In this lecture, Manuela Moscoso will be presenting the work behind assembling the Liverpool Biennial 2021 which will unfold her perspective on curating, exhibition making and producing in motion with artistic practices. The question at the heart of the 2021 Liverpool Biennial is about the body: what is a body, what does it? And by extension: what is a human and what potential humans have to be? The focus on the body challenges our understanding of ourselves as rational, defined, finite beings, suggesting instead non-Western viewpoints to recognize the entanglement of bodies, objects, the environment and history. The Liverpool Biennial's title The Stomach and the Port reflects on systems of exchange, how borders are not only geographic but also political and subjective constructs—the outcome of a historical process of division begun in the modern, colonial world. The Biennial resists this order, reminding us that our lives are intertwined with one another.
Manuela Moscoso is a curator, researcher and critical producer devising and delivering exhibitions, public programs and publications, independently or for organizations in Europe and Latin America, for example as Senior Curator at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Co-Director of Capacete, Rio de Janeiro and currently as curator at the 2021 Liverpool Biennial. She has published a number of books and essays, including Thinking about it (Archive Books, 2014), Animal Que No Existe with Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite, 2015) and Hands Makes Mistakes with Ariel Schlesinger (Roma Publications, 2019). Collaboration is fundamental to her professional practice as Moscoso believes production only happens through a relation with others. Recognizing herself as a curator of practices rather than objects, she continuously looks for different approaches to research, create, think, produce and disseminate work and ideas. Moscoso sees a deep connection between art and education practices and she is strongly committed diversifying the art sector by ensuring wider representation on every aspect of its practices and advocating for non-Western systems of thought.
The lecture will be held in English language.