How do you do? A conversation between Laila Hida, Fatima Bintou and Zeynep Kubat

On Wednesday, July 24, at 7 p.m., Hangar will host the public talk How do you do? as part of the second edition of the Hangar Visitors Program. The event will feature Laila Hida from LE 18 in Marrakesh, Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy from Raw Material in Dakar, and Zeynep Kubat from KANAL-Centre Pompidou in Brussels, and will be moderated by Anna Manubens, director of Hangar, and Veronica Valentini, head of research networks and international residencies at the center.

The premise of the talk is simple (the question “how do you do?” means both “how are you?” and “how do you do it?”) but it brings forward reflections that are not necessarily obvious, shared, or commonly discussed. The event aims for the guests to share the premises that guide their programming, functioning, and working processes. This includes aspects such as responsibility to the immediate context, the relationship with the remote, the way in which progressively —through the program— traits that distinguish the institutions are defined, or, among others, the extent to which these traits are inherited, invented, or negotiated as a team.

The talk is part of the second edition of the Hangar Visitors Program, an initiative designed to promote the participation of artists from the Spanish State in top-tier international events. The participants of the talk, along with the national guests Aimar Arriola (Program Manager at Intermediae, Matadero, Madrid) and Maite Borjabad López-Pastor, will hold personalized meetings with local artists and visit studios to learn about their practices firsthand. This exercise in contextual responsibility aims to help local artists expand their circles and geographical horizons.

Following the discussion, Paratext #77 will be presented, featuring the works of Victor Ruiz Colomer, Noémi Büchi, and Laura Paloma.

Practical information
Date: Wednesday, July 24
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Sala Ricson, Hangar
Language: English
Admission: Free

Fatima Bintou Rassoul SY is a curator and program director at RAW Material Company, a center for art, knowledge, and society based in Dakar. The center aims to foster the appreciation and growth of artistic and intellectual creativity in Africa. At RAW, she coordinates exhibitions, and manages discursive programs and publications, including educational programs and international collaborations. Fatima holds a degree in Exhibition Sciences and Techniques from the University of Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne). Before joining the RAW family, she worked for several years in hospitality and cultural mediation for private and public institutions in Paris and Dakar. Her writings have been published in Oh! AfricArt: 52 Contemporary African Artists (2021) and in magazines such as Version 6, Something We Africans Got #10, and SWAG high profiles #2 & #3. Fatima is deeply interested in Afro-diasporic trajectories and how local communities embody those narratives.

Laila Hida is a visual artist whose work explores the subtle intertwining of vernacular practices with modern dynamics through physical and symbolic spaces. In 2013, she founded LE 18 in Marrakech, which has become a shared space and an extension of her collective thinking practice and experimental formats generated from local contexts. She has recently participated in Documenta in Kassel, the Dakar Biennale, and has worked at the Fondation Dar Bellarj. She is currently the curator for Art Explora in Morocco.

Zeynep Kubat is a curator and writer. Her work focuses on the intersections between art, culture and society, looking for intersectional practices in contemporary art. She currently works as an assistant curator at KANAL-Centre Pompidou in Brussels. As an independent (co-)curator, she has made exhibitions for various institutions, such as STUK, House for Dance, Image and Sound in Leuven (ARTEFACT 2024), Kunsthal Mechelen (2023-2024), Art Brussels – Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (2023), Marres, House for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht (2022), Antwerp Art Weekend (2022) and Brussels Gallery Weekend (2021), among others. She previously worked as Curator at Large for De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam. In 2022 and 2023, she was the curator and mediator of five public art commissions in social housing projects with Platform Kunst in Opdracht – Atelier Vlaams Bouwmeester. From 2019 to 2023, she was a theory tutor at Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp. She was the chief editor of rekto:verso magazine (2021-2023) and TYPP Journal (2019-2023) and worked as editor for HART and FORUM+. She has published in magazines such as Trigger and FOAM, and in catalogs and books, such as Pei-Hsuan Wang. I’ve Left My Body To Occupy Others (Posture Editions, 2024), Francis Alÿs. The Nature of the Game (Leuven University Press, 2023), RITUAL (Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, 2022), The Netflix Essays (Academia Press, 2021). She is active as an artistic advisor on various committees and boards.

Aimar Arriola is a curator, editor, and researcher. He graduated from the Independent Studies Program (PEI) at MACBA, Barcelona, and holds a PhD from the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, London. Since 2010, he has organized programs and exhibitions, both his own and commissioned, at institutions such as MUSAC in León, MACBA in Barcelona, The Showroom in London, the 10th Central American Biennial in Costa Rica, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Tabakalera in San Sebastián, and CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Madrid, among others. More recently, he was the inaugural Associate Researcher (2020-2023) at AZ Alhóndiga Bilbao, a member of the technical committee of the Eremuak program (2019-2023), and editor of the project ‘The Against Nature Journal’ (Council, Paris, 2017-2023). He is currently the Head of the Intermediae program at Matadero Madrid and collaborates as a lecturer in various postgraduate programs.

Maite Borjabad is an independent curator and researcher. Her work revolves around diverse forms of critical spatial practices that span visual art, performance and architecture. Having worked for the past eight years as a curator at major cultural institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Art Institute of Chicago, she describes her curatorial practice as an “institutional infiltration” that takes place at the intersection of these disciplines, as well as museum studies and institutional critique. Her practice has developed through working with collections in these institutions leading acquisitions strategy that lead to inclusions like PHANTOM: Mies as Rendered Society by Andrés Jaque, as well as exhibitions like: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rhame: If only this mountain between us could be ground to dust (Art Institute of Chicago, 2021); My Building, Your Design: Seven Portraits by David Hartt (Art Institute of Chicago, 2019) or the performance commissioned to Cecilia Bengolea, Danza de las Materialidades Mutantes (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2022), to name a few. Her most recent projects include the exhibition and year-long programming Clima Fitness: Rituals of Adaptability and Mutations and Planetary Mutualisms (Matadero Madrid, July 2023–July 2024) and the exhibition A Permanent Nostalgia for Departure: A Rehearsal on Legacy with Zaha Hadid (Contemporary Arts Center – Cincinnati, September 2023–January 2024).

 

The Hangar Visitors Program is supported by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E).