Emiliano Valdés (Guatemala City, 1980) has been appointed the new Head Curator of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Medellín (MAMM) through a closed call. Valdés will replace Colombian curator Óscar Roldán-Alzate, who held that position from 2007 to the beginning of 2014.
The museum welcomes Emiliano Valdés with the new 4,200 square meter real estate with a new building that boasts two permanent exhibition halls, multiple exhibition rooms, an auditorium for 250 people, commercial areas, space for services as well as educational and cultural programs; the expansion of areas reserved for the museum include a documentation center and parking area. With this important expansion, culture and art become a referent in this sector of Medellin.
Among the most prominent aspects of his academic and professional trajectory, Valdés earned a graduate degree in Hispanic Studies from the Fundación Duques de Soria and from the Spanish Ministry of Culture, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice, (Italy). He earned a scholarship granted by the Fundación Cisneros - Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) and he is currently co-director of Proyectos Ultravioleta, an independent art space in the historic center of Guatemala. He will also participate as Associate Curator at the 10th Biennial of Gwangju, in South Korea, to be held in September 2014.
He has served as curator of Visual Arts of the Centro Cultural de España in Guatemala, as team member of the public guardianship program of Documenta (13) in Kassel (Germany). He as has been coordinator of exhibitions at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (Spain), and co-curator of the 8th Nicaraguan Biennial of Visual Arts (Nicaragua, 2011-2012); curator of the 17th Paiz Art Biennial (Guatemala, 2010); and artistic director of Foto30 (2009-2010-2011), a festival of the image and contemporary photography in Guatemala City.
María Mercedes González, director of the MAMM, points that what interested them about Emiliano was that "his discourse always approached the subject of working in direct connection to the local context and its immediate surroundings, as well as dialoguing with the international scene." She also stressed that his extensive network of contacts include prominent international curators and artists.