Art Basel Awards Summit

Behind the scenes: the invisible infrastructures of art

Marcel Pardo Ariza and Ambrose Trataris, Art Handlxrs*, San Francisco Robert Leckie, Director of Gasworks, London Moderator: Negar Azimi, Editor-in-Chief of Bidoun, New York
What does it take to make art happen? Can the support structures that sustain artists and exhibitions also serve as spaces of resistance, healing, and collective reinvention? Moderated by Negar Azimi, Editor-in-Chief of&nbsp;Bidoun, this conversation spotlights the art world’s unsung enablers: the residency directors, fabricators, and art handlers who make production possible but rarely step into the frame. Marcel Pardo Ariza and Ambrose Trataris, cofounders of Art Handlxrs*, are building a support network for BIPOC, women, Queer, transgender and gender-nonconforming p working behind the scenes in contemporary art. Robert Leckie, Director of Gasworks in London, leads an institution known for championing emerging artists and experimental practices through residencies and studio provision. Together, they ask: What does advocacy look like in practice? How can visibility, equity, and structural care be hardwired into the machinery of culture, not as afterthoughts but as starting points?
Negar Azimi is a writer, editor, and occasional curator, nominated in the Allies category. She is the editor-in-chief of the publishing and curatorial project Bidoun. Her essays, criticism, and reportage have appeared in Bookforum, Frieze, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and elsewhere. Recent exhibitions organized include ‘Nicolas Moufarrege: Mutant International’ at CCA Berlin; ‘Becoming Van Leo’, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles: ‘Reza Abdoh’, MoMA PS1, New York and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; and ‘Fereydoun Ave and the Laal Collection’, 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai. With Pati Hertling she organizes the epistolary series ‘Deadlines and Divine Distractions’.
Nominated in the Allies category, Art Handlxrs* is an organization co-founded by Marcel Pardo Ariza and Ambrose Trataris, dedicated to the support and growth of Black, Indigenous, people of color, women, Queer, transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the professional arts industry as art handlxrs, technicians, fabricators, and other industry support roles. Art Handlxrs* connects communities through social gatherings, offers technique workshops, connects individuals with local employment opportunities, and strengthens the support systems within organizations to provide a safe and welcoming work environment for everyone.
Robert Leckie is the director of Gasworks, a leading non-profit arts organization based in south London, nominated in the Allies category. Gasworks commissions and produces exhibitions by emerging and underrepresented artists, provides subsidised studios for London-based artists, and hosts residencies that enable artists from all over the world to research and develop new work.
Gasworks is the London hub of Triangle Network, a global network of artist-led and non-profit arts organizations that support professional development and cultural exchange. Triangle Network has supported over 100 organizations and projects across more than 40 countries since its founding in 1982, with a focus on strengthening regional and ‘south-to-south’ connections.
Over the past 15 years, Robert has curated major solo and survey exhibitions by artists including Pacita Abad (with Pio Abad), Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Peggy Ahwesh (with Erika Balsom), Candice Lin, and Rosemary Mayer, as well as the recent touring shows ‘Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker’ (with Nicole Yip) and ‘Donald Locke: Resistant Forms’.
The Art Basel Awards Summit takes place in the&nbsp;Auditorium,&nbsp;Hall 1, ground floor.&nbsp;
The Art Basel Awards Summit is free and open to the public, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/90259/Behind-the-scenes-the-invisible-infrastructures-of-art?lang=en" target="_blank">book your free seat here</a>.
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