The Portable Centre of Contemporary Art
DVD, 44'39'' (2008-2010)
Date: March 9
Place: Nouvel Building, Study Center
Time: 20:00 h
Entrance: free access, until seating is completed
Type of activity: : Conversations. Political Cultures
The continuous creation of centers and museums of contemporary art in recent years has generated an institutional density considered to be an echo of the homogenous cultural model. Behind the stability and permanence of this institution, a predominance of elements such as the building is manifested, the political representation and the urban reorganization, at the same time that the lack of emphasis in proposing ways of relating to the community, to the public at large or to the possibilities of art as an element of change and awareness.
The Anti-museum is a project formed in this void, a horizontal institution, diffuse and without a container, emerging from the transformation of an independent space in Madrid, El Ojo Atómico (1993-2007), in an idea of participation and exhibition of public tensions. In the words of its founders, Tomás Ruiz-Rivas and María María Acha, the job of the Anti-museum is not to show artistic products to an audience but to re-establish social relations that turn this audience into a counter public, in an culturally and politically active community.
One of the initiatives of the Anti-museum is the CPAC (The Portable Center of Contemporary Art), a travelling mobile device, activated by artists and collectives after a debate and study process of each case, which deal with conflict areas, marginality and social exclusion, displaying and activating in its precariousness some of the issues that, paradoxically, generate the persistent foundation of the museum as a building, from the gentrification to the disappearance of the city’s memory.
This presentation opens a cycle of Conversations, a new program in which the Museo Reina Sofía accepts debate proposals of different cultural agents, questioning the role of the museum as a culturally privileged presenter, recognizing therefore a discussion in different fields, from the political cultures to the artistic production.
People participating:
María María Acha. Artist and co-director of El Ojo Atómico – Anti-museum of Contemporary Art.
Tomás Ruiz-Rivas. Artist, curator and co-director of El Ojo Atómico – Anti-museum of Contemporary Art.
Marcelo Expósito. Artist, researcher and Professor of the Program of Independent Studies at the MACBA.
