Curatorial Residency with Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo, 2018
About Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo
Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo is an art historian from the UCM, Madrid, MA in Cultural Management from Instituto Ortega y Gasset, and she is part as curator of the ICI New York (Bogotá, 2013). After five years living in Chile, in 2009 she moved to Brazil where she was director of Galeria Baró. Between August 2012 and July 2013 she was appointed director of the independent art centre Pivô. Back in Spain, she has run the LOOP Fair 2017. She has recently been awarded a research grant at Real Academia de España in Rome, doing a curatorial study on the Operaismo during the 1960s-1970s in Italy. She also writes for magazines such as Arte al día, arthishock and a-desk.org.
Marta Ramos – Yzquierdo, 2018
“C.S.: How did the Bucharest Photo-Focus Residency relate to your themes of interest and what do you think are the most important outcomes?
M.R.: I would extend the conception of photography to moving images. Photo, film, video and nowadays, virtual simulations too, and how they can be part of and how
they can be part of other wider ways of formalization. These are some of the major fields in which one can think about perception and memory, projection and imagination. This is the main reason for me to look for how artists relate with these practices in different contexts. The characteristics of the Romanian scene, at least the part I got to explore and was able to perceive, reveal both the singularities of a global art scene as the values of a conception of experimentation linked to the specificity of its context. Among them, I would say that the importance of everyday life as a field of research and action; the line that goes from the 60s until now, putting together the historical and metaphysical relationships with nature; and the revision of the recent past – and the idea of “failure of progress” – as a way to understand the possibilities of the future, could be the three most outstanding issues I found. I don’t know if I would talk about “outcomes” yet, but extremely good encounters. They for sure have enriched my practice and they will be the basis for future projects and collaborations with the artists I met.” – Marta Ramos – Yzquierdo interview with Cristina Stoenescu, Plantelor 58 Residency – FOTO-FOCUS, residency publication, 2018
ARAC is a non-profit organization founded in June 2012, in order to produce and promote contemporary art in Romania and abroad. The initiative of the 58 Plantelor Residency belongs to Anca Poterasu, gallerist and ARAC President. The first edition of the Residency took place in 2015 and it was financed through a grant offered by Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the Romanian Government.