NEVER SPOKEN

Never Spoken Again

Curated by David Ayala-Alfonso

Morehshin Allahyari, Maria Thereza Alves, François Bucher, Giuseppe Campuzano, Alia Farid, Sofía de Grenade, Laura Huertas Millán, Ulrik López, Carlos Motta, Erkan Öznur, David Peña Lopera, Michael Rakowitz, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Reyes Santiago Rojas, Daniel R. Small, and Felipe Steinberg

On a desk of the private study collection of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, an old stuffed parrot guards a vast ornithology collection. An excited young scientist reads a story on the origins of the desiccated animal for the purpose of entertaining a group of visitors: it may have been the last “speaker” of a dead indigenous language from colonial Venezuela, or a German prince’s precious gift to the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. There is no clear understanding which of these versions, if any, might be true.

Never Spoken Again: Rogue Stories of Science and Collections is a traveling exhibition that reflects on the birth of modern collections, the art institutions that sustain them and their contingent origin stories. Curated by Colombian curator David Ayala-Alfonso, an alumnus of ICI’s Curatorial Intensive, the exhibition is part of ICI’s new series of programs supporting emergent voices in the curatorial field.

Considering how institutional collections organize our lives Never Spoken Again brings together artists whose works open up a critique of materi al culture, iconography, and political ecologies. These practices examine not only the collected objects and the systems of distribution that facilitate their circulation but also the disciplines and subjects of study that they trade in.

Variously, the works shed light on myths, simulations, fake currencies, war games, and the slow violence of systematic racism that historically underpin collecting practices. Together they open the field for considering our agency in how our histories and futures may be constituted otherwise.

For information contact Becky Nahom at becky@curatorsintl.org or call 212 254 8200.

Never Spoken Again: Rogue Stories of Science and Collections is a traveling exhibition curated by David Ayala-Alfonso and produced by ICI. It is the result of a new series of programs, pioneered with the support of the Hartfield Foundation, aimed at providing opportunities to alumni of ICI’s Curatorial Intensive as they move through the stages of their career, and reflecting ICI’s commitment to fostering and championing new curatorial voices who will shape the future of the field. Never Spoken Again is made possible with the generous support of ICI’s Board of Trustees and International Forum. Additional support for Erkan Öznur’s participation is provided by SAHA.

CURATOR David Ayala-Alfonso is a Colombian curator, artist, and researcher working between Bogotá and London. Most recently he was Curator in Residence and Academic Coordinator at FLORA ars+natura in Bogotá. Following his participation in the Curatorial Intensive in New York in 2010, he received the ICIDedalus Award for Curatorial Research in 2012. Among many projects, he is currently preparing a publication on critical heritage to be released later this year.

Carlos Motta, Corpo Fechado-The Devils Work, 2018, HD, single-channel video (color, sound), 24:47 min, film still. Courtesy of P•P•O•W Gallery and the artist.

Morehshin Allahyari, She Who Sees the Unknown (still). Video. Courtesy of Upfor Gallery and the artist.