López is a writer, researcher and curator focusing on collective practices and feminist rearticulation of history. The voices, aesthetics and geographies that he highlightscall for a reorganisation of the global established art narratives. López conducts projects on Latin American experimentalism from the 1960’s on, produced in hostile contexts such as military dictatorships or civil wars. Also central to his research are artists defying patriarchal structures and long-standing traditions of misogyny, such as Teresa Burga, Priscilla Monge, Patricia Belli, and Natalia Iguiñiz, as well as artists and collectives working at the intersection between visual culture, gender-based activism, sexuality, and social resistance, such as Giuseppe Campuzano, Carlos Motta, Sergio Zevallos, and Grupo Chaclacayo. The quality of his in-depth inquiries and critical thought, as well as his commitment to the memory of dissident voices and non-hegemonical practices makes López an important protagonist in the revision of history, art and culture in Latin America from a queer, feminist and Southern perspective.
In this short video recorded for tropical papers in February 2021, Miguel A. Lopez briefly presents his work and interests, before he addresses two recent curatorial projects: the first historical revision and travelling exhibition of Chilean artist, poet and activist Cecilia Vicuña, and the first monographic survey of the photographic work of Peruvian artist Flavia Gandolfo at the Museum of Art of Lima, Peru (MALI).
Between 2015 and 2020 Miguel A. López worked at TEOR/éTica, in Costa Rica; first as chief curator (2015-2017) and later as co-director and chief curator (2018-2020). Recent curatorial projects include: And if I devoted my life to one of its feathers? (Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, 2021); Cecilia Vicuña, a Retrospective Exhibition (Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2019); 21st Contemporary Art Biennial (Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo, 2019) (co-curator); Virginia Pérez-Ratton. Central America: Desiring a Place (MUAC, Mexico City, 2019) (co-curator); Social Energies/Vital Forces. Natalia Iguiñiz: Art, Activism, Feminism (1994–2018) (ICPNA, Lima, 2018). Recent books include: Ficciones disidentes en la tierra de la misoginia [Dissident fictions in the land of misogyny, 2019] and Robar la historia. Contrarrelatos y prácticas artísticas de oposición [Stealing history. Counter-narratives and oppositional art practices, 2017]. López is also a co-founder of the independent art space Bisagra, active in Peru since 2014. His writing has appeared in Afterall, Artforum, Art in America, e-flux Journal, and Manifesta Journal, among others.
For more information:
https://curatorsintl.org/research/interview-with-miguel-a.-lopez
https://redcsur.net/
POSTED: @tropicalpapers_14.12.2021