Curatorial Lectures: Marie Hélène Pereira
Building an art institution as curatorial practice
17.11.2022, 20:00–22:00
S.M.A.K.
Curatorial Lectures 2022-23: The Curated Institution
Each academic year, Curatorial Studies at KASK & Conservatorium School of Arts, S.M.A.K. and Ghent University co-organise the Curatorial Lectures series, inviting curators to share certain aspects of their practice. Following ‘Working with Artists’ (2017-18), ‘Learning from Artists’ (2018-19), ‘Working with Collections’ (2019-20), ‘Working with Space’ (2020-21), and ‘Curating at the Nexus of Change’ (2021-22) this year’s series ‘The Curated Institution’ casts a wide eye on the notion of curating as a form of institutional leadership. How can an institution be curated and what can curators do to change, tweak or reimagine institutional structures from an artistic point of view?
Past speakers in the Curatorial Lectures series have included Cédric Fauq, Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide, Simon Njami, Zoé Whitley, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Karen Archey, Cecilia Alemani, Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Joanna Mytkowska, Sofia Hernández Chong Cuy, Penelope Curtis, Mathieu Copeland, Anthony Huberman, Jean-Hubert Martin, Chus Martínez, Gabi Ngcobo, Susanne Pfeffer, Nicolaus Schafhausen and Adam Szymczyk.
RAW Material Company is a centre for art, knowledge and society based in Dakar, Senegal. It is an initiative involved with curatorial practice, artistic education, residencies, knowledge production, and archiving of theory and criticism on art. It works to foster appreciation and growth of artistic and intellectual creativity in Africa.
The programme is trans-disciplinary and is equally informed by literature, film, architecture, politics, fashion, cuisine and diaspora.
At RAW they believe fundamentally in the possibilities that emerge when we consider institution building as a form of curatorial and social practice in and of itself. In order to expand the horizons of how to do this work, and to build strong networks, RAW has embraced institutional collaborations and residencies as an indispensable part of their programming.
This lecture will serve as a set ground for understanding the work that they have been doing since 2008 as a contribution to a better appreciation of the knowledge embedded in artistic practices in the context of Senegal, on the African continent and beyond.
Biography
Marie Hélène Pereira is a Curator and cultural practitioner from Dakar, Senegal. She is Director of Programs at RAW Material Company where she has organized exhibitions and related discursive programs including the participation of RAW to “We face forward: Art from West Africa Today” Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; ICI Curatorial Hub at TEMP, New York; The 9th Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai; MARKER Art Dubai (2013). She co-curated Scattered Seeds in Cali-Colombia (2015-2017) and curated Battling to normalize freedom at Clarkhouse Initiative in Mumbai, India (2017). Pereira was a co-curator of Canine Wisdom for the Barking Dog - The Dog Done Gone Deaf. Exploring The Sonic Cosmologies of Halim El-Dabh at the 13th edition of Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African art (2018), as well as Still Present! - the 12th edition of Berlin Biennale (2022). In 2021 she was selected as one of the recipients of the ICI Curatorial Research Fellowship – a Marian Goodman Gallery initiative conceived by artist Steve McQueen - in honor of the late Okwui Enwezor.
Pereira has a strong interest in politics of identity and histories of migration.