Statement (May 2018)
Collaborating means being a stranger in somebody else’s presence / practice / territory / language. And we are all familiar with being strangers in new situations, so begin with a question, the same one you ask yourself when you arrive at a new place. This is important for the communication of the project towards all phases of production, to find a symmetry between what is in your mind and the future participating audience. Develop an empathic ear: *What do we have in common? This question becomes a mirroring research tool. Now the subjects addressed by these question are several: your collaborating partner(s), the targeted community involved in the project (making and later reception), the site where the project would be realized. Collaboration is a way of receiving others, which involves the recognition of where they come from and the projection of a new line that marks the horizon, towards which the practice as a whole will be directed. First translation act is a question of identification and it positions all participants at the same level: the “wondering self”, the state of inquire and the position of the skeptic (the “negotiating self”). To collaborate means to deterritorialize your identity, staying open to the “space of the propositional”. Be in the “seeking” (skepsis in greek: to search). That’s the benefit and quantifiable outcome of the participatory process. The unmeasurable benefit has always an aesthetic nature (art as experience), therefore, subjective. The capacity of “worlding” together (H.Arendt) under the ephemeral architecture of encounter you are proposing in the temporary community formed around a shared language. There is a poetic transference in the possibility to transform the ways in which we relate with the every-day (Art as a technology of imagination).
[EN] BIO
Paz Ponce (Cádiz, 1985, Spain) is an independent culture producer, writer & researcher of contemporary artistic creation, actively involved in culture exchange networks between Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. With a background in art history (Universidad Complutense, Madrid / Freie Universität, Berlin), she investigates the collective context in which art is produced and mediated, with a special focus on self-organization, culture of cooperativism and biographical research. She specializes in the development of process-oriented formats such as archival and research exhibition projects, art in residency programs, learning platforms and professional networks, collaborating with: NON Gallery, Galerie Wedding, Agora Collective e.V., ZK/U, 48 Neukölln, nGbK Berlin, Silent Green — in Berlin; Casa Tomada (São Paulo, BR), B-Tours Festival (Tel Aviv, IR), Cinema Lumbardhi (Prizren, KV), Laboratorio Artístico de San Agustín (LASA) & Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam (Havana, CU), Esplanade – Theaters on the Bay (Singapore, SG), Academy of the Arts (Szczecin, PL), Onassis Foundation (Athens, GR).
Since 2018 she works with Club Real devising participatory dramaturgies within contextual art projects (13 Havana Biennial, CU; Impulse Theater Festival, DE). In 2017 she founded with Eran Eizenhamer The Dreamers Platform – For projects engaging dreams, public space & participation in art (Israel / Germany).
She has a wide experience in the management of arts organizations (fundraising, bookkeeping, coordination, programming, communication & PR Strategies, legal forms & bureaucracy), roles which she alternates through her involvement in Calipsofacto Projects (s.2008, Madrid, co-founder) berlinerpool arts network (2013-2017 Chief Curator), Agora Collective e.V. (2014-2020, Coordinator & Artistic co-director), ¡n[s]urgênc!as: Platform for socially conscious artistic practices & activist positions from Latin America (s. 2018, Berlin, Founder & Artistic director), neue Häute e.V – project space at Uferstudios (2020 co-founder & artistic co-director).
She lectured on curatorial research methods and communication of artistic practice at Node Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin (s.2016-2020), and was an external consultant of the Erasmus + Program: “Curating in Context” (2019-2021). As an editor she has published with LASA a monograph on contextual artistic practices in Cuba, and about self organization in the magazine Arts of the Working Class. Currently she is developing a new editorial project: “Textos Minúsculos – Editorial” | “Winzige Texte – Verlag” — a bilingual collection of publications on art, criticism & contemporary thinking.
[DE]
| paz cv 2019 Deutsch
Contact info:
pazppb@gmail.com
skype: pazppb
Studio/Project Space: Ana Conda am Ufer (ACaU)
Uferstr.23, c/o Uferstudios
13357 Berlin-Wedding
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at LOWER EAST LAB, Berlin-Kreuzberb
November 14th 2017
Photo credits: Elizabeth Parsons
Press
♦ [DE] / [EN] Anna Lena Wenzel: “Gespräch mit Paz Ponce Pérez-Bustamante”, nGbK – Gesprächs, 14.01.2022
https://www.ngbk.de/de/8-generelle-seiten-de / https://www.ngbk.de/en/9-generelle-seiten-en
♦ [EN] Myrto Katsimicha: “Curating in context – A conversation with Paz Ponce”. Onassis Air / Pali-Room Series: Governance, 18.10.2021
https://www.onassis.org/initiatives/onassis-podcasts/pali-room/curating-in-context-a-conversation-with-paz-ponce
♦ [ES] Alejandra Villasmil: “museo de la democracia”, ARTISHOCK – Entrevistas, 29.07.2021
https://artishockrevista.com/2021/07/29/museo-de-la-democracia/
PAZ PONCE _ PORTFOLIO 