In 2017, the Association launched Museum XXI: a space for analysing the most current museum practices and the transformations of the contemporary art museum. Technological revolutions, new geopolitical configurations, and economic and environmental shifts confront cultural institutions with a generational challenge to rewrite their role and revise their working practices.
Museums at the Ecological Turn addressed the relationship between ecology, art and museum institutions, bringing together radical thinkers, artists, curators and representatives of climate activism.
In recent years, ecological discourse has taken on a profound resonance with artistic production and museum institutions. Contemporary art, through its sensitivity to ecological themes and its capacity to reassess the centrality of the conservation paradigm, provides fertile ground for examining the relationship between art and ecology, and exploring its complexities.
Building on these considerations, Museums at the Ecological Turn addressed a number of crucial questions that professionals in the museum sector can no longer afford to ignore, in order to sharpen reflection and identify possible responses.
Through a transdisciplinary and transgenerational dialogue, the conference was structured around four conceptual nodes, developing conversations drawn from museum and artistic practices, the demands of activism, and theoretical reflection. Moderated by Caterina Riva (Director of MACTE, Termoli) and Laura Tripaldi (writer and researcher), two strands of thought and practice were brought into dialogue at a time, drawing on the perspectives and experience of Italian and international guests. Bart van der Heide (Director of Museion, Bolzano) spoke with Amal Khalaf (curator and artist) on the theme Ecology and Institutions: Beyond Sustainability; Emanuele Braga (artist, philosopher and activist) engaged with Jamie Allinson (member of Salvage) on The Ecological Discourse in Contemporary Art; Stella Succi (art historian) and Leonardo Lovati and Fioretta Maldifassi (supporters of Ultima Generazione) discussed Art, Radical Ecology and Political Action; and Cal Flyn (writer and journalist) and Isabelle Carbonell (filmmaker and academic) discussed “Living Among the Ruins”: A Reflection on the Conservation Paradigm.
INFORMATION
The conference was held at the Aula Magna of the University of Bergamo, Piazzale Sant’Agostino 2, from 10am to 4.30pm. The event was free and open to the public, subject to registration via Eventbrite. Talks were given in Italian or English with simultaneous translation. The conference was not recorded. A publication, edited by NERO, was released in spring 2024.
