To-Gather

The project sought to increase the flow, dialogue, and exchange of experiences between curators and artists from Switzerland and the South American Altiplano, connecting with specific territories through artistic residencies. Six Latin American projects were selected in the "To-gather" call from the Swiss Foundation for Culture Pro Helvetia, a collaboration program between arts professionals and cultural organizations and institutions. The objective was to promote spaces for critical reflection on the current situation, where ideas could be shared to propose more equitable forms of exchange between cultures and contexts, allowing for experimentation with new formats of collaborative work.

In March 2023, Chantelle Lue and Gabriel Hensche were welcomed to the Instituto Superior Latinoamericano de Arte (ISLA) as part of the School of Commons (SoC) team.Their visit was made possible by the second stage of the "To-gather" program, aimed at strengthening the exchange between curators, organizers, and artists from Switzerland and the Altiplano of South America.

"Everything during this experience felt like being on a different scale—the landscape, the climate, the challenges. Coming back to Europe was like entering a dollhouse. The deep conversations we shared with the members of the SACO team and the incredible program they prepared for us. These exchanges, impressions, and the ritual of the Chango people will certainly stay with me for a lifetime," said Gabriel Hensche.

During their stay at ISLA, they observed the work carried out by the biennial, and opportunities for dialogue were created between the work teams, allowing both groups to reflect on new ways of working around art and education. "I think it was very important to create and maintain these types of alliances. Not only because of the potential collaborations that could arise, but also because by visiting another organization that has similar values and goals but works in a completely different context, you gain a new perspective on your own organization and way of working," added Gabriel.

During their visit to the region, they visited the Salar de Atacama, the Albemarle lithium plant, the San Pedro de Atacama Archaeological Museum, and Caleta Abtao, accompanied by SACO, where they participated in the closing ceremony of the Local Memory and Family Trajectories of the Chango People project.

Later, SACO representatives were in Zurich to participate in the Intensive Weekend organized by the School of Commons (SoC), an initiative dedicated to the study and development of self-directed learning among peers, located at the Zurich University of the Arts. During their conference, Dagmara and Carlos talked about the SACO Biennial initiative and the projects that would be developed during 2024. Workshops and training activities were held together with various representatives of cultural institutions from Latin American and European countries, such as Colombia, Switzerland, Finland, Holland, England, Italy, Ukraine, and others.

To conclude their stay in Zurich, SACO and SoC held meetings that allowed them to forge commitments to mutual support and promote the creation of collaborative projects in the future. SACO's participation in the Intensive Weekend and subsequent meetings with SoC were made possible thanks to the To-gather program, developed in collaboration with the Swiss Foundation for Culture Pro Helvetia, thus concluding the last phase of this alliance with the visit of SACO representatives to Zurich to facilitate cultural exchange between curators, artists, and organizations, in addition to learning about the various work areas of the School of Commons.

Read more about this exchange via SACOs' Fanzine 2022 – 2023:

SACO1.2 Contemporary Art Biennial

The event will take place during 2024 and 2025 in the driest desert in the world, with the curatorial theme Dark Ecosystems, emphasizing the link between art and science. It displays contemporary artworks in spaces across the city, which that invite dialogue and direct contact between the artists and the public.

Learn more here.

school without school

Artistic education is an essential pillar of the operations of SACO. For this reason, school without school brings together, consolidates and deepens various activities in the area of ​​training and professionalisation, in a territory marked by the lack of opportunities for artistic education. Since 2012, SACO have promoted and encouraged artistic development in the region, contributing to the growth of the local creative scene, holding countless workshops , conferences and colloquia, bringing professionals and artists from Chile and the world to the region. Training self-taught artists, teachers, mediators, and broadly-savvy audiences, and SACO have a high level of loyalty among their listeners and an interest that grows year after year.

Learn more about their program here.