Dottorato in Patrimonio Culturale e produzione storico-artistica, audiovisiva e multimediale

After graduated in Cultural Heritage and Entertainment at the University of Cagliari and a period of Erasmus at the Faculty of History of Art at the University of Seville, Dr. Argiolas completed her degree cum laude in Visual Arts at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, with a thesis entitled In your time. Olafur Eliasson and the mediation of experience.
She has been trainee as a Museum Educator and Gallery Assistant, and she has participated in the research project Idese financed by the Regional Secretariat of the MiC for Sardinia, for the creation of an interactive tourist guide to the Regional Heritage.

Catalogues, archives and exhibitions to explain the climate crisis in Contemporary Art

In the last three decades, the contemporary art world has seen a growing concern about his responsibility in the fight against climate change; it is important to highlight how the issue affects not only artists but also curators, museums and art foundations, so much so that it has become the focus of several exhibitions.

The project aims to reconstruct this new exhibition scene and the context of these ones, through a critical and comparative analysis that will consider the various permanent products of these events: catalogues, archive documents, brochures, photographic and audiovisual evidences, as well as materials available on the internet. The questions which will guide the study are: how does the exhibition experience translate into a second level of representation? How these documents aid to understand the concepts conveyed by the exhibition? What impact these practices have on the climate change debate?

The first part of the research will be dedicated to explain the distinction between environmental art and art addressing the theme of climate change and to identificate the genealogy in order to trace the publishing and exhibition projects that started this trend. The second part will select and examine some case studies that deal directly and explicitly with the main theme. It will be studied for example the activity of TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary and - specifically - of the Ocean Space, a collaborative platform that promotes the application of visual arts for the oceans defense.

The research wants to suggest guidelines for cataloguing and rearranging datas, using a more flexible method of analysis that considered the complexity of the examinated contexts and practices, leaving beaing from the traditional parameters of art history studies. It also aims to investigate the creative contribution of exhibition projects and catalogues to scientific research, storytelling and awareness raising on environmental issues.