Agenda

ART ECOLOGIES series

8 October 2026
Aula Baratto, 10:00-11:30

The Battleground of Art: Practices of Cooperation, Solidarity, and Resistance

Introduction:
Cristina Baldacci (DFBC and NICHE, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Presentation:
Marco Baravalle (Sale Docks, Institute of Radical Imagination, NABA)

Discussants:
TJ Demos (University of California, Santa Cruz, and NICHE) and Matteo Pasquinelli (DFBC, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Abstract

The discussion takes as its starting point Marco Baravalle’s new book “The Battleground of Art. Radical Curating in The Crisis of Neoliberalism” (Verso, 2026). The author shows how artists across the Global South and North are building alter-institutions – autonomous, collective infrastructures that challenge both state and market control. Drawing on operaismo, decolonial theory, and two decades of radical curating, Baravalle outlines an artistic practice grounded in cooperation, solidarity, and resistance.

Bio

Marco Baravalle is a researcher, curator, and activist. He is the author of “The Battleground of Art: Radical Curating in the Crisis of Neoliberalism” (Verso, 2026). He is a member of Sale Docks, an activist collective and space for the arts in Venice. He is co-founder of the Institute of Radical Imagination (IRI), an international project bringing together activists, artists, curators, and researchers working at the intersection of art and the commons. He has published a monograph in Italian, “L'autunno caldo del curatore. Arte, neoliberismo, pandemia” (Marsilio, 2021). He has co-edited two collective volumes: “Art For UBI (Manifesto)” (Bruno, 2022) and “Art For Radical Ecologies (Manifesto)” (Bruno, 2024). He has curated dozens of exhibitions and projects with both well-known and lesser-known artists.

Image Courtesy: Biennalocene