Projects

The Net Zero exhibition, open at Ithra (the cultural arm of Saudi Aramco) from September 2023 - June 2024, showcases the work of 19 international and Saudi contemporary artists around themes of sustainability, geopolitics and climate change. Elisa began working on content and educational materials for this contemporary art exhibition while she was Head of the Curatorial Department at Acciona Cultura, and subsequently wrote a chapter on the sustainable exhibition-making process for the accompanying exhibition catalogue. The exhibited artists include Zahra Alghamdi, Moffat Takadiwa, Ane Graff, Bright Ugochukwu Eke, Mohammed Alfaraj, Ava Roth, and Willy Verginer, who deal with pollution, the use of plastics, the role of bees, and how humans are part of the entire ecosystem of nature, among other topics. Collectively, as Ithra’s website explains, they offer ‘a profound artistic interpretation of our collective journey towards a brighter tomorrow, calling for transformative action and emphasising the need to pursue a more sustainable future with great determination’. Net Zero is a unique, conscientious and truly caring exhibition for various reasons. It employs sustainable materials in the creation of each element of both the spatial and graphic designs, and brainstorming is underway as to how its walls will be reused following the exhibition’s close, with ideas ranging from outdoor furniture such as seating or marine barricades for the nearby Khobar corniche, to a canvas for graffiti or a skatepark. Moreover, the exhibition resulted as fully carbon neutral, with all unavoidable greenhouse gases produced in its creation carefully calculated, before being offset through the purchase of Carbon Credits. These went towards the continuing work of wind farms in Oaxaca which generate electricity to serve over 700,000 homes. From Saudi Arabia to Mexico, Net Zero shows a global concern and care for the future of our planet.

El cine también se lee’ (‘Cinema can also be read’), words of the great Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, seemed the perfect title when forming the curatorial concept for this exhibition honouring the founders of Madrid’s 8 y Medio cinema bookshop and film script editorial house. CuraCultura worked with the project director and CiBRA Festival committee member, Rocio Herrero, by providing curatorial consultancy from concept through to execution. Our work included research and meetings with Maria, the co-founder of 8 y Medio, setting out the interpretive plan, guidance on creating the collections inventory from which objects for display were selected, ideation of content elements and design liaison. ‘El cine también se lee’ was part of the programming of the annual CiBRA Festive (Festival of Cinema and Words) that takes place in the historic Spanish city of Toledo, less than an hour from Madrid. The location of the central library of the Castilla La Mancha region was highly appropriate given the focus on books and writing, and ensured accessibility to all. The exhibition showed great care and pride for the people who nourish the Spanish cinema industry not from out in the open, but from the shadows, foremost among whom are 8 y medio’s co-founders Maria and her late husband, Jesus, their children and not to mention the shop’s pet, Lucas, who guided the children’s trail of the exhibition. The ultimate message is that any success story couldn’t be so without the people hard-at-work behind the scenes.

Elisa was invited by the Mainel Foundation to present and take part in a panel of sector leaders discussing the role of technologies and experiences in exhibition-making. She focussed on various typologies she has worked on, from the immersive blockbuster exhibitions of the V&A Museum, London (David Bowie Is, ‘You Say You Want a Revolution?’ and Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains), World Expos (particularly Dubai Expo 2020) and technology-based experiences. The Contemporary Visual Culture seminar series is part of the Mainel’s offering to the general public focussed on the improvement of society through solidarity and culture as transformative tools, to ensure that people are the protagonists of their own development. In her presentation, Elisa showed how immersive experiences are key to the democratisation of culture, as they turn passive visitors into active participants, whose understanding and feelings are just as important as the knowledge the curators are sharing. Both the topics of this discussion and the motivations behind the Mainel’s programming show a profound care for the public, whose lives both seek to enrich and empower.
See Nuevas expografías: se puede interactuar con la obra incluso sin que esté físicamente presente · Fundación Mainel

Rise Rosa Rage is an archive of socio-political graphics that currently consists of over 4,000 physical objects, digital assets and a reference library. CuraCultura is responsible for the curation, collections development and management of the archive, as well as for the online cataloguing, content translations, object labels and articles writing, and web development. The collections predominantly date from the 1960s-90s with some outliers also up to the present day, originate from or have content relating to over 60 different territories, and in over 20 languages. Its key themes are solidarity, rights claims-making, memory and the struggle for autonomy. Ever-evolving, with frequent new additions, it comprises posters, underground press (newspapers, magazines, journals), flyers, handbills, postcards, leaflets, stickers, LP albums and cassette tapes, flags, banners, pins, badges, stamps, envelopes, playing cards, books and digital files documenting graphics in-situ. The Archive cares for the creative production that is the fruit of its makers’ own great care, compassion and goal of a better, more equitable future. The future plans of Rise Rosa Rage are intertwined with this, as it strives to become accessible to greater publics through its website with the collection catalogue, a bibliography, educational articles and blog posts, physical exhibitions, print publications and events eventually to take place in their own home, which community groups will be able to make free use of.

The Barreira Higher School of Art and Design’s inaugural edition of the Masters course on Global Art Markets took place in the 2022-23 academic year, when CuraCultura was invited by the Director to plan and teach the module on the cultural and creative scenes of the Middle East and North Africa. Following a successful first run, the programme will continue to run annually, with CuraCultura’s participation, given our experience working in the cultural arena of the region. Departing from an exploration of the multiple identities, geographies, languages, religions and ethnicities of the region- so as to inculcate an understanding of its diversity, and subsequently, that of its artistic production- the sessions cover key museums, galleries, art foundations, private collections, auction houses, artists’ residencies and other initiatives and practices. A particular focus is given to the Arabian Gulf as the site of rapid social, cultural and political changes that also impact and are impacted by their art worlds.Through a mix of lecturing and class discussions, new terrains are explored collaboratively. Looking into the intricacies of the different cultures and players of a broad range of countries so often grouped together with little care for their differences and what makes each unique, transmits to students the value of getting to know and exchange with them as the key players they are becoming on the international artistic stage.