Call for artists requesting a studio visit by three curators from Barcelona: 19 and 20 January 2015

Since 2006 Stroom has invited interesting curators, artists, critics (both from the Netherlands and abroad) to visit artists from The Hague in their studios. The aim is to provide the artists with a high-quality reflection on and positive criticism of their work, thus helping them in the promotion of their work. Additionally the visits will help to open up the cultural climate and to create a network. 

On Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 January 2015, Veronica Valentini, Juan Canela and Andrea Rodriguez Novoa - from the curatorial collective BAR project from Barcelona - want to meet local artists in The Hague. Fields of interest of BAR are: feminism, gender studies, social interaction, politics, performance, live events, new technologies, community building, independent publishing. Artist practices can include sculpture, site-specific work, sound, film, language based, new media.

If you are interested in a collective studio visit by the three Spanish curators, you can let us know through email, deadline is Friday 2 January 2015. Please send your message to Natascha Helmer (nhelmer@stroom.nl). We ask you to give a short motivation of your application in English. 
BAR will make a selection of the artists to be visited, depending on the applications and further suggestions by Stroom.  

BAR project
BAR project is an independent, mobile and non-profit organization dedicated to promote artistic exchange through local, national and international residencies and collaborations, and by developing a public program issued from curatorial and research projects.BAR project is a curatorial collective wishing to promote new relationships and ways of working, by expanding their scope and encouraging different initiatives from those already established. BAR project wishes to initiate long-term collaborations with projects that share affinities regarding BAR's main points of interest by running an international residency program for artists and curators in Barcelona. This activity is conceived as a platform for the internationalization of the local context and a way of connecting artists and agents from a critical and independent perspective. BAR project gets its name from one of the quintessential social gathering places in our culture in order re-contextualize it and be able to work from there. That place is the popular coffee and beer bar, thought as the right scenario in order to conceive our lines of thought.BAR project uses hospitality as its working method, thinking this as an idea and strategy, as a spirit, an attitude and mode of action.BAR project is initiated by the independent curators Juan Canela, Andrea Rodriguez Novoa and Veronica Valentini.

For more information please visit: http://barproject.net/en/

Biographical information
Veronica Valentini is an independent Italian curator and researcher based in Barcelona since 2011. Valentini's area of interest lies in feminism and gender studies, forms of subjectivity and production of today's arts practitioners. Her practice explores curatorial and artistic strategies combining exhibitions, performance, live events, new technologies and independent publishing. Graduating with an MA in Theory and Art criticism from the PEI-Independent Studies Programme 2012-2013 at MACBA (Barcelona, SP) she has also attended the International Curatorial Training Program at Ecole du Magasin, Le Magasin-CNAC (Grenoble, FR) 2009- 2010. Prior to this she graduated with an MA in Visual Arts/Historical and Artistic Heritage and a BA in Fine Arts both in Italy.Upcoming and recently curated exhibitions and projects include: exhibition at Sant Andreu Contemporani (Barcelona), On Ambiguity and Other Forms to Play With whitin the 2nd CAFAM Biennial, CAFA art museum (Beijing, CN), GAP-Global Art Programme 2013 (Milan/Valence/Barcelona), Suppressed memories, Rue de l'angile space (Lyon), The Original Doubt, Plataforma Revolver (Lisbon), The Inner Perimeter, Institut Français (Barcelona), Ouverture, Sala d'Art Jove (Barcelona), The inhabitant of the floor above, Homesession (Barcelona), SI-Sindrome Italiana, Le Magasin-CNAC (Grenoble, FR), How to act in the public sphere, Le Magasin-CNAC (Grenoble, FR).

Andrea Rodriguez Novoa is an architect and independent curator based in Spain and France.
She has a degree in Architecture and masterplannig (ETSAUN, Pamplona, 2004). She follows a Master en Arte actual y Gestión Cultural (IL3- University of Barcelona, 2009) and a International Curatorial Training Program (Ecole du Magasin, Grenoble, 2010-2011). She reunites architecture and curating in a transversal reflection about networking and canals of diffusion of contemporary art. She is interested in the capacity of constructing environment - in a urban, political and social way - of the "exhibition architectures" as well as the power of image and story within the relationship between art and space. Upcoming and recently curated exhibitions and projects include: Cartographies de l'invisible, solo show Pablo Valbuena (CAC Fort du Bruissin, Grand Lyon, 2014), Duda original (Plataforma Revolver, Lisboa, 2013), Vers une hypothèse (CAC Fort du Bruissin, Resonnance XII Lyon's Biennial, 2013), Le périmètre interne (French Institute Barcelona, 2013), Ouverture (Sala d'Art Jove, Barcelona, 2012), Coup d'éclat (Fort de Bruissin, Grand Lyon, 2011), Principe d'incertitude (Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, 2011).

Juan Canela is an independent curator and writer. Is founder member of Radiobucket and Azotea Collective. He has curated exhibitions as The old and the new, ADN Platform, Barcelona (2013), the round table program Vertex, conversations in art, politics and society for ADN Think Tank, Throw a Rock and See What Happens, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2013); The cosmic space was there..., Bacelos Gallery Madrid/Vigo (2013); editorial project Radio de Acción, Espacio Abisal, Bilbao (2011) or Ref.08001, NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona (2010). At the moment, he is co-curanting Lesson 0, a long-term project for Espai13 Fundació Miró, Barcelona. Last November and December he joined a residency program at La Ene, Nuevo Museo Energía de Arte Contemporáneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Following exhibitions for 2014 are Ignacio Uriarte at Marco, Contemporary art museum Vigo and Antonio Gagliano at Komplot Brussels. He usually writes for art magazines such as A*Desk, Dardo magazine, Exit-Express, SOUTH Magazine and Kaleidoscope Blog.