KEYNOTE / ART - TERRITORY
The symbolic territory of the institution

Art residency centres have been characterised as spaces that help artists during their work processes, as indispensable tools that contribute in the activation of artistic networks. As the model of the residency centre has evolved, more direct channels of dialogue with the immediate surroundings have opened up in defining this relationship between the institution and the territory it serves. Even so, who constitutes the institution’s symbolic territory?

Ane Rodríguez Armendariz has worked in the field of cultural management in different Spanish institutions in the last 15 years. After a year of studies and research at Goldsmiths College in London, in September 2020 she joined the Matadero Madrid Art Residency Center as head of the program. She was the cultural director of Tabakalera from 2012 to 2019. During this time, she led the configuration of the opening of the center and the implementation of the cultural project that included a programme based in contemporary art and visual cultures, with exhibitions, residencies, public programmes, mediation, and a cinema programme, amongst others. Throughout those years she worked with artists such as Maryam Jafri, Yto Barrada, Eric Baudelaire, Itziar Okariz, Adrià Julià, Jumana Manna, Uriel Orlow and Filipa César among others, working in a network with different international partners and paying special attention to educational programmes and the configuration of the institutions as a space of learning and community building.

Her experience in Spanish art institutions includes the contemporary art fair in Madrid, ARCO (2006-2010), where she was in charge of curated programmes and international galleries; MUSAC, the contemporary art museum of Castilla y León, where she was general coordinator and management assistant (2010-2011), and Matadero Madrid, as part of the programming team (2011-2012).

Trained as a journalist, she soon joined artistic management after her experience in London in several galleries and after having studied several postgraduate degrees in film and art. Back in Spain in 2004, she was part of the Manifesta 5 biennial team in San Sebastian. She has also collaborated in the San Sebastian Film Festival in several editions.