I spent three months on the St. James trail, the Camino de Santiago, through Switzerland, France and Spain. It has been a fantastic journey with incredible people I met and the beauty of the landscape. In this article I reflect on the connection between the Camino and its cultural legacy and share some of my highlights along the way. Prepare for lots of images :-) Art Historian meets adventure...
Read MoreI am announcing a mini sabbatical from August until the end of October 2016 to hike over 2000 km on one of the oldest cultural routes of Europe: The Camino de Santiago. In our age that is obsessed with achievements, production and efficiency, once in a while, I feel the need to slow down and check if my values, my imagination and my bodily sense of being are still aligned. We measure our days and plans with our gadgets, we are constantly optimizing our routines to become some sort of super human. Sometimes I think that modern life moves faster than our thoughts are able to follow and we jump to conclusions because we lack time to really think about events or experiences. To take a long-distance hike means to measure everything in a human scale again and to refuse to accelerate on the pace imposed by technology.
Read MoreThis year I am dedicating myself to the area of art as labor. It is an attempt to open a dialogue around how labor is defined in the arts and what it means to choose a profession in the creative sector. It is not a new research area and a lot of interesting work has already been done. Nevertheless, some problems seem recurring and others are connected to the current Zeitgeist. I know it can be exhausting to constantly fight the same problems, therefore, it is so comforting to see how others handle similar issues and that we all together as a community are able to change circumstances. This is the motivation to build a library of resources with this blog around different topics for professional and aspiring culture and art worker.
Read MoreMuseums have to define their role within society to remain significant in the future. In the past museums were temples where knowledge was preserved and education was the highest value. This might still be a big asset, but with this purpose comes the voice of institutional authority, that does not facilitate a dialogue with the people visiting the museum. Museums are facing a shift in visitors engagement, storytelling, institutional organization, and what in means to be a successful museum.
Read MoreI am fascinated by people who are able to tell a good story, but also sometimes scared of how a powerful story can be appropriated for marketing reasons. A story is something that is inspiring, empowering and in the same way unique to this person, it contains a broader truth to which others can relate. But, what transforms a good story into a long-lasting one, how can storytelling facilitate empowerment and what are the connections between art and storytelling?
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Anabel Roque Rodríguez is a curator, writer and art historian based in Switzerland and Germany, but open to travel to other areas. She is interested in the relation of art to the public and site specific conditions. She works within the realm of contemporary art with strong roots in its historic past. To understand an development, one has to situate it retrospective. Her focus includes political art, the artist as activist, art as labor, feminism, photography and the art market.
The writing on this blog is free but not cheap, it's build on hours of collecting, thinking and composing.
You can support this labor through a tip.
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© Anabel Roque Rodríguez 2021
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