This paper examines the Visible project, which the author has co-curated since 2020, as a case study for understanding contemporary curatorial practice as a form of social infrastructure. Visible is an international platform that supports socially engaged art through fellowships, research, and publishing, including the volume Visible: Art as Policies for Care (2024), working with community-based practices across different geographies. Based on practice-based research, existing literature, and texts commissioned by Visible from authors such as Anna Tsing, Emanuele Coccia, and Néstor García Canclini, the paper argues that such models mark a shift from exhibition-making as the primary site of curatorial work to more distributed, long-term forms of engagement. Instead of mediating between artwork and audience, curating becomes infrastructural, enabling the conditions for artistic practices that address ecological, social, and political urgencies. The paper reflects on recent fellowships and collaborations with practitioners such community-based practices, such as the Shipibo-Konibo collective Shinan Imabo (Peru) and the Warli initiative Waral Prakalp (India), as well as Cooking Sections and the Karrabing Collective, foregrounding sustained support, non-extractive funding, and collaborative processes. By situating this approach within broader debates on socially engaged art, the study proposes a redefinition of curatorial practice as a relational and durational activity that extends beyond institutional frameworks. This perspective challenges exhibition-driven models and offers an alternative understanding of the role of art within contemporary society.

Authors:
Carolina V. Lio Rodrigues, Istituto Marangoni London, United Kingdom

About the Presenter(s)
Carolina Lio Rodrigues is the founding director of the London-based curatorial studio Looking Forward, curator at Visible (Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto) and senior lecturer in Design and Contextual Studies at Istituto Marangoni London.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-lio/

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