Graduates of the Master's Degree in programs of study of Curatorship of the Museo Universidad de Navarra select the works from the ARCO Foundation Collection to be exhibited at ARCOmadrid 2025.
The curators will carry out this curatorial project with the supervision of a team from the CA2M, which currently hosts the Collection. The conference room committee , by architect Pedro Pitarch, will host this selection of works during the fair, which will take place at IFEMA MADRID from March 5 to 9.
Four graduates of the VII graduating class of the Master's Degree at programs of study of Curatorship of the Museo Universidad de Navarra have been invited to curate the selection and arrangement of works from the ARCO Foundation Collection, which will be exhibited at conference room committee at ARCOmadrid, from March 5 to 9. A team from CA2M (Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo), led by its director, Tania Pardo, collaborates with the curators in this project, which will be presented in a space designed by architect Pedro Pitarch.
This curatorial work has been commissioned to the students whose work de Fin de Master's Degree (TFM) was selected among those of their class last year. Under the degree scroll "Dear viewer, what are you looking at?", this exhibition project can be visited soon at the MUN, and includes 35 works from the ARCO Foundation Collection, which since 1987 brings together productions by renowned artists from the national and international scene, including works by Jon Mikel Euba, Sigmar Polke, Eva Fábregas, Teresa Solar Abboud, Anish Kapoor, Thomas Schutte, Teresa Margolles, Mario Merz, Elena Asins, Boltanski or Jorge Macchi. In the proposal collected in their TFM, they invite each visitor to be the protagonist of the tour and to reflect on their way of looking, adopting possible ways of linking with the works.
The opportunity to carry out this project arises from the very nature of the ARCO Foundation. As its director, Maribel Lopez, says, one of the Foundation's missions is "to offer opportunities, tools and visibility to the new generations of curators. This is the reason why they have made their Collection available to the project of the graduates of the Master's Degree of the University of Navarra Museum, thus reaffirming their commitment "with the impulse of young people". "Supporting the new voices of contemporary art is a responsibility we assume as a fair," she adds.
The curators -FlorenciaBaliña, Andrés Ruiz, Aroa Urteaga and Andrea Vargas- propose a sample that focuses on the figure of the contemporary art spectator and asks what ways of looking are activated in contact with each work. Their starting premise is that the act of looking is in itself a form of action, since the one who observes also "does": selects, compares and interprets.
"It is a privilege to approach a collection of this relevance, with works that we find so stimulating - says Florencia Baliña, team member of curators. - It is also an opportunity to share our view of the ARCO Collection with other interlocutors". She explains that, in their process of work, the team is giving a central role to the reflection on who each piece is addressed to, and who is the addressee that is visualized when thinking about a exhibition; on this occasion, specifically, the professionals of the art world who will attend the ARCOmadrid fair.
ARCOmadrid's conference room committee is a place of meeting for patrons, collectors and national and international cultural agents. This space will host, among others, the Annual Luncheon of committee International or private meetings with directors of museum institutions.