Martí Manen
Martí Manen, comisario y crítico. Ha comisariado exposiciones en Aara (Bangkok), CA2M (Madrid), Fabra i Coats (Barcelona) y su propia habitación (Salahab, Barcelona), entre otros. Comisario del pabellón de España en la Bienal de Venecia 2015 y de la bienal Momentum en Noruega (2019). Ha sido docente en distintos estudios curatoriales como Curatorlab (Estocolmo) y la Universidad Torcuato di Tella (Buenos Aires). Es director de Index Foundation en Estocolmo.
Ha trabajado con David Armengol como equipo curatorial de un modo continuado y paralelo a su practica de comisariado individual.
Empezaron a trabajar juntos con el programa de radio sobre arte contemporáneo Cartografies (Ràdio Gràcia, en Barcelona, 2000) dirigiendo un formato entre lo experimental y lo informativo. Varias exposiciones sobre el papel del sonido en el contexto visual del arte siguieron la misma investigación: exposiciones como Sonidos Secundarios (Galería T4, Barcelona, 2002) Radiofonías (Ràdio El Prat, El Prat del Llobregat (2002), Sound and Me (CASM y Transmediale, 2004) o Casino Lights (Sala Rekalde, 2005).
La experimentación sobre los procesos institucionales alrededor de la producción artística les llevó a comisariar P_O4: Oficina (Terrasa, 2006), una propuesta en la que un edificio industrial se convirtió en una serie de oficinas dirigidas por artistas.
También conjuntamente fueron los responsables del programa El texto: principios y salidas en Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2013, 2014) que culmina con la publicación del libro editado por consonni Un centro de arte.
Individualmente han trabajado sobre la idea de narratividad en arte, las posibilidades emocionales en la producción artística e investigado sobre las opciones para la exposición. Ambos han desarrollado tareas educativas y han sido responsables de proyectos curatoriales, en distintos países, independientes y también en el marco institucional.
An art center
An art centre, think about it as a possibility. During the exhibition season of 2014, David Armengol and Martí Manen tested out a live art centre after winning a call to compete to be in charge of the programme for a space yet to be defined, called Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani, in Barcelona. A programme of exhibitions requires a communication system, an educational project and tools to manage it. Armengol and Manen reacted to these needs and to the thirst for a context to offer a grammar for spelling out art, texts and possibilities for connection.
This book explains the process, the decision making and provides a vivid take on the specific moment. It also serves as an archive of activities, shows, contact with artists and other institutions, whilst never forgetting the real people who visited this art centre.
Layers of reading that branch off, extend and are defined before our very eyes. Layers of readings between generations, between contexts, between languages, between times, between ways of understanding what makes something art,what makes something literature.This is how the chronicles and narratives in The Text: First Notions and Findings take shape.
David Armgengol and Marti Manen have been working as a curatorial team and also individually.
They started working together with Cartografies (radio program on contemporary art, Radio Gràcia, Barcelona, 2000) acting as directors and using a format between the experimental and the informative one. Some exhibitions about the role of sound within visual arts followed the same investigation: Secondary Sounds (Galería T4, Barcelona, 2002), Radiophonies (Radio El Prat, El Prat del Llobregat, 2002), Sound and Me (CASM and Transmediale, 2004) and Casino Lights (Sala Rekalde, Bilbao)
Armengol and Manen have been experimenting on institutional processes for the artistic production. In 2004 they curated the project P_O4: Office (Terrassa), occupying an industrial building that became a series of conceptual offices directed by artists.
Together they were directing the program The Text: First Notions and Findings at Fabra I Coats contemporary art centre in Barcelona (2013-2014) that ends with the publication of the book, published by consonni, An Art Centre.
They have been working individually about the narrative in art, emotional possibilities within artistic production and the idea of the exhibition itself. Both have been working for educational structures and have been curating exhibitions in several countries, independently and for institutions.