Immaterial Resistance: Preserving the Living, Tensing the Museal

Since the days of the historical avant-gardes, museums have been challenged by a panoply of practices that strained their structures and objectives. Proposals based on unconventional materialities, inframince works, performances, dances, objets trouvés, etc. seemed to offer forms of resistance to the processes of reification inherent to the act of collecting art. Over the last 25 years, institutions worldwide have made considerable efforts to develop practices and protocols enabling them to incorporate immaterial works – performances, choreographies, instructions, conceptual proposals, etc. – into their collections and programmes. The normalization of the live arts on the international circuit has prompted reflection on the need for museums to update their practices of preservation, exhibition and mediation. Each institution, within its cultural context, must grapple with different institutional challenges and political agendas. Despite some previous efforts, in the Spanish context—and specifically in the Canary Islands—an in-depth reflection on these issues remains largely pending. ‘Intangible Resistance’ aims to bring together professionals, practitioners and researchers from different fields and geographical contexts with the aim of comparing experiences and engaging in dialogue from which to build a solid basis for a necessary institutional transformation. What are the main challenges that the concept of ‘the living’ poses for museums and contemporary art centres? What transformations must these institutions undertake in order to respond to these challenges? To what extent are museums themselves becoming living organisms, and how can they generate a performative memory of their programmes? What archival practices might institutions draw upon in their efforts to incorporate the immaterial?

In collaboration with the PERCUR research project: Performance and Curating: Performative Transformations of Curating, Collecting and Spectatorship from a comparative Perspective: Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina, 2003–2028 (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, PID2024-156472NB-I00): https://curadoriayperformance.com

This seminar is part of the European PIT project, funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, in which TEA is the only participating Spanish museum. This international network brings together institutions such as Serralves, Bozar, MUDAM, CAC Vilnius and Triennale Milano to explore new forms of performative activation that strengthen the relationship between citizens, the body and cultural institutions, fostering participatory, intergenerational and community-based processes. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

PROGRAMME

Friday, October 9, 2026

10,15 h. Presentation

10,30-11,30 h. Lecture: Hanna B Hölling, After Permanence: Museums, Critical Ethics and the Work of Care

11,45 h. Coffe break

12,15-13,15 h. Dialogue: Amanda de la Garza y Laia Struch

16,00-17,00 h. Lecture: Lou Forster, Dance Literacy at the Museum

17,15 h. Coffe break

18,00-19,00 h. Dialogue: Oscar Dasí, Blanca Molina y Carmelo Salazar

19,30 h. Performance: Itziar Okariz, "Respiración oceánica"

Saturday, October 10, 2026

10,30-11,30 h. Lecture: Bianca Tinoco, La performance en el museo:
caminos para la inserción de acciones en colecciones de arte

11,45 h. Coffe break

12,15-13,15 h. Dialogue: Catalina Lozano e Itziar Okariz

16,00-17,00 h. Lecture: Hélia Marçal, Post-anthropocentric performance transmission

17,15 h. Coffe break

18,00-19,00 h. Dialogue: Tania Pardo, Cuqui Jerez y María Jerez

Coordination: Juan Albarrán, Javier Arozena, Olga Fernández López