Parallel Lines Framework: Yaiza Hernandez Velazquez

The aim of this discussion is to instigate retrospective readings of 'new institutionalism' and how these relate to our thinking around current curatorial practice.

For a while, at least, the term 'new institutionalism' functioned to refer to putatively progressive institutions which, as was often stated, had internalised the institutional critique of previous generations. This talk interrogates the politics of new institutionalism, and indeed, whether the critical stance that seemed to define it was ever operative at more than a thematic level. The case is made that new institutional models are indeed necessary for the continuing vitality of contemporary art but that they will have to go further than merely sheltering or showcasing radical positions.

Yaiza Hernández is Lecture in Exhibition Studies at Central St Martins, London. She worked in a number of art institutions while pursuing academic research first in Visual Culture at Middlesex University and currently at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy in Kingston, where she is completing her PhD examining the changing role of the art curator. Previously she was director of CENDEAC (running a publishing house and events programme focused on contemporary cultural theory) and curator at CAAM in the Canary Islands, a contemporary art museum with a particular focus on African and Latin American art. She has also worked extensively as a writer, translator, lecturer and freelance events organiser. Her most recent text to appear in English is in the anthology Inter/Multi/Cross/Trans (Montehermoso, 2012), and she is currently working on two sole authored books: Repressive Tolerance, which examines the ulterior life of 'new museology', and General Theory, on the peculiar academisation of critical theory in the field of art.

This event is organised with the kind co-operation of Mónica Núñez Laiseca, Senior Lecturer, MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) at Glasgow School of Art and SCAN Scottish Contemporary Art Network.

Image: internet sourced image of the protest at MACBA (the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona) by students of Pei (Independent Studies Programme) MACBA 24.03.2015.