Pablo Lafuente

Academic and Professional Background

I've worked in institutional contexts for over 20 years, from art centers and museums to universities and educational institutions, in the UK (as editor for Afterall and Afterall Books and teacher at Central Saint Martins), Norway (as curator at the Office for Contemporary Art Norway) and, for the last 14 years, in Brazil (as co-curator of the 31st Bienal de São Paulo, coordinator of the education programme at the CCBB and, currently, as Artistic Director at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro). In all these contexts I've often worked in management positions, always with a focus on contributing to sustainable platforms that may allow for the creation or maintenance of meaningful cultural processes, engaged with concrete social contexts. Throughout the last 20 years I've also been part of boards of cultural institutions and editorial organisations, including Raven Row (London), MACBA (Barcelona), Concreta (Spain) and SBC Galerie d'Art Contemporain (Montreal). Perhaps the most important lesson I learnt from those experiences has been, in the first place, that it's important to start by listening to those who are engaged on a daily basis with an organisation in order to learn about its needs and urgencies. And, secondly, that for an institution to function and be relevant to the world around it, it must engage with perspectives and visions that question what it does and how it does it, and such engagement may well suggest changes and reconfigurations that would allow the institution to remain relevant and effective.

Motivation statement explaining what encourages you to join the Board of CIMAM

Museums shouldn’t follow specific models, or apply readymade solutions to problems that appear in different locations and circumstances. But, at the same time, starting from scratch makes any task harder. Exchanging experiences, perspectives and knowledges may speed up the process of creating responses and developing strategies. Dialogue can also result in shared positions, which strengthen the field and its ability to react and contribute to changing situations. I believe CIMAM is already doing both: serving as an exchange platform between museum professionals, and creating a shared voice for modern and contemporary art museums throughout the world. I believe this role may be expanded and deepened, and I would love to contribute to that process.

Explain how you see the role of CIMAM in advancing contemporary art museums globally

In order to expand CIMAM’s reach and agency, it seems necessary to increase its insertion in specific territories, and its ability to include institutions and people from more regions and more diverse positions. This would allow it to bring together a larger diversity of perspectives, reaching further and talking and acting with more nuance. CIMAM could adopt a stronger stance in relation to uncertain conjunctures, conflicts and crises, serving as a leading force for institutions and professionals throughout the world; it could support regional focuses and inter-regional exchanges, promoting experimental strategies and initiatives that respond to context-specific issues. In sum, it could fulfill its potential by leading discussions among professionals and institutions, and showing that it’s possible to foreground the social role of museums.

How would you help CIMAM advocate for museums in areas such as funding, membership engagement, and strategic initiatives to achieve its mission?

I work in a region that is underrepresented in CIMAM’s board, despite the fact it has historically played a fundamental role in discussions and developments around art, culture, museums and their functions. In this territory, the contribution of museums to civil society through their educational function has been explored and thematised for decades; it is a region where state structures often play a secondary role, and where museums are obliged to operate beyond its established limits and conventional functions, forced to constantly imagine and experiment with strategies and approaches, changing the script according to a constantly shifting course of events. Living and working here for the last 14 years, 5 of them as museum director, after 15 years of working in Europe, has allowed me to gather rich and contrasting experiences that could contribute productively to work that may be developed with other Board members, and with all CIMAM members.

Thanks to that experience, I’m also confident I can contribute to an expanded participation of South American institutions and professionals in CIMAM, as well as to its patron base, increasing CIMAM’s relevance, reach and sustainability.

If elected as a Board Member, what would be your main objectives or areas of action for the next three years for CIMAM to contribute to the sustainable development of the modern and contemporary art museum sector?

I’d like to venture the following paths of action, understanding that any objective I may bring to the Board, in oder gain legitimacy, has to be result of a listening and discussion process with the CIMAM team and members:

- to increase and intensify the participation of Latin American institutions and professionals in CIMAM;

- to foster research initiatives on institutional practices and histories, in association with academic and publishing organisations, in order to guarantee the production and dissemination of knowledge about the field of institutional practice;

- to lobby for working processes within CIMAM that promote a level-playing field between experiences and practitioners from different regions and backgrounds;

- to create formal and informal exchange systems beyond the annual conference, which may act upon specific contexts and situations, shaping collaborations, interventions and other experimental processes.