Developed from this journey, The Soils Project’s forthcoming exhibition will embrace the deep histories of each participant’s location, examining the multiplicity of landscapes and environments, and the impact of colonisations and global industries on cultural heritage, land management and traditional knowledges.
-
Museo Reina Sofia
School of Commoning Practices
This exchange programme gathers different schools organized by volunteers and migrant communities in Athens (Open School for Migrants) and Madrid (School of Rights, Escuela de Español and Situated mediation School) in order to share their knowledge, exchange strategies and reflect on the experience of working together with migrant communities.
-
2023 – 2026 Institute of Radical ImaginationMuseo Reina SofiaCinema as Assembly
Cinema as Assembly investigates cinema as a space of social gathering and political engagement that prefigures and enacts forms of living beyond colonial capitalism.
-
1 Sep 2023 –30 Jun 2024 Museo Reina SofiaTeam of Teams
This project researches citizen participation as a fundamental pillar in the creation of community.
-
1 Apr 2024 –21 Dec 2025 Museo Reina SofiaSustainable Art Production
The Studies Center of Museo Reina Sofía will publish an open call for 4 residencies of artistic practice for projects that address the emergencies and challenges derived from the climate crisis such as food sovereignty, architecture and sustainability, communal practices, diasporas and exiles or ecological and political sustainability, among others.
-
21 Jun 2023 –6 Jul Van AbbemuseumMaria Lugones Decolonial Summer School
Recalling Earth: Decoloniality and Demodernity
Course Directors: Prof. Walter Mignolo & Dr. Rolando VázquezRecalling Earth and learning worlds and worlds-making will be the topic of chapter 14th of the María Lugones Summer School that will take place at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.
-
9 Dec 2023 M HKASUPERHOST | Club Antena. Intimate listening and dancing experience
with Nele Möller, Farida Amadou, Le Réalism, Céline Gillain, Roberta Miss, Elena Colombi
CLUB ANTENA is an intimate listening and dancing session with a lecture, concert, performance, catering and DJ sets, exploring what it means to listen with our bodies.
-
4 Feb 2024 –10 Mar MSU ZagrebVan AbbemuseumModerna galerijaZRC SAZUOpen Call – School of Common Knowledge
MSU (Zagreb), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), MG+MSUM (Ljubljana), ZRC SAZU (Ljubljana) and L'Internationale invite applications for the new School of Common Knowledge (SCK) to be held in Zagreb and Ljubljana 24–29 May 2024. The School of Common Knowledge draws on the network, knowledge and experience of the L’Internationale museum confederation. Its ambition is to be both nomadic and situated, looking at specific cultural and geopolitical situations while exploring their relations and interdependencies with the rest of the world. The SCK is built on the basis laid by the Glossary of Common Knowledge project initiated by Zdenka Badovinac and Moderna galerija (Ljubljana) and continues its co-learning methodology.
Related contributions
-
Decolonial aesthesis: weaving each other
Charles Esche, Rolando Vázquez, Teresa Cos Rebollo9 Nov 2023 The Soils ProjectClimateVan Abbemuseum -
The Kitchen, an Introduction to Subversive Film with Nick Aikens, Reem Shilleh and Mohanad Yaqubi
Nick Aikens, Subversive Film13 Jul 2023 lumbungPast in the PresentVan Abbemuseum -
Lumbung practices to resist and collaborate through art
Constanza Yévenes Biénzobas30 Aug 2023 lumbungSituated OrganizationsMuseo Reina SofiaEN es -
Granby: Collecting, Working and Making in a Post-Democratic Society
Alistair Hudson, Annie Fletcher, Fran Edgerley17 Oct 2017 Dialogues -
Preservation of the Commons: Responsibilities of the Institutions
Futurefarmers/Amy Franceschini, Aslıhan Demirtaş24 Sep 2017 DialoguesSALT -
Potential of the Totality: Machine Learning for A Longer Relationship With Archives
Refik Anadol, Kenric McDowell9 Sep 2017 DialoguesSALT -
In the Battles of Language / En las batallas del lenguaje
Marina Garcés, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui20 Jun 2017 DialoguesMACBA -
Populism. A Dialogue on Art, Representation and Institutions in the Crisis of Democracy
Chantal Mouffe, Didier Eribon8 Jun 2017 DialoguesMuseo Reina Sofia -
Dialogues Broadcasting
27 Apr 2017 Dialogues -
A dialogical tour through the exhibition The Making of Modern Art
Steven ten Thije, Quinsy Gario27 Apr 2017 DialoguesVan Abbemuseum -
Performances from the opening of The Heritage of 1989. Case Study: The Second Yugoslav Documents Exhibition
Jusuf Hadžifejzović, Azra Akšamija, Ilija Šoškić27 Apr 2017 DialoguesModerna galerija -
Evidence, Activism And The Law in the Age of Post-Truth
Baltasar Garzón, Eyal Weizman, Yolanda Álvarez, Manuel Vergara27 Apr 2017 DialoguesMACBA -
Congresso Internacional Extraordinário dos Críticos de Arte, 1959
27 Apr 2017 DialoguesMuseo Reina Sofia -
Who is Speaking?
Paola Bacchetta, Françoise Vergès27 Apr 2017 Dialogues -
A conversation about the project 'A Temporary Futures Institute'
Anders Kreuger, Maya Van Leemput27 Apr 2017 DialoguesM HKA -
Epistemologies of the South
Zdenka Badovinac, Jesús Carrillo, Patrick Flores25 Jan 2017 DialoguesModerna galerija -
Art Museums and Democracy
Charles Esche, Manuel Borja-Villel, Bart de Baere12 Dec 2016 DialoguesM HKAVan AbbemuseumMuseo Reina Sofia -
L'Internationale statement in support of MNCARS
L'Internationale Confederation4 Nov 2014 Statements and editorialsMuseo Reina SofiaEN es sl nl tr -
Hauntological Relations of Monocultures
Florence Cheval17 May 2021 MonocultureM HKA -
A walk-through the exhibition ‘MONOCULTURE – A Recent History’ at M HKA (Antwerp), with Nick Aikens and Nav Haq in conversation
Nick Aikens, Nav Haq11 Feb 2021 MonocultureM HKA -
Triángulo Rosa / Pink Triangle
Alicia Bernardos, Trinidad A. Labrador, Carolina León, Mercedes Sánchez Sáinz, Marco Antonio Theis Fuentes, Miquel Missé17 Dec 2020 Museo Reina Sofia -
How to prepare for a hurricane, pt. 2
Quinsy Gario3 Oct 2019 Van Abbemuseum -
Mix tape: Let's Funk Up All Genders!
Materia Hache / Others to the Front19 Mar 2024 Sonic CommonsSituated OrganizationsMuseo Reina SofiaEN es