YOUNG CURATORS PROGRAM IN PINTA Sud | ASU 2024

What is the Pinta Sud | ASU Young Curators Program about? What was your experience like?

Luis Ocampos Pompa: The Young Curators Program seeks to provide a space for young voices that are entering the scene of curatorial practices. The experience was very enriching.

Majo Fiorio: This program was presented as a platform to provide spaces for new voices and new looks. It was a challenging experience that implied taking into account the management of the space, the support of the production of the work, the expography, the installation, the design and the communication.

What aspects of the program do you consider most valuable for your professional development?

Majo Fiorio: I consider both Adriana Almada's accompaniment and the experience of working with the artists and the space invaluable. I emphasize the exchange of points of view between the work teams and the very collaborative approach that was outlined from the beginning. It is also worth mentioning the excellent organization on the part of Pinta Sud ASU, this initiative helped us to create bonds, to gain experience, to link pieces and to link us among peers.

Luis Ocampos Pompa: I consider that one of the most valuable aspects was to have worked closely with curators of long trajectory, who dedicated their time and experience to guide us in our proposals.

Could you describe the exhibitions you curated at Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 within the program? ("Testimonios de lo indómito". Group exhibition at Espacio E curated by Majo Fiorio and "Perseguir el sol: paisajes deseados para el fin del mundo". Group exhibition at La otra Casa de Asterión curated by Luis Ocampos Pompa)

Luis Ocampos Pompa: The exhibition "Perseguir el sol: paisajes deseados para el fin del mundo" (Chasing the sun: desired landscapes for the end of the world) brings together the work of three mid-career artists who are not yet sufficiently visibilized: Rudy Cáceres, Jonatan Fernández and Giovanni Ferreira. The theme of the exhibition revolves around the landscape, starting from the question of the emotional charge that is lodged in the gesture of contemplating it, in a present besieged by multiple expressions of violence and deterioration of natural environments. Each artist has worked on the basis of desires or doubts about the future of existence in the world, addressing issues such as pollution, the impact of plastic waste and a hypothetical end of the world.

Majo Fiorio: The exhibition is entitled "Testimonios de lo indómito" (Testimonies of the untamed). It brings together works by Belén Rodríguez, Leticia Alvarenga and Brune Poletti. The proposal is presented in the Erika Milée room of Espacio E; it approaches, from different media, ways of situating oneself before the state of the present. The artists start from issues related to problems that occur in the territory, their practices propose ways of conceiving art from their places of enunciation. This exhibition takes the works as contaminated testimonies that distort the structures and images preconceived by state and religious apparatuses.

How do you see the role of young curators in the promotion and dissemination of emerging art and how do these programs facilitate this task? 

Luis Ocampos Pompa: At this particular moment, the Paraguayan art scene has diversified a lot and there are spaces that are interested in different proposals of works and also in young curatorial looks. However, I still notice a certain generational resistance when it comes to making room for new voices. This type of program allows us to get closer and talk to share our knowledge and views in an environment of respectful exchange.

Majo Fiorio: I see this role as something incisive when it comes to presenting proposals from other points of view. Young curators and emerging artists need to work together and generate a community, because from there the processes will be strengthened and will last over time. Programs of this kind facilitate the sharing of ideas between those who are starting out or making their first incursions and those who already have a long trajectory; they are fundamental and key formative spaces in our context, since there are not many opportunities like this one. The continuity of this type of initiatives will facilitate the dynamization of the artistic/cultural environment in the present and the future.

To what extent do you think that training and support for young curators can influence the evolution of cultural institutions and museums in the region?

Luis Ocampos Pompa: It can have a positive influence. Without romanticizing the new generations, young people certainly look with different eyes at what they have received from their predecessors. Those looks, accompanied by a correct orientation, can bring us closer to new ways of imagining the world and the systems that order it, including cultural systems.

Majo Fiorio: On the one hand, this will imply many changes and disputes between generational perspectives, which may entail effort in listening and relating; on the other hand, it could also generate a system that creates a synergy with diverse, multicultural and inclusive postures and reflections, a constant back and forth between the different concerns and conceptions of the key agents in these spaces.