Bassam El Baroni, Aalto University: Inclusionary Effects

event photo — Lada Suomenrinne, Daughter of Black Sun (Fotografie, 2019)

TALK as a part of the exhibition “Landscapes of Belonging”.

The talk’s starting point is curator and theorist Stephanie Bertrand’s observation that “curating’s inclusionary effects create a shortcut between cultural inclusion and social inclusion”. Which is to say that access to representation of marginalised cultures and their visibility through the sphere of art (cultural inclusion) does not sufficiently translate to access to wealth, resources, and opportunities (social inclusion). How can artists, curators, museums, exhibitions, and programmes address this shortcut to rethink the inclusionary effects they produce?

Bassam El Baroni is a curator, researcher and educator based in Helsinki. He works as Assistant Professor in curating and mediating art at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University. El Baroni was founding director of the Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF) a now closed non-profit art center in Alexandria/Egypt from 2005–2012 and co-curator of the 8th edition of Manifesta – the European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Murcia/Spain, 2010. He co-curated the Lofoten International Art Festival, Norway, 2013 and curated the 36th edition of Eva International – Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick, 2014. Other notable projects include curating ‘What Hope Looks like after Hope (On Constructive Alienation)’ at HOME WORKS 7, Beirut, 2015 and ‘Nemocentric’ at Charim Galerie, Vienna, 2016. El Baroni has been a member of the faculty at the Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem/the Netherlands since 2013 teaching theory, supervising MA theses, and organising cooperative study groups around diverse research areas such as ‘robotics and visual culture’. He is a regular contributor to international symposia and curatorial workshops.

El Baroni’s research interests include curatorial theory and history; contemporary art theory; exhibitionary practices; neo-rationalist, realist, and speculative philosophies in their convergence with art practices and artistic research; the bearing of political theory (with emphasis on pluralism and democracy) on art; theory and practice of dialogue; site-specifity and cultural institutions in light of contemporary socio-technological transformations; digital culture and contemporary art; art and globalization; the impact of financialization on art discourses, methodologies, and practices; and the implications of neuroscientific research on visual culture.
[Source: https://www.aalto.fi/en/department-of-art/bassam-el-baroni]