Inés Muñozcano
Inés Muñozcano is an art historian and curator, born in Madrid, Spain, in 1989 in a Mexican-Polish family. Her work is wide both in terms of geography and content: from Warsaw to Johannesburg, her curatorial practice focuses on the historical, aesthetic, economic and virtual connections that bring together different countries, peοple and artistic cοmmunities.
In 2012 she founded together with Marta Moriarty the Slowtrack gallery in Madrid that was open to the public for five years. It was an atypical space, open to imaginative and rigorous artistic proposals both by the youngest generation of Spanish creators and by internationally established artists, always defined by affinity criteria. During the time she ran the gallery, she became the youngest member of Arte Madrid’s steering committee, the Association of 46 Madrid galleries. At the time, she began to curate exhibitions both inside and outside the Slowtrack space and to develop an interest in figuration, but also in digital and alternative identities and art scenes. This led to the fact that in September 2017, the gallery transformed into BusyThinking, an international research and project management office, mainly focused on Contemporary African art. She also collaborated closely with the physical space MartaMoriarty, an art window in the center of Madrid that exhibits pieces linked to the ongoing BusyThinking projects.
In 2017 she worked in depth on the archive of the modernist sculptor Magdalena Wiecek, while living between Warsaw and London. In August 2018 she moved to Αthens, Greece, calling into question how the dead spaces left by economic crisis can be reactivated in cities across Southern Europe. This exposure has been a challenge and a thrill, suggesting an entirely new territory of cross-pollinated artwork.
Her recent projects include the coordination of exhibitions at MartaMoriarty (Gabrielle Kruger, Benji Liebman, Zanele Muholi, Jose Luis Vicario, Ishola Akpo, Mohamed Aredjal, Abdoulaye Konaté, Kudzanai Chiurai, Mohau Modisakeng, Kemand Wa Lehulere, and Haroon Gunn-Salie) the exhibition Fuentes by Mateo Revillo (Galería Xavier Fiol, 2019), Viral Identities (La Casa Encendida 2019), DiEM Voices (Fundraising auction for Democracy in Europe Movement, 2019), It's time to open the black boxes! by Danae Stratou (Museo del Convento de Santo Domingo, 2018) or Energía Psiquica (Ano Zero - Coimbra's Biennale, 2015) among others.
Inés Muñozcano is a participant of The Critical Practices Program of Onassis AiR 2019-20 and of the Tailor-made Fellowships program 2022-23.
During my residency and participation at The Critical Practices Program of Onassis AiR, I began researching my upcoming project Eros and Thanatos Real Estate, an interdisciplinary exhibition that will bring together six artists from Spain and Greece to reactivate some empty commercial premises in the city of Αthens with installations that revolve around transmutation, however exploring what happens to a soul of a neighborhood when filled with art.
Through synergies created during the three-month Critical Practices Program between all the participants and resident artists, and thanks to the exposure to Alaa Gosheh’s artistic practice, I am currently researching how tragedy is approached through comedy and laughter, working on pieces by video and performance artists rooted in violence, politics and resistance.
The Critical Practices Program of Onassis AiR that included workshops, lectures and encounters has helped strengthen a fundamental part of my artistic statement that upholds the capacity to experience art from a perspective different that the legitimized. In the same way that the voice exists both in the mouth of those who pronounce it and in the ears of those who listen, art also happens in those who confront it. The person observing an artistic project openly, experiencing it emotionally and through all the senses, is not only a witness, but an active agent of contemporary creation. Each individual perception adds unique and valuable dimensions to the work of art. There is nothing philosophical about this exercise: it is about positioning oneself in one's own privacy and from there, to feel and use the intelligible as a system of knowledge, helping to unravel some of the many facets of the artwork. The experience of each person is in itself a sculpture, and each sculpture a journey through the artistic project.
