Independent curator
Salamanca, Spain
Ballate Armas is a curatorial collective based in Salamanca, Spain, and co-funded by two Cuban independent curators Ana Gabriela Ballate Benavides & Yadira de Armas Rodríguez (La Habana, Cuba, 1990). Cultural managers and art critics. They have a Degree in Art History from the University of Havana, and a Master's degree in Advanced Studies in Art History from the University of Salamanca (2019), specialized in contemporary art. At present, they course the Doctoral Program in History and Arts at the University of Granada. Their line of work focuses on the dynamics of contemporary art, from management, curating and production of exhibitions and cultural projects. They are interested in curatorial research around the new practices of contemporary art, promoting emerging art, encouraging gender approaches to art, and collaborating with other artistic projects. They have to their credit an important trajectory in the direction and management of galleries, and cultural projects. They were founders, assistant directors and curators of 'Arte Continua', Galleria Continua space in Havana, Cuba. They have managed and produced curatorial projects by international artists such as Anish Kapoor, Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Daniel Buren, Shilpa Gupta, Elizabet Cerviño, Nikhil Chopra, Chen Zhen, Reynier Leyva Novo, among others.Likewise, they have also collaborated with various institutions in the management of curatorial projects such as the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center of Cuba, the Photo Library of Cuba, in addition to have being producers and part of the organizing committee in the XII edition of the Havana Biennial (2015) with the projects of artists from Galleria Continua. Ana Gabriela Ballate & Yadira de Armas have assisted and curated exhibitions in the Domus Artium 2002-DA2 Center of Contemporary Art of Salamanca, such as "Un viaje de ida y vuelta" (2018), and their most recent curated group exhibition Listen to me! (2020). Both are founders and co-direct the contemporary art project ‘Art Project Inside’, which during the confinement caused by the pandemic, launched the project Universo Cuarentena (2020). They also have been invited to be part of the 2020 Biennial of Women in Visual Arts and participate in the VI edition of Mujeres Mirando Mujeres an initiative that seeks to vindicate the work of women in the art world.