Realidades Alternativas

JUN 2017 - NOV 2018
South & North America (Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico & Canada)

Supported by the British Council, the Realidades Alternativas international exhibition tour was a two-year programme aimed at reaching new audiences from a variety of diverse backgrounds across 5 cities in both South and North America. Disrupting traditional documentary and non-fiction storytelling assumptions and the profiling of audiences and their subsequent engagement with social issues.

The objectives were set out to create a context for touring exhibitions of artworks in non-fiction storytelling to developing locations, identifying the challenges of curating exhibitions involving modern technologies that yet haven't reached a household following or significant number of exhibition platforms the world over.

Underpinning this programme was the research aim of studying the social, economical and ecological impact of advancements in modern technologies, addressing:

• how such items are transported across borders (containing strikes) and through customs and clearance (whilst dealing with minor interrogation);
• the local value of such items;
• foreign objects impacting on local economies;
• the symbolism of returning a technological item to a country where its very own mineral take up are extracted from that environment;
• localising production and supporting local trade;
• how do audiences body language respond to collective roles in projects facilitated by modern technologies, incl. augmented reality, virtual reality and AI.
• how do audiences respond to the fragility that comes with not having the autonomy to run their own experience, and;
• the role of language when touring works to foreign destinations;

The above points were a set of learnings that had developed over the two-year programme tour - practically, artistically and personally.

Led by Curator & Head of Arts Programme Joseph Cutts, the Realidades Alternativas exhibition tour began in 2017, working with local arts and cultural institutions, embassies and festival's incl. Centro Cultural de España, Montevideo; Unibes Cultural, São Paulo; Centro Cultural San Martín, Buenos Aires to deliver month long exhibitions, profiling the work of UK and international early - mid career artists incl. Jane Gauntlett, Richard Butchins, Grace Boyle, Asad J. Malik, whilst delivering bespoke capacity building workshops containing skills-based development activities to audiences in the local region.

Following the cultural success of this pilot tour, the 2018 tour focused on returning to Centro Cultural San Martín, Buenos Aires, aiming to maximise on the impact of the previous year, before touring to MUTEK MX, Mexico City & Center Phi, Montreal, applying the learnings of local integration, language, trade and international import.

The overall Realidades Alternativas exhibition programme received international press in Agencia EFE, tele, MTL.org, Lien Multimédia, CTVM.info, LaPresse+, ICI Première, Journal Métro, El Cronista & on La Nación's front page.

Part of Sheffield Doc/Fest's international touring Arts Programme (Alternate Realities).

For further information on this programme, impact reports are available upon request.