Composing one's own poem: the MUN looks to the viewer in its curatorial proposal for ARCOmadrid

The spectator arrives at an exhibition, confronts the works with his individual baggage and completes them in his own way. He thus composes "a poem of his own".

So explains Andrea Vargas, one of the curators graduated from the MUN 's Master's Degree in Curatorial Studies who signed the curatorial proposal for ARCOmadrid's Consejo room, which can be visited from today, Wednesday 5, until Sunday 9. Florencia Baliña, Andres Ruiz and Aroa Urteaga complete the group.

This project, which studies works from the Fundación ARCO collection, is titled Componer un poema propio (Composing one's own poem). "We want to guide the viewer and let them interpret freely, without instructions on how to look," explains Vargas, who is currently a junior curator at MUN.

It is through this prism that they have selected the eleven works that make up this tour. Thus, for example, it includes self-portraits by photographer Jimmie Durham, in which "the artist and the viewer look at each other," says the curator. Durham appears in disguise, wearing masks or covering his face with a stone, which invites the visitor to wonder why these presentations are made.

Iñaki Bonillas is another of the selected authors. Specifically, they have chosen his series of images from the back of some photographs, so that instead of seeing the photographs as such, you only read what appears in them, but without the work showing it, so that each person imagines it.

A contortionist photographed by Schinwald looks out the window, but we do not see what she is looking at. Thus, the viewer ventures what he or she is seeing (a dance piece, children playing in the street, a building...), and creates his or her own imaginary, Vargas clarifies.

Dear viewer, what are you looking at, at the MUN?

Composing one's own poem anticipates the work that the young curators are preparing to exhibit at the MUN next September, the result of their Master's Thesis, which will be presented this Friday at 5 p.m. in the Consejo Room. Dear viewer, what are you looking at? will also include works from the ARCO Foundation Collection (in this case, 35 pieces). In it, they invite each visitor to be the protagonist of the tour and to reflect on their way of looking, adopting possible ways of linking with the works, such as the intellectual, who tries to decipher everything that hides a work, among others.

Other MUN appointments at ARCOmadrid

In addition to the curatorship of the Consejo room and the presentation of Querido espectador, the Museo Universidad de Navarra will be present at ARCOmadrid with a stand offering its publications at the ArtsLibris publishing fair (pavilion 7, zone7B 30), from today until Sunday.

Finally, this Saturday 8th at 7.30 p.m., the books of the current exhibitions will be presented at Speaker's Corner: MUN Collection. Four Decades (which shows the jewels of its Collection) and Rafael Levenfeld. Photographer (with unpublished works by its former artistic director),