Próximamente LAB

On November 21st and 22nd, 2023, KVS opens its doors for the first edition of the Laboratory of Contemporary Cultural Thinking and Practices. This LAB frees up space to rethink current and future cultural collaborations between Latin America and Europe, as well as within the cultural and live arts industry.                    

PROXIMAMENTE was born in 2019 as the result of a gathering between different institutions from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile and Belgium, working together as a cooperative. The partner countries collaborate as a shared curatorial voice to submit proposals, selecting what they considered important to highlight about the artistic work in the Latin American region today. From 2021, the programme started incorporating some of the  narratives of the Latinx diaspora in Europe. From 2022 onwards, the platform is welcoming new partners and countries to be part of the platform. 

The first edition of the PROXIMAMENTE LAB is part of a desire to create a safe space of critical thinking together, to share experiences in order to analyse the dynamics of international cooperation and to facilitate new dialogues in relation to the artistic and cultural practices of the participants involved in the laboratory. 

This platform addresses the needs of the Latin American arts in a complex local and global context, supporting artists, cultural workers and audiences in the ways that a cooperative platform allows. As well as taking into account the understanding of the territorial concept of "Latin America" as a post-colonial outcome, and therefore of its geopolitical borders, and the consideration of its cultural production as "Latin American" as a result of certain dynamics and approaches.

Who can participate:
We welcome artists, cultural workers, thinkers, cultural organizations and the public interested in Latin American arts, to join us to share knowledge and collectively reflect on different modes of institutional and artistic collaboration. 

PROXIMAMENTE is a platform that defends the right to respectful practices. We believe that collective creation and thinking represent the future of our cultural industry, that's why we defend the right to freedom of expression whilst having open and careful discussions amongst us all. This is why we cannot allow racist, misogynist, sexist, discriminatory, ageist, or xenophobic approaches during our activities. 

The conversations will be carried out mostly in English, but also in Spanish and Portuguese, with translation support. 
 
How to participate:
Please fill out the following form. 
 
The event has a limited capacity due to the complexity of the discussions. We kindly ask you to fill out the form only if you are interested in participating and if you are no longer able to come, please let us know as soon as possible, so we can offer the place to another participant. 

Inspirational keynote by Sandra Benites

21.11.2023

16:30 – 17:00 
Welcome.

17:00 – 18:00
Latin American State of the Arts 

18:00 – 18:30 
PROXIMAMENTE new partners announcement and mission presentation. 

18:30 – 19:30 
Spending time and having a drink together. 

20:00
TRY OUT: La Fiesta de Delfina by Désirée 0100 & Luis Miguel Ramirez Muñoz.  

22.11.2023

10:30 – 11:00
We welcome you with coffee and tea, and please bring your -yerba- mate! 

11:00– 11:30
Explanation of the dynamics of the sessions.

11:30 – 12:15 
Inspirational keynote by Sandra Benites (remote format) 

Born in the Porto Lindo Indigenous Land, in the municipality of Japorã (MS), Sandra Benites is a Guarani mother, researcher and activist. She works as an anthropologist, art curator and educator. She stands out for her struggles in defence of the rights of indigenous peoples, especially the demarcation of territories and Guarani education. She teaches history and philosophy in primary and secondary schools. She has a master's degree in Social Anthropology from the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).  She was assistant curator of Brazilian arts at MASP. She was an exhibition and cultural programme supervisor and consultant at the Museum of Indigenous Cultures-SP. She is currently the director of visual arts at Funarte. 

12:15 – 13:15
Sharing knowledge and reflections.

First, we will ask each participant to think about what ¨Latin America¨ means to them and to write down the ideas. 
 
We then encourage all participants to divide into tables according to 3 different topics of interest, having the opportunity to meet with other colleagues and discuss certain issues as a starting point for a collective exchange and debate. Participants are free to choose the issues they would like to discuss, especially based on their own interests and experiences.
 
Each table will be supported by a moderator who will accompany and facilitate the communication within each group throughout the discussion. Moderators are Martha Hincapié Charry, Carolina Mendoça and Denise Duncan. 

13:15 – 14:00
Lunch together.  

14:00 – 17:30
Return to round table discussions.

• TABLE 1: DES-EQUILIBRIO (IMBALANCE)
• TABLE 2: DES-CENTRALIZACION (DE-CENTRALISATION)
• TABLE 3: DES-INDUSTRIALIZACION (DE-INDUSTRIALISATION)

17:30 – 18:30  
Sharing of the conclusions of each round table.
 
18:30 – 19:30
Spending time and having drinks together.

Table 1: DE-CONSTRUCCION (deconstruction)

• What are the bases of our solidarity when working with others?  
• How does collaborative willingness come into play when working with colleagues from other regions different than those we know better? 
• What issues do we take into account when working with / or between migrant artists? 
• How do we generate horizontal links between producers / managers and creators vs. industry / curators from normative organisations or mainstream economic centres?
• How can we address the problematic legacies that underlie many international relations?
  
  

Table 2: DES-CENTRALIZACION (de-centralisation)

• How do non “central” art spaces and initiatives challenge normative curatorial and artistic practices? 
• Can we find new ways of working across regions that open space for new voices and/or curatorial or cooperative management formats? What are the major difficulties/ challenges to be faced?
• How do we manage to position such projects by combating the normative doctrinal gaze of hegemonic ways of doing and thinking? 
  
  

Table 3: DES-INDUSTRIALIZACION (de-industrialisation)

• How can we rethink the predominant models of the live arts industry today?  
• What is the dimension of curatorial power and its possible formats?  
• Who is in and who is out of the sector?
• What are the limits (all kinds) of the conditions we set in horizontal projects?
• How do we define quality?  How do we finance the logics of what has quality or not?
• What goes into the funding logic? How can the funding logic be changed?