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Workshop on cultural management for artists |
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Santiago García
Aramburu |
| The
Duplus space that opened in December 1999 was created as a non-profit
NGO for the production and exhibition of a wide variety of contemporary
art shows. It is situated on the first story of an old town house
in the Abasto, (a traditional popular neighbourhood or barrio) in
the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is directed, financed and
coordinated by Santiago García Aramburu and by Lucio Dorr. The idea was to create and fund a non commercial physical space to carry out projects related to visual artists with a career in progress, as well as for new artists who need a space to initiate their career. It was also meant to encourage the general public to appreciate the new contemporary art tendencies and media. Though the project does not contemplate selling works of art as space policy, artists may sell their work if they want to. On the other hand, we aim at promoting, developing and becoming part of a net of artistic interchange, as we understand that cultural management cannot develop unless it is through a plural and interdisciplinary net. • The serious economic, social, political and cultural crises our country has undergone during the last few years has obliged us to revise the aims of our project for Duplus and to question the terms of circulation, of giving out information and staging in relation to visual art projects. Duplus is currently a project dedicated to experimentation, research and the understanding of the processes in curatorial practices and in the construction mechanisms of contemporary art. These changes took place slowly and are deeply linked to the new sociopolitical scenario in the country. The need to focus on the constructive thinking of the contemporary artist, plus our interest in starting to work in projects of direct intervention in "public space", drove us to think of a project of strong experimental character, developed in time and in which the essence of the experience would be in the area of intensity it may produce, rather than in the form or appearance that it may acquire in a temporal development. • This is how "Proyecto Módulos" (Modules Project) was born, based in generating modules of artistic production, in the publication of curatorial experiences and in the development of learning and significant appropriation processes between schools and contemporary art. The modules consist of the development of an artistic project of intervention of a public or semi-private space (for example, the exhibition rooms at Duplus) during three months. We chose to invite artists and not projects; this definition has allowed us to focus directly on the research and reflection characteristics of a creative process, and not on the quality of a body of work. At the same time, people from different fields were invited to take part in the development of each artist’s project so that they would write critical texts from various points of view. This ensemble of reflections will take the shape of a book of essays, which will provide the curatorial conclusion of the whole experience. This is the context from which the Modules Project stems. This year it was made up of one module (though the original project contemplated the development of 3 modules by 3 different artists). The situation of the country and the lack of economic funds of Duplus determined that we could only achieve one module (a project by the artist Andrés Sobrino) that ended in the middle of October. 1999 - an exhibition was held to inaugurate the project. 2000 - 7 exhibitions, 20 days long each one, were held from April to November. In July we invited, for the first time, curators Rodrigo Alonso and Andrés Denegri to stage "Videoinstalaciones/3". In August and September the first shared curatorial project was held between the Duplus group and Florencia Braga Menéndez (then curator and director of Galería Blanca): "9 artists" that was exhibited at Galería Blanca. The artist book Estado de boarding pass"(Boarding pass state), by Guillermo Iuso, produced and designed by Duplus, was presented in September at the opening of the show by the same artist. 2001 - 6 exhibitions, , 30 days long each, were held from April to November. "Proyecto Escuelas" (Schools Project) was held, in which 2 schools from the city of Buenos Aires were invited to meet with young artists in the context of their show in Duplus. In November, Duplus staged a show together with the Brazilian Studies Center Foundation, presenting Marco Paulo Rolla in both places. Duplus was specially invited to two contemporary art fairs: arteBA 2001, 10° Feria de Galerías de arte de Buenos Aires, from May 18 to May 24, and to the la 3era. Feria Internacional de Galerías de Arte, Córdoba, from November 1 to November 5. 2002 – one project developed by Andrés Sobrino was held throughout four months in the Duplus exhibition rooms and at the Abasto, a Buenos Aires city neighbourhood.
As this is a project in process, we only write down the main outlines
of possible discussions: |
| e-mail: espacioad@infovia.com.ar |
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| Dossier participant's: initiators | ||