People's faith in democracy is crumbling. On one hand, political persuasions sway elections in ways that we have never seen before. On the other, communities have a real need for genuine dialogue within this splintering condition. There are multiple positions and histories from which a better understanding can be borne, before chasing solutions that politics give the illusion to provide. Museums play a vital role here, in enabling these positions to be understood and allowing them to be heard.
In this Dialogue, Bart De Baere (M HKA), Manuel Borja-Villel (Museo Reina Sofía) and Charles Esche (Van Abbemuseum) discussed the role the museum can play in allowing a new, perhaps more poetic way of navigating this terrain. Together, they asked what is the 'imaginative possibility' of art museums, which have a double responsibility for and to their publics.
Recorded at MACBA, Barcelona, December 2016
Video editor: Record produccions
Related activities
-
–Van Abbemuseum
The Soils Project
‘The Soils Project’ is part of an eponymous, long-term research initiative involving TarraWarra Museum of Art (Wurundjeri Country, Australia), the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and Struggles for Sovereignty, a collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It works through specific and situated practices that consider soil, as both metaphor and matter.
Seeking and facilitating opportunities to listen to diverse voices and perspectives around notions of caring for land, soil and sovereign territories, the project has been in development since 2018. An international collaboration between three organisations, and several artists, curators, writers and activists, it has manifested in various iterations over several years. The group exhibition ‘Soils’ at the Van Abbemuseum is part of Museum of the Commons. -
Museo Reina Sofia
School of Commoning Practices
This exchange programme gathers different schools organized by volunteers and migrant communities in Athens (Open School for Migrants) and Madrid (School of Rights, Escuela de Español and Situated mediation School) in order to share their knowledge, exchange strategies and reflect on the experience of working together with migrant communities.
-
Institute of Radical ImaginationMuseo Reina Sofia
Cinema as Assembly
Cinema as Assembly investigates cinema as a space of social gathering and political engagement that prefigures and enacts forms of living beyond colonial capitalism.
-
–Museo Reina Sofia
Team of Teams
This project researches citizen participation as a fundamental pillar in the creation of community.
-
–Museo Reina Sofia
Sustainable Art Production
The Studies Center of Museo Reina Sofía will publish an open call for 4 residencies of artistic practice for projects that address the emergencies and challenges derived from the climate crisis such as food sovereignty, architecture and sustainability, communal practices, diasporas and exiles or ecological and political sustainability, among others.
-
–Van Abbemuseum
Maria Lugones Decolonial Summer School
Recalling Earth: Decoloniality and Demodernity
Course Directors: Prof. Walter Mignolo & Dr. Rolando VázquezRecalling Earth and learning worlds and worlds-making will be the topic of chapter 14th of the María Lugones Summer School that will take place at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.
-
M HKA
SUPERHOST | Club Antena. Intimate listening and dancing experience
with Nele Möller, Farida Amadou, Le Réalism, Céline Gillain, Roberta Miss, Elena Colombi
CLUB ANTENA is an intimate listening and dancing session with a lecture, concert, performance, catering and DJ sets, exploring what it means to listen with our bodies.
-
–MSU ZagrebVan AbbemuseumModerna galerijaZRC SAZU
Open Call – School of Common Knowledge
MSU (Zagreb), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), MG+MSUM (Ljubljana), ZRC SAZU (Ljubljana) and L'Internationale invite applications for the new School of Common Knowledge (SCK) to be held in Zagreb and Ljubljana 24–29 May 2024. The School of Common Knowledge draws on the network, knowledge and experience of the L’Internationale museum confederation. Its ambition is to be both nomadic and situated, looking at specific cultural and geopolitical situations while exploring their relations and interdependencies with the rest of the world. The SCK is built on the basis laid by the Glossary of Common Knowledge project initiated by Zdenka Badovinac and Moderna galerija (Ljubljana) and continues its co-learning methodology.
-
–MSU ZagrebVan AbbemuseumModerna galerijaZRC SAZU
School of Common Knowledge
School of Common Knowledge draws on the network, knowledge and experience of the L’Internationale museum confederation. Built on the basis laid by the Glossary of Common Knowledge, a project initiated by Zdenka Badovinac and Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana, it continues its co-learning methodology. Its ambition is to be both nomadic and situated, looking at specific cultural and geopolitical situations while exploring their relations and interdependencies with the rest of the world.
-
–M HKA
Apple. An Introduction (over and over and once again)
‘Apple. An Introduction (over and over and once again)’ by Antje Majewski and Paweł Freisler is the second part of the Superhost project at M HKA. Curated by Joanna Zielińska and Anne-Claire Schmitz, it includes guest works by Chantal Akerman, Agnieszka Polska, Jimmie Durham, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joris de Rycke, Kasper De Vos and many more.
-
–M HKA
The Lives of Animals
‘The Lives of Animals’ is a group exhibition at M HKA that looks at the subject of animals from the perspective of the visual arts.
-
Museo Reina Sofia
Palestine Is Everywhere
‘Palestine Is Everywhere’ is an encounter and screening at Museo Reina Sofía organised together with Cinema as Assembly as part of Museum of the Commons. The conference starts at 18:30 pm (CET) and will also be streamed on the online platform linked below.
-
–Museo Reina Sofia
Open Call: Research Residencies
The Centro de Estudios of Museo Reina Sofía releases its open call for research residencies as part of the climate thread within the Museum of the Commons programme.
Related contributions and publications
-
Decolonial aesthesis: weaving each other
Charles Esche, Rolando Vázquez, Teresa Cos RebolloThe Soils ProjectClimateVan Abbemuseum -
The Kitchen, an Introduction to Subversive Film with Nick Aikens, Reem Shilleh and Mohanad Yaqubi
Nick Aikens, Subversive FilmlumbungPast in the PresentVan Abbemuseum -
Lumbung practices to resist and collaborate through art
Constanza Yévenes BiénzobaslumbungSituated OrganizationsMuseo Reina SofiaEN es -
Granby: Collecting, Working and Making in a Post-Democratic Society
Alistair Hudson, Annie Fletcher, Fran EdgerleyDialogues -
Preservation of the Commons: Responsibilities of the Institutions
Futurefarmers/Amy Franceschini, Aslıhan DemirtaşDialoguesSALT -
Potential of the Totality: Machine Learning for A Longer Relationship With Archives
Refik Anadol, Kenric McDowellDialoguesSALT -
In the Battles of Language / En las batallas del lenguaje
Marina Garcés, Silvia Rivera CusicanquiDialoguesMACBA -
Populism. A Dialogue on Art, Representation and Institutions in the Crisis of Democracy
Chantal Mouffe, Didier EribonDialoguesMuseo Reina Sofia -
Dialogues Broadcasting
Dialogues -
A dialogical tour through the exhibition The Making of Modern Art
Steven ten Thije, Quinsy GarioDialoguesVan Abbemuseum -
Performances from the opening of The Heritage of 1989. Case Study: The Second Yugoslav Documents Exhibition
Jusuf Hadžifejzović, Azra Akšamija, Ilija ŠoškićDialoguesModerna galerija -
Evidence, Activism And The Law in the Age of Post-Truth
Baltasar Garzón, Eyal Weizman, Yolanda Álvarez, Manuel VergaraDialoguesMACBA -
Congresso Internacional Extraordinário dos Críticos de Arte, 1959
DialoguesMuseo Reina Sofia -
Who is Speaking?
Paola Bacchetta, Françoise VergèsDialogues -
A conversation about the project 'A Temporary Futures Institute'
Anders Kreuger, Maya Van LeemputDialoguesM HKA -
Epistemologies of the South
Zdenka Badovinac, Jesús Carrillo, Patrick FloresDialoguesModerna galerija -
Art Museums and Democracy
Charles Esche, Manuel Borja-Villel, Bart de BaereDialoguesM HKAVan AbbemuseumMuseo Reina Sofia -
Steunbetuiging L'Internationale aan Mueso Reina Sofia
L’Internationale ConfederationStatements and editorialsMuseo Reina SofiaEN es sl nl tr -
Monoculture – A Recent History
M HKA -
Hauntological Relations of Monocultures
Florence ChevalMonocultureM HKA -
A walk-through the exhibition ‘MONOCULTURE – A Recent History’ at M HKA (Antwerp), with Nick Aikens and Nav Haq in conversation
Nick Aikens, Nav HaqMonocultureM HKA -
Triángulo Rosa / Pink Triangle
Alicia Bernardos, Trinidad A. Labrador, Carolina León, Mercedes Sánchez Sáinz, Marco Antonio Theis Fuentes, Miquel MisséMuseo Reina Sofia -
How to prepare for a hurricane, pt. 2
Quinsy GarioVan Abbemuseum -
The City in the Museum. A retrospective on two years Werksalon in the Van Abbemuseum
Van Abbemuseum -
Museum E!
M HKA -
A Temporary Futures Institute
M HKA -
The 1980s. Today's Beginnings? An alternative view on the 80s
Van Abbemuseum -
The Welfare State
M HKA -
Really Useful Knowledge
Museo Reina Sofia -
Don't You Know Who I Am? Art After Identity Politics
M HKA -
Minimal Resistance. Between Late Modernism and Globalisation: Artistic Practices During the 80s and 90s
Museo Reina Sofia -
Mix tape: Let's Funk Up All Genders!
Materia Hache / Others to the FrontSonic CommonsSituated OrganizationsMuseo Reina SofiaEN es -
Naming a Collective Cause in a Foreign Land
Dagmary Olívar Graterol, Paola de la Vega VelasteguiSituated OrganizationsMuseo Reina SofiaEN es -
Editors’ Picks: Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide
Yolande Zola Zoli van der HeideEditors' PicksVan Abbemuseum -
Soils
ClimateVan Abbemuseum