L'invitation aux musées
Week-end #2

MAGASIN des horizons ^{France / Grenoble}
Béatrice Josse ^curator

A platform for reflection and exchanges, the MAGASIN des horizons has reinvented the form of the art centre, under the influence of its new director, Béatrice Josse. Favouring ephemeral events over exhibitions, she has made the broadening of possibilities and experimentation the guiding principles of its programme. The project is organised above all around occasional encounters and invitations made to artists (some of them associates), militants, curators, authors and researchers from all horizons so as to nourish a continuous dialogue, focused on contemporary issues. Her open support for feminist combats or struggles against all forms of discrimination reveals a sharp political awareness, placing art in a direct relationship with society’s current mutations. The site thus describes itself as being intentionally “permacultural”, in the sense that it is there as an incubator for collective initiatives, thought out on the level of a sustainable future. Open to the world, as well as to its territory, Le MAGASIN des horizons also works with a large number of local and international partners, and through its workshops opens up horizons to innovative professional courses, thus exposing curatorship to new participatory practices. As the first player in the world of culture to have launched in France an immaterial collection covering its performative practices, Béatrice Josse, the head and project leader, has actively contributed to placing the body at the centre of the action of an art centre.

Serralves - Museu de Arte Contemporânea ^{Portugal / Porto}
Cristina Grande ^curator

The Serralves Foundation has adopted the mission of promoting contemporary art and favouring its access to the greatest number of people. With temporary or itinerary exhibitions, shows and concerts, readings and projections, this museum has since 1999 presented a large panorama of contemporary art, from the 1960s up to today’s creations, be they emergent or confirmed. Apart from its collection, bringing together over four thousand pieces, and open to all styles or techniques, it also carries out a vital educational mission (through its symposiums, publishing projects, etc.) and is actively involved in the diffusion of contemporary dance, music and performances in its auditorium and the other spaces in the museum. Set at the heart of the prestigious Casa de Serralves, it thus stands as a meeting point between art, architecture and ideas, thanks to a programme which is as demanding as it is aware of the era’s issues. Its project thus develops a critical reflection in which art is examined through the prism of globalisation and postcolonial thought, guaranteeing its solid anchorage at the heart of modernity. The curator, Cristina Grande, who is in charge of dance and performance in the museum, has also helped to make it one of the most active cultural sites on the Portuguese landscape, when it comes to the contemporary performative arts. With a team of curators, she has set up the annual programme “The Museum as Performance” and developed a platform which, since 2015, has been organising encounters between the visual and live arts.