Staff
Founders
Perla Montelongo & Ignacio García Gómez del Valle
With the vision of artistic agents converging non-hierarchically, Node Center was jointly founded by Perla Montelongo and Ignacio Garcia to put into practice their belief on curatorship as a continuous training that constantly reviews the role of curators and their responsibilities, and the possibilities of experimentation, reflection and questioning of artistic practice.
Both graduates in the Fine Arts, with Master degrees in Curatorial Studies and Cultural Practices in Arts and New Media from the Media Centre d'Art & Design MECAD (Barcelona), Montelongo and Garcia's work have been exhibited widely across Europe, receiving several awards. Maintaining an interest in curatorial practice as a method through which artists can construct discourses, Garcia and Montelongo saw in curating a new mode of artistic operation that enables dialogues between artists.
Perla Montelongo started curating in 2005 and has developed curatorial projects for the Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca MACO (Mexico), Videt Festival (Barcelona) and the video art fair Loop-Barcelona, among others. Montelongo has lectured in the areas of Art Theory and Practice at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez UACJ (Mexico) and at the Escola Superior de Disseny ESDI (Barcelona). Prior to Node, Montelongo developed the online Art education program "Visions of Art", dedicated to the professionalization of emerging artists.
Ignacio Garcia began working in cultural management and curatorship while working towards his PhD in Fine Art at the University of Vigo (Spain), where he became the Cultural Manager at the Office of Cultural Activities in 2006. Between 2007 and 2010, Garcia was the Chief Curator at the AlterArte Gallery in Ourense, Spain.
In their growing interest in curatorial practices, and taking into account their experience in different branches of art practice - production, curation and art education, Montelongo and Garcia have decided to converge these lines through the creation of the Node Center for Curatorial Studies.
Coordinators
Lauren Reid
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Lauren Reid is an independent curator currently based in Berlin. She completed a Bachelor of Arts/Arts (Visual) at the Australian National University (2004), followed by Honours in Media Arts at Sydney College of the Arts (2005).
Lauren has gained experience working on diverse projects within Australia and internationally including a traveling exhibition inside a truck in Melbourne (Each atom of that stone, Mel O’Callaghan, 2010); a pop-up Gallery in Hong Kong (The Evo Project, Ben Quilty, 2011); and a series of sound interventions at Grantpirrie Gallery (Resonate).
In Sydney, Lauren held the position of Gallery Coordinator at Grantpirrie Gallery, one of Australia’s pre-eminent commercial spaces (2009-2011). During this time she organized over seventy exhibitions and programmed the Window space for 2011, a project space intended to act as a platform for the development and presentation of work by emerging and established artists.
Her most recent curatorial projects include Out of the black, opening January 2012 at REH-Kunst, Berlin; and Material Conversion (Grimmuseum 2011), an exhibition realized during a residency at Node Center for Curatorial Studies.
Laura d'Ors
Laura d'Ors (ES, 1973) graduated at AKI Academy of Fine Arts and Design (NL) in 2005. The focus of her artistic practice is within the photographic medium. She has exhibited in The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy and USA, and has lectured and given workshops in The Netherlands and Denmark. Besides her individual practice, Laura is part of the duo Atladóttir & d'Ors with Icelandic artist Dagmar Atladóttir. She is represented by Galerie 10 (NL) and Susanne Burmester Galerie (DE). Laura lives in Rotterdam and Berlin.
Assistant coordinator - Irati Irulegui
Born in San Sebastian (SP) in 1987 Irati Irulegui studied Art History in Universidad de Barcelona and graduated in 2010. After finishing her degree she moved in 2011 to Brighton (UK) to volunteer at Fabrica Gallery as a gallery assistant for the exhibitions “The Forty Part Motet” by Jannet Cardiff and “Cascade” by Stéphane Cauchy.
In 2010 and 2011 she worked as a representative at the Customer Service Point at San Sebastian International Film Festival (SP), where she had been jury member of the youth award in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
Irati Irulegui received the Leonardo da Vinci programme grant in 2012 to work as an assistant for 6 months abroad. Currently she is the assistant-coordinator at Node Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin (GER).
Director of graphic image - David Matos
David Matos is an independent designer with experience in several design fields and business contexts. He first graduates in Interior Design and works the following years for the midsize furniture industry in Portugal. After that he works as an Industrial Designer for Isao Hosoe Design Studio, in Milan, and in 2007 moves to Barcelona to undergo an MA Design for Interactive Media and fully immerse into Visuals, Graphic Design and Art Direction.
He worked for companies such as Inditex (fashion), Superleague Formula (motorsport) or Mille Plateaux (music), among many other small companies, startups and collaborations in experimental projects. He currently lives and works in (from) Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on the sunny Canary Islands.
behance.net/davidmatos
Intellectual Property Lecturer - Alan Cunningham
Alan Cunningham has a Ph.D. in Intellectual Property Law and Theory and has taught courses on Copyright and Intellectual Property at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and Queen Mary, University of London. He has participated with numerous artist run spaces in Berlin, most recently with ALTES FINANZAMT, specifically in relation to their project the Neukölln Acadamy Of Now!, for which he curated the event Art vs Law: An Inherent Conflict? He has particular interests in exploring the influence of the Romantic ideology on notions of artistic originality and attempts by both Law and Artistic practice to support or critique that influence. He is also interested in the ever changing role of the publicly funded gallery.
Art & Economy Lecturer - I-Wei Li
Born in Taiwan and brought up in Canada, my first degree in Commerce from Simon Fraser University led me to work as a banker in Kenya until 2002. After graduating from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2008 with a BA in Art (1st Class Hons), I moved to Berlin to establish SideBySide Studio, a multifunctional space for exhibitions, meetings, seminars, screenings and workshops.
As a curator and producer, I animate ongoing events such as Kunst Apotheke Salon, where intellectuals and artists are invited to share their critical reflections on current social changes. The Salon also serves as a pharmacy (Apotheke) for artists to receive constructive feedback on their work in progress. Known for its intimate and interdisciplinary exchanges, it is now a creative hub for many Berlin-based and international creative practitioners to test their visions.
As an artist, I work with experimental and documentary films, multi-media installations, and interactive performances. As a researcher, I focus on sustainable strategies for creative practices in an international context.
As a workshop facilitator, I give great importance to conditions for innovation and the need for collective intelligence. For me, the real crisis we face today is not only climate change or the financial crunch, it is our inability and reluctance to think and work together in a complex and ever-changing world.
Fundraising Lecturer - Luminita Ratiu
Luminita Ratiu has graduated with a Bachelor of Sociology at University of Bucharest, Romania, and has worked, for more than 10 years in the non-profit sector, focusing most recently on fundraising for art projects before moving to Berlin in 2011. She is an experienced grant writer working with major institutional donors, and developer of innovative international projects. Her experience is reflected in her ability to write grant proposals for various projects, for which she has been entrusted with more than 1 million euro.
Art Management Advisor - Berta Diez Folgar
Berta Diez graduated in Art History from the University of Santiago de Compostela USC in 2005, with specializations in Modern and Contemporary Art, and Heritage. Currently, she is pursuing a doctorate degree from USC, and her research is focused on the relationship between art, new media and public / society. Diez leads the cultural management for numerous international exhibitions, festivals and events, and is responsible for the production tasks and management at Hannah Collins Studio, Barcelona.
