CRIS is happy to announce the first guests of 2020. Michy Marxuach and Fernando E. Lloveras San Miguel from San Juan, Peurto Rico.
Please join us for some wine and snacks at the Nordic Guest Studio, Malongen – Nytorget 15A
From Stockholm, Michy and Fernando will continue by boat to Finland in an on going collaboration with CAA - Contemporary Art Archipelago, as they together with the artist Luis Berríos-Negrón and curators Taru Elfving (CCA) and Jonatan Habib Engqvist (CRIS) currently are in the processes of developing an initiative to stimulate artistic and scientific exchanges between the Caribbean and the Nordic Regions – exploring and fomenting affirmative physical, cultural, and environmental relations across hemispheres.
The initial sites for the programme are Puerto Rico, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, with expectations to broaden the network. It is founded on a sincere wish to provide researchers with transformative experiences across disciplines and hemispheres, ultimately in ways that are not just limited to, and shared beyond, the Atlantic region. Particularly, to find common interests and collaborations — no less through prolonged travel periods by land and sea — that focus upon and transform the way we sense, beyond the visual, the remote and unforeseen forces of Global Warming.
Michy Marxuach lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is co-founder of Beta-Local, a non-for-profit organization that supports aesthetic practices and critical thinking. She is fundamentally interested in the multiple layers and relationships of the creative field as a tool for thinking, re-thinking and living in a particular place. Bridging critical dialogues and spaces is part of her formal practice and essential for healthy social change. Her curatorial practice establishes a forum for dialogue and camaraderie among artists, where projects are discussed and potentiated beyond traditional exhibition spaces.
From 1999-2005, Marxuach founded and directed the art space M&M Projects, an alternative nonprofit space dedicated to strengthening the production of contemporary art in Puerto Rico and its international participation. She was the creative director of the events Puerto Rico '04 [ Tribute to the Messenger ], Puerto Rico '02 [ En Ruta] and Puerto Rico '00 [ Paréntesis en la Ciudad]. As part of the space, she created a workshop for local residents and international artists. Marxuach organized exhibitions at the Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona; Ex Teresa, Mexico; Museum of Modern Art of Sto. Domingo; and the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, among others. From 2005-08 Marxuach detour from the field of contemporary art to engage in the restoration and design of a historic structure in Old San Juan, which is was home to the Beta-Local program up until 2017. During that time she worked in the development of projects that involved scientist, ecologist, architects, designers and artists in the restoration and exhibition programs in natural reserves around the island. From 2009 - 2015 she co-directed Beta-Local. Recently she has worked independently accompanying long term artist projects and investigations. The last exhibition and public program she presented was in 2017 at Tenerife Espacio de las Artes (TEA), Canary Islands, titled Una cierta investigación sobre las imágenes: building Ghost Transmission, with works by Harun Farocki, Jorge González, Alia Farid, Teresa Margolles, Waalid Raad, Carolina Caycedo, Diego del Pozo, Silvia Navarro, Luca Frei, and Raimond Chaves y Gilda Mantilla.
Fernando Lloveras-San Miguel, Esq. is the Executive Director of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico since 2003. It is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to secure functional and healthy ecosystems in the islands of Puerto Rico, and to instil in their inhabitants a sense of responsibility towards the conservation of our natural resources, so that we may count on the ecosystem services that will help us achieve our social, economic and quality-of-life goals.
In an effort to draw people into the conservation movement Lloveras-San Miguel spearheaded in 2013 the launch of a new unit, Para la Naturaleza. Para la Naturaleza groups all educational, volunteer and citizen science programming, land conservation and fundraising initiatives of the organization. Para la Naturaleza is a nonprofit unit of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico charged with integrating society at large in the conservation of natural ecosystems and providing each person and community with transformative experiences that can inspire and motivate concrete actions for nature. Para la Naturaleza also manages all visitor centers and natural areas protected by the Trust. He is also a coffee and cattle farmer and spends most of his free time at his farm in Ciales with his wife Michelle Marxuach and his two children.
Curatorial Residency in Stockholm (CRIS) was conceived in 2015 as free-space for curators. During the five years of the program it has also through informal talks developed into an investigation into the plethora of curatorial practices. It is a collaboration between the Nordic Art Association in Sweden and Jonatan Habib Engqvist, curator and writer. During their residency period, curators live in central Stockholm and can immerse themselves in the local art scene.
Guests in Stockholm 2015-2019 include: Elena Agudio (IT), Riksa Afiati (D), Abir Boukhari (SY), Inesa Brasiske (LT), Övul O. Durmusoglu (TU), Jonas Ekeberg (NO), Marina Fokidis (GR), Sylvie Fortin (CA), Eva González-Sancho (ES), Juha Huskonen (FI), Adam Kleinmann (US), Nat Muller (NL), Lorenzo Sandoval (ES), Viktorija Šiaulytė (ES), Marina Vale Noronha (BRA), Amara Antilla (US), Basak Senova (TR), Joanna Sokołowska (PL), Berit Schuck (DE/EG), Maria-Thalia Carras & Olga Hatzidaki, Locus Athens (GR), Iaroslav Volov (RU).
CRIS has also been able to send Swedish curators to Egypt, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Iran and Turkey.
The project has been supported from multiple sources, including Nordisk Kulturfond, the Swedish Arts Council, the city of Stockholm, Institut français de Suède, the Spanish embassies in Stockholm, Oslo and Tallinn, The Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center, Kultur Skåne, Tjeckiska centret Stockholm, Danish Arts Foundation as well as several local collaborations. CRIS is also partner with FRAME Finland and CCA Estonia in the Nordic-Baltic Curatorial Exchange programme.