With the aim of fostering research-based projects in Latin America, LA ESCUELA___ announces Colombian curator and writer Sara Garzón and Brazilian curator and cultural producer Catarina Duncan as guest scholars for its 2022-II semester. In this role, guest scholars will provide a decentralized perspective on the pedagogical practices brought about by critics, artists, and cultural producers throughout the twentieth century in Latin America. This will add historical depth to learning spaces that have operated outside mainstream and customary artistic centers. Their contributions will focus on practices that bridge artistic, ecological, and political issues.
LA ESCUELA___ is a platform for radical learning in public spaces that feeds on the continuous rotation of collaborating artists, researchers, and educators to address the question of how a school can be conceived, shaped and activated through artistic practices and pedagogies. Online and on-site, each semester proposes a formative and editorial program that unfolds through Classrooms, Laboratories and public lectures, as well as a website that hosts a growing archive of essays, conversations, resources, and documentation developed by a network of collaborators located throughout Latin America, produced in collaboration with affiliated universities, institutions, and communities.
The program for the 2022-II semester (September–December) will feature the expertise of guest scholars Sara Garzón and Catarina Duncan, who will bring their research areas into the editorial line of LA ESCUELA___. “Since the beginning of the 20th century, alternative spaces like radio and TV shows, independent art schools, and even artist’s ateliers have played an enormous role in establishing new frameworks for understanding the ethos of art and its education,” writes Garzón, who specializes in contemporary Latin American art, Indigenous eco-criticism, decolonial theory, and temporality.
For her part, the proposal of Duncan, who is currently curator of Solar dos Abacaxis in Rio de Janeiro, arises from “a desire to broaden the scope of reflection on issues of art and education toward other areas of creative work in Latin America. Expanding the perspectives on ecology, politics, spirituality, and food to different countries, landscapes, and contexts to discuss the meaning of pedagogical practices in these cultures from a territorialized experience.”
In this way, LA ESCUELA___ continues to grow as a platform that allows weaving an international network of people and initiatives with the shared interest of thinking about and acting upon local realities through art and education in Latin America.
The joint founders of LA ESCUELA___ are the artist, architect and educator Miguel Braceli and the nonprofit Siemens Stiftung international foundation. It is based on Siemens Stiftung’s experiences with co-creation programs and artistic interventions across Latin America, and the artistic and educational works of Miguel Braceli in public spaces.
Keep up with the programs and learn about the upcoming formative projects and publications, visit laescuela.art, follow its social networks (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), and subscribe to the newsletter.
Sara Garzón (Colombia, 1988) is a curator and writer based in New York City. She has a PhD in Art History from Cornell University and specializes in contemporary Latin American Art, Indigenous eco-criticism, decolonial theory and practice, and temporality. Sara has contributed to several exhibition catalogs, peer-reviewed journals, and art magazines like Arts of the Working Class, Ocula Magazine, and Hyperallergic. Sara has also worked as the Jane and Morgan Whitney Curatorial Fellow (2020–21) and the Lifchez-Stronach Curatorial Fellow (2014–15) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Alongside her experience in museums, Sara has also curated exhibitions in Croatia, Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador. She is the founding member of Collective Rewilding, a working group that investigates the intersection between art, ecology, and care. Recently, Sara curated the program “The Rise of the Coyote: A Return Back to Earth” for the 2022 edition of Materia Abierta, looking at the relationship between Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous technologies, plant intelligence, and futurity.
Catarina Duncan (Brasil, 1993) is a curator and cultural producer working with curatorial projects focused on Latin American cultural practices. She graduated from History of Art at Goldsmiths College (London, 2014). She currently works as curator at Solar dos Abacaxis in Rio de Janeiro. In 2021, she received the fellowship for curatorial research from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Institute and MoMa with the project Territorial Re-connections. Integrated the curatorial teams for the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo - INCERTEZA VIVA (2016), 36th Panorama of Brazilian art - Sertão at MAM-SP (2019), ‘Pivô Arte e Pesquisa’ (2014–15), Terra Comunal - Marina Abramovic at Sesc Pompéia (2015). She curated the public programs for the Cura Bra Cura Té installation by Ernesto Neto at Pinacoteca (2019), ‘Plataforma Crítica Oficina Brennand’ at Brennand Institute (2020), Third Paradise - Rebirth Forum by Michelangelo Pistoletto at Serrinha (2020). Catarina represented the program COINCIDÊNCIA by the Swiss foundation Pro Helvetia (2017–20).
