Project Details

Jimena Sarno and Julia Masvernat are two artists, art educators and organizers born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Julia lives, works and teaches in Buenos Aires, while Jimena emigrated to Los Angeles, CA, where she lives, works and teaches. Between September and November of 2023 they developed a cartography of exchange between the cities of Buenos Aires and Los Angeles. This map connects the research that each one of them has been working on, with social and institutional actors in each city: visual artists, musicians and curators; public and private exhibition spaces; collectives of artists and activists. In addition, they shared a series of readings: María Lugones, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Gloria Anzaldúa, Donna Haraway, Griselda Pollock, Marie Bardet, among others. Through a continued dialogue sparked by their shared interest in collectivity, critical pedagogy and intersectional feminism, they discussed and envisioned sustainable models of art production and international exchange.

To plot their project, Jimena and Julia had their first meeting in person at the iconic Florida Garden café in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and through remote meetings thereafter. With each meeting they familiarized themselves with their interests, practices and methods, their curatorial and community organizing projects, their cities’ art communities and the particularities and possibilities of enhancing their art practices’ visibility internationally. Additionally, they facilitated introductions to curators and institutions they have worked with within their countries of residence, generating tangible future opportunities for their art practices. Their goal for 2024 is to materialize an interchange, hosting each other in their place of residence. This interchange will take the form of an exhibition, artist talk or performance, with the purpose of planting a seed for future projects where new meetings are deployed in the network they are building.

Their ongoing project, affectionately named Florida Garden, took shape as an interactive, collaborative visual platform they created with the purpose of connecting both artists and their cities’ art ecosystems. This first iteration functions as a template for a growing, expansive networking platform promoting collaboration between the art communities of Los Angeles and Buenos Aires. The network will continue to grow as they invite colleagues, artist-run spaces, institutions and curators to join and share their practices, interests and exhibition ideas to the platform. Their hope is that Florida Garden will continue to generate international collaborations and opportunities for future community members, based on solidarity, generosity, resourcefulness and mutual care, as we witness art funding and resources disappear in the current unpredictable political landscape.

Jimena Sarno y Julia Masvernat son dos artistas, educadoras de arte y organizadoras nacidas en Buenos Aires, Argentina. Julia vive, trabaja y enseña en Buenos Aires, mientras que Jimena emigró a Los Ángeles, CA, donde vive, trabaja y enseña. Entre septiembre y noviembre de 2023 elaboraron una cartografía de intercambio entre las ciudades de Buenos Aires y Los Ángeles. Este mapa pone en contacto las investigaciones en las que cada una viene trabajando, con los actores sociales e institucionales de cada ciudad: artistas visuales, músicos y curadores; espacios de exposición públicos y privados; colectivos de artistas y activistas. Además, compartieron una serie de lecturas: María Lugones, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Gloria Anzaldúa, Donna Haraway, Griselda Pollock, Marie Bardet, entre otras. A través de un diálogo continuo generado por su interés compartido en la colectividad, la pedagogía crítica y el feminismo interseccional, conversaron e imaginaron modelos sostenibles de producción de arte e intercambio internacional.

Para trazar su proyecto, Jimena y Julia tuvieron su primer encuentro en persona en la icónica confitería Florida Garden en Buenos Aires, Argentina, y luego a través de reunions remotas. Con cada encuentro se familiarizaron con sus intereses, prácticas y métodos, sus proyectos curatoriales y de organización comunitaria, las comunidades artísticas de sus ciudades y las particularidades y posibilidades de mejorar la visibilidad de sus practices artísticas a nivel internacional. Además, facilitaron contactos con curadores e instituciones con las que han trabajado en sus países de residencia, generando oportunidades tangibles en el futuro para sus prácticas artísticas. Su objetivo para 2024 es concretar un intercambio en el espacio propio de cada artista, recibiendo la visita de la otra. Este cruce puede tomar forma de exposición, conversatorio, performance, etc. con la finalidad de sembrar una semilla para futuros proyectos donde se desplieguen nuevos encuentros en la red que están construyendo.

Su proyecto en curso, afectuosamente llamado Florida Garden, tomó forma como una plataforma visual interactiva y colaborativa que crearon con el propósito de conectar a los artistas y los ecosistemas artísticos de sus ciudades. Esta primera versión funciona como modelo para una plataforma de networking expansiva y en crecimiento que promueve la colaboración entre las comunidades artísticas de Los Ángeles y Buenos Aires. La red seguirá creciendo a medida que inviten a colegas, espacios autogestionados, instituciones y curadores a unirse y compartir sus prácticas, intereses e ideas de exhibición en la plataforma. Su esperanza es que Florida Garden continúe generando colaboraciones y oportunidades internacionales para futuros miembros de la comunidad, basadas en la solidaridad, la generosidad, el ingenio y el cuidado mutuo, mientras somos testigos de la desaparición de la financiación y los recursos del arte en el imprevisible panorama politico actual.

Bios

Jimena Sarno is an interdisciplinary artist and educator born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and
living in Los Angeles. With a focus on the sensorial and affective experiences shaped by
political subjecthood, she works across a range of media including installation, sound, video,
text and sculpture.

Sarno’s work has been exhibited at MASS MoCA, Vincent Price Art Museum, Clockshop LA,
18th Street Arts Center, LACE, Human Resources, Grand Central Art Center, The Museum of
Latin American Art, The Mistake Room, Visitor Welcome Center, PØST, The Luminary and
Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea de Santiago De Compostela, among others. She has
been awarded the Lucas Visual Arts Fellowship in Visual Arts, the California Arts Council
Individual Fellowship, the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists, the
Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant and the Rema Hort Mann ACE Grant.

Sarno holds an MFA in Art with a Critical Theory Emphasis from UCI and a BFA in Art from
UCLA. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at CSUDH.

Julia Masvernat is a visual artist, educator, organizer and curator based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She works across a range of media including drawing, painting, objects and audiovisual installations. Utilizing industrial and craft materials as well as analog and digital processes, her practice focuses on the study of specific urban and historical spaces. She collaborates with several socially engaged projects and collectives, including the feminist art and activism collective La Lengua en la Calle. Operating at the intersection of artistic practice, politics and feminist activism, they carry out graphic interventions, performances in public spaces and meetings for reflection and propagation, accompanying the transversal agenda of feminisms. Between 2021 and 2022, she joined the education team at the Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti, where she coordinated a training scholarship for contemporary visual artists who develop projects related to human rights, memory and heritage. She was part of the curatorial team of (Des)hechos del lenguaje -(Un)facts of language-, at the National Museum of Engraving and the Center for Sound Art, in Buenos Aires. She is currently working on a monograph spanning the last 20 years of her art practice.