Round Table: “Curatorial Innovation: From the Whitney Museum to the Conde Duque Cultural Center”

“In the universe of the composer Sonia Megías, any situation or event is likely to become music. Better said: Everything is music, you just have to decipher the sounds that make it up and find the best way to transmit them. The fundamental issue is communication.

The artist's goal is that any performer of any musical level can understand and enjoy her scores without needing to know how to read conventional ones. With this idea, she investigates the notations of different places and times, playing with them and putting those who go through them to play.

The technical language of music is thus transformed into a visual, ritual, playful language that attracts and stimulates all kinds of spectators”.

Nerea Ubieto, curator of the exhibition 'You can see, but you can touch'

Megías's scores make a leap to the level of fine arts to make the sounds visible and their interpretations manageable. They can not only be read, but also seen, and even touched. Its structure has materialized plastically and invites the public to be part of it and experience it.

From American Space Madrid, the International Institute and the Conde Duque, we organize a round table to talk about curatorial innovation and dialogue between the United States and Spain when it comes to proposing new strategies to promote interdisciplinary artistic practices and creations. To open the debate, we will talk about the work of the composer and former Fulbright scholar Sonia Megías, the development of her experimental scores between New York and Madrid and the comings and goings between different cultural institutions in the United States and Spain that seek new ways of support interdisciplinary artistic creation and its contact with various audiences. Through two unique curatorial projects – the exhibition of the American composer Christian Marclay inaugurated at the Whitney Museum in 2010 and the monographic exhibition of Sonia Megías that is part of the cycle 'Pertubaciones periodicos' of the Conde Duque – we will try to map how the dialogue between the States Unidos y España is generating new ways of seeing, listening and understanding artistic practices that defy disciplinary borders, creating participatory and didactic art for the public.

We will have the presence of the Conde Duque's Artistic Direction, the Director of the 'Pertubaciones periodicas' cycle Manuel Bonilla and members of the curator of the installation 'Se ve, pero si se toca' where the scores of Sonia Megías will be exhibited in one of the cultural institutions of reference in the city of Madrid. The round table, moderated by Lee Douglas, Director of American Space Madrid, is also linked to the workshops held by Megías at the International Institute, where students from the Colegio Madres Concepcionistas made the pieces for one of the scores that is part of the exhibition .

Information on the “Periodic disturbances” cycle: https://www.condeduquemadrid.es/ciclos/perturbaciones-periodicas

Information about the installation “You can see it, but you can touch it”: https://www.condeduquemadrid.es/en/node/1864

Photo taken by Ela Rabasco (Ella R que R).