júlia polo alabart
Emerging curator from Barcelona, now based in South London. I am a final year student of the MFA Curating programme at Goldsmiths University of London, and have graduated from Communication and Cultural Industries from the University of Barcelona.
Specializing in Artists’ Moving Image and Time-based Media, my curatorial research explores connections between embodiment, materiality, and sociality, and the continuous interplay between human and non-human entities. My approach to curating unfolds through collaborative practices and socially-engaged programming, cultivating spaces for horizontal and mindful encounters, reciprocal relationality and experiences of place.
I aspire to contribute to the curatorial field by cultivating de-hierarchical methodologies at the intersection with site-specific practices that engage with diverse collectivities and prioritize active modes of participation.
Co-founder of the curatorial collective soft shock
alongside Georgie Worth.
Article written by Sara Boada at Pilotenkueche art residency
Big thanks to Pilotenkueche and Sara Boada for the time, dedication and the care when writing this article.
curated works
Portfolio of curated exhibitions
S.N.A.P.S
Photography exhibition at MMX Gallery
New Cross, South London
21.05.2024
S.N.A.P.S brings together lens-based works by Carmen Gray, Aliceson Green, and Vanessa Walters, delving into our relationship with archives as dynamic sites for meaning making. Through a focus on the materiality of analogue photography, the artists examine the interdependence between tactility, memory, and collecting, giving the photographic archive a resonance that extends beyond its basic indexical function. S.N.A.P.S shifts the gaze from the archive as a noun to archiving as a verb; as a lived, effervescent and gestural process weaving glimpses of the everyday into a tracing of our personal histories. Informed by Ingrid Shaffner’s concept of ‘deep storage’, the artworks expand on the boundlessness of the archive as a “package overwhelmed by its own contents”, which rebels against the very processes of containment it seeks to represent. The notion of storage resists easy containment into a single process, purpose, or signifier, and surfaces questions around the archive’s capacity, who or what determines what is included, the value of the labor involved, and whether it accurately captures objective memory. S.N.A.P.S focuses on the role of the artist-as-archivist and explores these open-ended inquiries within the dynamic framework of archive-art. The artists’ inspection of personal photographic collections conjures a vast web of associations between memory, time, and personal ephemera, and underscores Hal Fosters’ observations in the essay "An Archival Impulse", which highlights 'the nature of all archival materials as found yet constructed, factual yet fictive, public yet private'. What remains is an exploration of the archive as a vessel for metaphors, a poetic process that escapes formal constraints and prompts interpretations beyond its point of production and storage. Challenging its function as a static repository, the artworks explore the porous temporalities and mediums that make the archive a live organism, never fully resolved and continuously evolving.
AMBIVALOVE
Group exhibition at ARS Avanti, Alte Handelsschule
Leipzig, Germany
18.02.2023
Where do we stand when we’re ambivalent? Does it always signify a transitional moment that precedes an impending decision? Can it bring comfort or does it always produce restlessness? Can ambivalence trigger creativity? Those are the questions that AMBIVALOVE begins to reflect upon. Residing in an undefined plane, AMBIVALOVE reclaims and embraces duality as an integral part of our humanness. Accepting it as an inherent experience opens the door for a deep sense of understanding and allows us to connect with ourselves and others. The works brought together in this diaphanous space spur an array of conversations sculpting the breadth of ambivalence, both in the personal and the cosmic. By sourcing experiential and collective forms of memory and actively conversing among each other, the works gracefully navigate the contradictory relationship with our surroundings and environment, the conflicting circumstances that define social structures, or the intricacies of what it means to coexist as individuals. The symbiotic dynamic constructed among the works initiate open-ended interpretations that welcome ambiguity and contention as a natural step to reach understanding. The creative space summoned at Alte Handelschule becomes a collective process of acceptance, to recognize the ambivalence in all things. Such acceptance culminates in an overarching sense of compassion and love for the world within and around us. Curatorial teaser text: Júlia Polo Curators: Júlia Polo and Ralitsa Benkova
D.E.T
Group exhibition at Pilotenkueche
Leipzig, Germany
18.03.2023
Trash is that which is pushed out of a system. That which is deemed undesirable and destined to fall into oblivion. Transcending materiality, trash becomes the culmination of a collective process that decides when something becomes devoid of value and meaning. The frenetic and globalized rhythm we live under renders dynamics that accelerate the creation of waste, tangible or conceptual. Under such rampant structures, the pace of obsolescence becomes imminent and systematic in practically every aspect of life, the art scene being no exception. D.E.T, intends to reflect on the ambiguous category of trash, and explore the creative potential within it. Instead of understanding it as an accumulation of unusable matter and ideas, artistic practice has the ability to upcycle what is left in the margins, and engage in a restorative process that creates new meanings. In this process of vital renewal, art becomes the remedy to combat social passivity and intellectual decadence. By summoning the practice of ten artists from different backgrounds and their rejuvenating creative energy, D.E.T provides a safe space to find shared commonalities and authentic artistic visions. Addressing questions that apply to a wide variety of contemporary realities, this exhibition fosters reflections that subvert compartmentalized views and boxed expectations. Similarly, they consciously examine collective meanings that have been disregarded or unseen, and restore their universal relevance. With a light, curious and playful character, the works take us gently by the hand and encourage us to reconnect - maybe just for a while - with the deeper layers of our vulnerability and hear what the recalled emotions, feelings or associations are telling us. Is there something stuck in our inner systems or something we forgot is there which needs to be rethought or put back in place? Curatorial teaser text: Júlia Polo and Ralitsa Benkova Curators: Júlia Polo and Ralitsa Benkova
written pieces
An organized miscellanea of published articles, artist profiles and catalogue texts
PILOTENKUECHE Magazine - artist profile
Yu Chin’s effervescent rise after the 12th Kassel Documenta Biennale with the series Who is listening?, resulted in a nonsensical spiral of events that both halted and pushed their creative calling. Despite erratic institutional intents to silence them, Yu Chin pursued their artistic endeavors amongst blight and acclaim.
PILOTENKUECHE Magazine - artist profile
Claudia seeks to provide fertile soil for the works to coalesce organically and in harmony with each other, by prioritizing a collaborative dynamic between artists. “I don’t want to be the protagonist”. Whilst acknowledging the challenge of bringing fourteen international artists together, Claudia Caletti compares herself to a gardener.
PILOTENKUECHE Magazine - artist profile
As a principal outset to his process, he turns to diligent historical and ethnological research. Such approach leads him to distill the contextual nuances of materials and explore the significance attributed to primal forms of creation. By tracing back the origins of materials, he honors past tradition and humanity’s ongoing engagement with a particular element.
Mesmerized by primitive forms of artistic expression, Leanne reminisces on the early pagan and pre-catholic culture that permeates Irish heritage and landscape. Alluding to ritualistic, religious and spiritual approaches of art-making, Leanne recontextualizes such primal ways in a radically contemporary environment.
PILOTENKUECHE Magazine - artist profile
Chang Wang: beacons of universal love
London-based artist Chang Wang inhabits a generous and humbling art practice. Impelled to defy the social pattern of ignorance when facing contentions in the world, Chang’s practice is a persisting flow against oblivion. Through performance and installation, she summons experiences of compassion to point at margins of reality bound to be overlooked.
PILOTENKUECHE Magazine - artist profile
Aprendre a mirar pot ser tot un acte d’empatia i enteniment. M’he pogut capbussar en un exercici d’observació que m’ha permès explorar noves perspectives sobre la realitat que ens envolta. Molt feliç d’haver pogut col•laborar amb el CCCB i aportar la meva mirada sobre l’exposició de “Drawings for Projection” de William Kentridge.
Video en col·laboració amb el CCCB
Parc: An invitation to the borderless realm of music
Twisted iDEAL - Online journal of Eötvös Loránd University
On February 19th, Ferran Palau launched his last album Parc; an intimate yet cathartic approach to reality. Palau, a Catalan-based indie pop artist, constructs a whole new universe through synthetic beats and distorted vocals (...)
PILOTENKUECHE Magazine - artist profile
Leipzig-based artist, Lisa Wölfel, ponders the ineffable nature of human processes. Acknowledging the impermanence that nuances emotional and existential states, Lisa’s practice reveals our layered and at times puzzling condition as troubled humans.
Entrepreneurial spirit at only 21 years old
Twisted iDEAL -Online journal of Eötvös Loránd University
Interview with Antoine Pernet, co-founder of Collectif La Finca. La Finca defines itself as a multidisciplinary association located in Strasbourg with the mission of organizing events and spaces of expression and cohesion, where the senses, the arts and genres mingle to create a total party experience.
Torino-based artist Sofia Fresia subtly uncovers vertices between the self and the world as we know it. Through skillful oil paintings, her works project guileless reflections that emanate from personal experience. Addressing individuals’ place within their environment, Sofia’s work suggests a conflicting sense of belonging to a deeply troubled planet.
PILOTENKUECHE Magazine - artist profile
about
Background in curatorial practice, engagement and education departments, and assistant coordination
2018-2022
BA Communication and Cultural Industries - University of Barcelona
Bachelor degree looking into the theoretical and practical pillars of cultural communication and cultural management. A truly gratifying study course where I was first introduced to the intricacies that go into launching and operating a wide range of cultural initiatives .
2021-2022
Internship - Project coordinator
Educational Services Department - Filmoteca de Catalunya (Barcelona)
An enriching 9-month internship at the cradle of filmic heritage in the Filmoteca de Catalunya. I was able to work alongside inspiring professionals to promote film culture through community-based projects in the Raval district of Barcelona. Similarly, I was able to take part in numerous projects aimed at reflecting and conversing about the juncture between film and pressing social struggles.
2022
Exhibition curator
PILOTENKUECHE - International Art Residency Program (Leipzig)
For a year, I took part in PILOTENKUECHE's 53 and 54th international art residency as an Assistant Coordinator and as the Resident Curator. Embedded in a culturally livened city, I was able to get involved in both the coordination and curatorial processes of the exhibitions showcasing the resident's creative practice during the residency.
2023-2025
MFA Curating
Master's programme
Goldsmiths, University of London
I am a second-year student of the MFA Curating programme at Goldsmiths, University of London. I am balancing my academic studies with my independent curatorial projects .
2024
Curatorial placement at Artangel,
London-based arts organisation and art commissioning body
For 6 months, I have been supporting the Collection Curator by conducting an in-depth research into the organization's Collection, centered around ground-breaking moving image artistic projects. The exploration of the collection's artists and themes will be the prelude to create access resources to increase depth of engagement with the moving image works and local communities and collectives.
photo archive
Photo archive of my work since 2016
contact
Feel free to contact me for any queries or project proposals