Prominent thinkers, curators, and makers unite to unpack the new questions facing the artworld during the city's Semana del Arte

Weekend agenda: Art Basel Cities Talks Program in Buenos Aires

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Bringing together a total of 42 international names and local voices, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/cities/buenos-aires/talks-program" target="_blank">Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires Talks Program</a> returns this week, proposing, in the words of coordinator Mariano López Seoane, 'an opportunity to imagine the different roles that art will take in contemporary societies in the near future.' Between April 12 and 14, 2019, as part of the city-organized&nbsp;<a href="https://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/cultura/semana-del-arte" target="_blank">Semana del Arte</a>, the Talks Program – in collaboration with arteBA Fundación – offers a slate of seminar-style Masterclasses and approachable Parallel Rooms roundtables in two locations. Speakers include prominent thinkers and makers, including contemporary critics Estrella de Diego and Laura Isola; performance artists Isabel Lewis and Osías Yanov; collectors; gallerists; and representatives from many of South America’s new, protean platforms for exhibition, creation, and discussion, such as UV, Móvil, Munar, and Artload.According to López Seoane, a professor at New York University Buenos Aires, “[The topics reflect] a number of issues that are very present today in Argentina, but also the world at large, for instance: how art institutions are responding to the feminist movement and its questioning of canonical understandings of art, how artists and curators reflect on the relationship between art and politics in a very politicized society like ours – and, yes, how institutions are trying to tap new audiences, especially those that are born digital.’ Read on for a guide to the weekend’s highlights.

<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/8739/April-Masterclass-II-Discussing-Gender-in-Contemporary-Art?openTime=5273">Discussing Gender in Contemporary Art</a> Friday, April 12, 6:30pm to 8pm
	On Friday evening, Madrid-based art historian Estrella de Diego and Diana Weschler, director of the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero’s art and culture department and artistic director of BIENALSUR, will unite to discuss the evolving impact of gender in contemporary art. Drawing from their respective research, they will explore the dynamic ways in which this basic question of identity has shaped the work of contemporary artists, and in turn, that of critics and academics.
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/8753/April-Masterclass-IV-How-to-Use-a-Museum-Learning-at-Cultural-Institutions?openTime=5249"> How to Use a Museum? | Learning at Cultural Institutions</a> Saturday, April 13, 3pm to 4pm
	Two prominent Latin American curators – Lucrecia Palacios, of El Moderno, Buenos Aires, and Emiliano Valdés, of the Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellín – explore the changing relationship between museums and the public, and specifically the role of institutions in education and programming for a widening audience. Drawing from their experience in public programs, together they ask, what is the responsibility of a museum to its audience?
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/8741/April-Masterclass-V-New-Platforms-for-Art-Criticism-and-Thinking?openTime=5275"> New Platforms | Art Criticism and Thinking</a> Saturday, April 13, 4pm to 5pm
	As the artworld becomes increasingly more digital, which platforms are best for fostering debate, criticism, and thoughtful reflection? Vivian Gandelsman, a São Paulo-based contemporary art researcher and founder of the website Artload, joins cultural critic Laura Isola of Buenos Aires for a survey of recent innovations in digital content and criticism. The duo will unpack the strengths and weakness of these emerging formats and discuss the implications for the industry, as well as for readers and viewers.

<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/8742/Parallel-Rooms-Session-1-Room-1?openTime=5276">The Curator as Activist | Where Politics and Aesthetics Intersect</a> Saturday, April 13, 5:30pm to 6:30pmAs more and more art exhibitions make the bold play to represent a political point of view, curators Milovan Farronato, of the Fiorucci Art Trust in London, and Santiago Villanueva, artist and pedagogical curator at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires, examine the intersection of art and activism and whether or not it is a curator’s responsibility to integrate their political and aesthetic visions within the exhibitions they create.<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/8743/Parallel-Rooms-Session-1-Room-3?openTime=5277"> Artist Talk | The Joy of Performance</a> Saturday, April 13, 5:30pm to 6:30pmTwo multidisciplinary performance artists, each known for their provocative expressions within the genre, discuss the joy and power of this too-often mystifying art form. Isabel Lewis of Berlin – known for happenings that encompass dance, storytelling, and music – and Buenos Aires-based Osías Yanov, who probes the boundaries between body and object, share their wide-ranging experiences in choreography, ritual, nocturnal parties, gender theory, and more, as they debate the possibilities and potential of this transformative artistic mode.<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/8771/Parallel-Rooms-Session-3-Room-1?openTime=5343"> Curating in Context | How To Be Site-Specific</a> Saturday, April 13, 7:30pm to 8:30pmEmerging perspectives and brazen formats continue to break new ground as the contemporary art experience evolves beyond the traditional exhibition. Florencia Battiti – director of the Parque de la Memoria in Buenos Aires and curator of Argentina’s national pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennale – and curator Kit Hammonds, of the Museo Jumex in Mexico City, pair up to share their thoughts on contemporary curatorial strategies and how to bring a fresh, visionary eye to spaces known and new.&nbsp;

	 <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/browse?cityIds=59&amp;eventTypes=52&amp;showCityId=59">Explore</a>&nbsp;the full Talks Program, in collaboration with arteBA Fundacíon, and download the program&nbsp;<a href="https://d2u3kfwd92fzu7.cloudfront.net/Art_Basel_Cities_Buenos_Aires_Talks_Program_April_2019.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp; Top image, from left: speakers Alec Oxenford, arteBA Fundación and Berlin Future Forum, Buenos Aires; Vivan Gandelsman, Artload, São Paulo; Violeta Mansilla, UV, Buenos Aires; Bernardo Mosquiera, Solar dos Abacaxis, São Paulo; and Isabel Lewis, artist, Berlin.

Marie Orensanz, Luna Paiva, and Mariana Telleria discuss the risks and rewards of exhibiting art in an unexpected context

Going public: Meet the artists giving residents of Buenos Aires a reason to pause in a city park

Color commentary: How Cromoactivismo uses the power of hue to challenge invisible systems

A new experimental art space in La Boca opens doors for Argentina’s artists

Prominent thinkers, curators, and makers unite to unpack the new questions facing the artworld during the Semana del Arte, April 8–14, 2019