The Power Plant

In 2012, the Museum of Modern Art held a symposium titled “How Are We Performing Today?” Focused on performance within the museum, speakers grappled with the subject of a “migration from the margin to the center of contemporary art [and museum] discourse.” It was an important opportunity to consider how the institution(al) – including their narratives, practices and audiences – can devise strategies to respond actively to subjects of representation, inclusiveness and culture diversity.

Rita Fabiana looks back to look forward, considering recent years and the future of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, as a Portuguese and European institution. How has the museum been responding to questions of gender, migration, and colonialism through collection acquisitions, exhibitions, display policies and public engagement.

Fabiana is Head of Programming of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum since March 2016. She has curated exhibitions of emerging, mid-career and established Portuguese and international artists including Ana Jotta and Ricardo Valentim, Leonor Antunes, André Guedes, Yto Barrada, Emily Wardill, Tamás Kazsás, Tulia Saldanha and José Escada. She is currently co-curating a project by Manon de Boer and Zineb Sedira. She has written artists monographs, contributed to exhibitions catalogues, and taught graduate studies courses on curatorial practices.