Episode 10: Chus Martinez
Chus Martinez is one of the most speculative and critical minds within contemporary art and the curatorial field. We’ll hear her discussing the possible and perhaps necessary end of the art institution as we know it, and on what can be done to imagine other art sustaining environments: towards an understanding of art, that is more in tune with the growing complexity of life, and one that is more at peace with its transformative role within this complexity.
“I’m much more interested in an exhibition in the forest, rather than trying to produce a white cube which is not white, or it is round, or it’s virtual… Those kinds of modifications are not productive in speculative thinking.”
Chus has an internationally acclaimed curatorial practice that spans over almost two decades that generated myriad exhibitions, publications, and at times some of the most unexpected forms of cultural production. She is currently the head of the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Arts and Design in Basel. She is also the expedition leader of The Current II (2018–20), a project initiated by TBA21–Academy.
Her very interesting trajectory to this point includes many curatorial and directorship roles, from Sala Rekalde in Bilbao, to MACBA in Barcelona, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, as well as being a core figure in the curatorial team of Documenta 13.
Episode Notes & Links
Chus is currently the director of the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design. https://institut-kunst.ch/en/we-are/studium-master/
Chus was writing a short story a day and keeping the doctor away during the first COVID-19 outbreak. She published her stories through Instagram and later on compiled them into a book titled “Let life Happen to You” published by Lenz Press. https://lenz.press/products/corona-tales-let-life-happen-to-you
Suzi Gablik is an artist and a professor of art history and art criticism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzi_Gablik
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy which promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, plus the restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_ecology
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is a writer, art historian and curator whom was the Artistic Director of dOCUMENTA (13).
TBA21–Academy is an institutiton that promotes ocean literacy, research, and advocacy through the arts. The Academy is dedicated to fostering a deeper understanding of the ocean in order to engendering creative solutions to its most pressing issues. https://www.tba21.org/#item--academy--1819
Donna Haraway is a leading scholar in the field of science and technology studies with a focus on contemporary ecofeminism, associated with post-humanism and new materialism movements. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Haraway
Stephen Wright is a writer and gardener based in France. He was the guest of the first episode of Ahali. https://www.ahali.space/episodes/episode-1-stephen-wright
Promise No Promises! is a podcasts series produced by the Womxn’s Center for Excellence, a research project between the Art Institute and the Instituto Susch—a joint venture with Grażyna Kulczyk and Art Stations Foundation. It features a special chapter titled Feminism Under Corona chapter with Sonia Fernandez Pan is a Spanish thinker, curator and writer and according to Chus, a fantastic person :) https://institut-kunst.ch/we-explore/podcast-promise-no-promises/
Phenomenal Ocean is a podcast series produced by Institut Kunst and TBA-21 Academy to pose questions in pursuit of a non-binary understanding of the coexistence of culture and nature, of us as living beings and the ocean. https://institut-kunst.ch/we-explore/podcast-phenomenal-ocean/
Joan Jonas is a pioneer artist whose work typically encompasses video, performance, installation, sound, text, and drawing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Jonas
Jon Mikel Euba is an artist whose work is grounded in drawing as a procedure, and sculpture as a program, resolved in diverse media. https://dutchartinstitute.eu/page/6012/jon-mikel-euba
Itziar Okariz is an artist whose work examines the ties between landscape and architecture, sign and ritual, or sexuality and territory.
Joan Jonas’ work “Moving Off the Land" (2016–ongoing) includes video, sculpture, drawing, and sound, centering on the oceans as a totemic, spiritual, and ecological touchstone. The performance was commissioned by TBA21–Academy and first presented in parallel to the 2016 Kochi – Muziris Biennale, and again in collaboration with Tate Modern at the Turbine Hall in 2018. https://www.ocean-space.org/exhibitions/joan-jonas-moving-off-land
David Gruber is a marine biologist, and Presidential Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gruber
Episode recorded on Zoom on November 9th 2020. Interview by Can Altay. Produced by Aslı Altay & Sarp Renk Özer. Music by Grup Ses.