”La Caixa” Foundation's Sala Montcada is embarking upon a new cycle of artistic projects, faithful to the avant-garde, experimental spirit that has guided its programming from the outset. If up to now it has worked as a training and dissemination platform for emerging curators who designed the programming for an entire season, as of this year each exhibition will be conceived as a laboratory for dialogue between artist, spectator, curator and the space itself. It is an attempt to turn the hall into a cultural, social, political and aesthetically permeable space where the absence of hierarchy between curator, artist and visitor facilitates a creative, fluid and productive dialogue. The season will be made up of four exhibitions, each with a different curator (one Spaniard and three from outside Spain), who will invite a Spanish and another foreign artist to carry out a common project, specifically suited to the space. This carries a two-fold objective: first, to open the hall to curators from different cultural, social and political backgrounds whose proposals can enrich the exchange laboratory into which we aim to convert the Montcada, and second, to establish a meeting platform for domestic and international curators and artists that promotes reciprocity and a mutual knowledge of each other. At the end of each season, ”la Caixa” Foundation will publish a catalogue featuring texts, reference works, pictures and all of the activities or discussions held in relation with them.14 October to 7 December, 2003Montse Romaní (curator) / Ursula Biemann and María Ruido (artists)18 December, 2003 to 22 February, 2004Moritz Kung (curator) / Lara Almarcegui and Adrian Schiess (artists)4 March to 9 May, 2004José Roca (curator) / José Alejandro Restrepo and Juan Luis Moraza (artists)18 May to 25 July, 2004Teresa Macrí (curator) / Cuco Suárez and Sislej Xhafa (artists)TOTAL WORK 14 October to 7 December, 2003Curator Montse RomaníArtists Ursula Biemann and María Ruido MONTSE ROMANÍ (Lloret de Mar,1968. Lives and works in Barcelona)Since 1992, Romaní has worked in the field of cultural management on various independent and institutional projects. Most recently she has worked as an independent curator, taking as the focal point of her research the connections between artistic practice, urban transformations and political theory. Among her most notable projects: Non Place Urban Realm, South London Gallery, London (1999); Imaginando Identidades (Imagining Identities), Espai 22a, Barcelona (2000); Memòria Urbana i Espectacle (Urban Memory and Spectacle), Espais Foundation, Girona (2002); Benvingut a Banyoles (Welcome to Banyoles), El Tint Municipal Exhibition Hall, Banyoles (2002); Just do it! Gènere, performativitat i narratives del treball (Gender, "performativity" and stories on work), with María Ruido and Virgínia Villaplana, 11th Women's International Film Festival, Barcelona (2003). MARÍA RUIDO (Ourense, 1967. Lives and works in Barcelona)Artist, writer and cultural producer, Ruido has been carrying out various interdisciplinary projects on the social elaboration of the body and identity/ies, as well as the forms of work, and the construction of collective and personal memory, mainly using video, photography and writing since 1995. She has shot and produced the following videos: Hansel and Gretel, Cronología, La voz humana (Chronology, The Human Voice), A Sereíña (To Sereíña), (1997); Ethics of the care (1999); New flesh (2001); La memoria interior (Interior memory), (2002). URSULA BIEMANN (Zurich, 1955. Lives and works in Zurich) Her work and activity as curator are grounded in facets of gender and globalisation in areas such as emigration, free trade zones, virtual communication and borders. Her most significant videos are: Performing the border (1999), on the importance of gender in the digital industry; Writing Desire (2002), on feminine sexuality and the Internet marriage market; Remote Sensing (2001), a topography of the international sex trade. The project Geography and the Politics of Mobility for the Generali Foundation (Vienna, 2003) is her most recent curating work. Title missing18 December, 2003 to 22 February, 2004Curator Moritz KüngArtists Lara Almarcegui and Adrian Schiess MORITZ KÜNG (Lucerne, Switzerland, 1961, lives in Brussels)Studied architectural design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam). Küng directed the architectural centre Architekturforum of Zurich and worked at the National Contemporary Art Centre (Grenoble). In 1992 he began work as an independent curator. Starting in 2003, Küng took charge of the exhibition department of the deSingel international art centre (Antwerp). He recently curated Orbis Terrarum ways of world making / cartography and contemporary art for Antwerp's Plantin-Moretus Museum (2000), The Larson Effect progressive feedbacks in contemporary art for the OK-Linz and Casino Luxembourg centres (2002), Lost Past 2002-1914 memorial signs for the present in the city of Ypres, Belgium (2002), and the Belgian participation in the 25th São Paulo Biennial (2002). LARA ALMARCEGUI (Zaragoza, Spain, 1972) Studied in the Cuenca Faculty of Fine Arts and in the Atelier 63 of Amsterdam. Her current activity: travel. Her projects have been presented at various centres, such as the Stedelijk Museum Bureau of Amsterdam, Witte de With in Rotterdam, Etablissement d'en Face in Brussels (featuring publication of a catalogue), the Marta Cervera Gallery in Madrid, the Ray Gun Gallery of Valencia, the Clock Tower Gallery of New York, the Pontevedra Biennial (with catalogue publication) and the Santa Mònica Art Centre of Barcelona. Her most recent exhibition was held at the Index, Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm.ADRIAN SCHIESS (Zurich, Switzerland, 1959, lives in Mouans-Sartoux, France) Schiess studied graphic design at the Zurich Faculty of Fine Arts. His work has been exhibited in a wide array of individual exhibitions in ARC / Modern Art Museum of Paris, the Kunsthalle of Zurich (with publication of a catalogue), the Kunsthalle of New York, the Susanna Kulli gallery of St. Gallen (with publication of a catalogue), the Nächst St. Stephan Gallery of Vienna, the Domaine de Kerguéhennec Contemporary Art Centre in Bignan (France), the Kunsthaus of Bregenz (with publication of a catalogue), Chicago's Renaissance Society and the Villa Arson of Nice. The most recent showing of his work was presented at the Ghislaine Hussenot Gallery of Paris.Political Botany4 March to 9 May, 2004Curator José RocaArtists José Alejandro Restrepo and Juan Luis Moraza JOSÉ ROCA (Barranquilla, Colombia, 1962, lives and works in Bogotá) Director of Temporary Exhibitions and Museology at the Luis Ángel Arango Library (Bogotá). He conducted the Independent Studies Programme of the Whitney Museum (New York). In 2002, Roca won the ICA Whitney Lauder Curatorial Fellowship of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). Among his most recent projects are: Carlos Garaicoa: La Ruina; La Utopía (Ruin; Utopia) (Bronx Museum, New York); Define "Context" (APEX art C.P., New York); TransHistorias: historia y mito en la obra de José Alejandro Restrepo (History and Myth in the work of José Alejandro Restrepo) (Luis Angel Arango Library, Bogotá); and Traces of Friday: art, tourism, displacement (ICA, Philadelphia). He publishes Columna de Arena, a biweekly contemporary art and culture critique on the Internet.JOSÉ ALEJANDRO RESTREPO (Paris, 1959, lives and works in Bogotá) Restrepo studied Fine Arts at the National University (Bogotá), and from 1982 to 1985 at the School of Fine Arts (Paris). Restrepo is considered one of the pioneers of video-art in Colombia. He regularly exhibits in Europe, Latin America and the United States. Among his most important individual exhibits are TransHistorias: mito y memoria en la obra de José Alejandro Restrepo (History and Myth in the work of José Alejandro Restrepo), Luis Angel Arango Library, Bogotá (2001); Anaconda, Aphone/l'Usine, Geneva (1992); Grabar (Recording), Modern Art Museum of Bogotá (1986). He has participated in multiple international group exhibitions, and received several awards such as the First Prize in the Art Biennial (Bogotá, 1995). JUAN LUIS MORAZA (Vitoria, Spain, 1960, lives and works in Madrid) With a doctorate in Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country, he is a full professor of sculpture at the University of Vigo. Moraza has held individual exhibitions and participated in collective showings since 1980. Among his individual exhibitions, especially noteworthy are PLATA (SILVER) (America House, Madrid, 2003) INTERPASIVIDAD (INTERPASSIVITY), (Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastian, 1999), ANESTETICAS. Algologos (ANAESTHETICS. Algologues). (Andalusian Modern Art Centre, Seville, 1998), Éxtasis, estatus, estatua (Ecstasy, status, statue), (Pablo Gargallo Museum. Zaragoza, 1995), Ornamento y ley (Ornament and Law) (Sala América. Vitoria, 1994). Moraza has published the books MA(non É)DONNA, Imágenes de creación, Procreación y anticoncepción (1993) and Seis sexos de la diferencia (1990). Total fear18 May to 25 July, 2004Curator Teresa MacríArtists Cuco Suárez and Sislej Xhafa TERESA MACRÍ (1960, Catanzaro, lives and works in Rome)Independent critic and curator. Among the exhibitions that she has curated are: Carlos Garaicoa (Rome, 2003), Zineb Sedira (Rome, 2003), publication of Fuori Uso (Pescara 2003 and 2002), Mexico Attacks! (Lucca, 2002), Matilde Marín (Buenos Aires, 2002), Sincretismi (Rome, 2001), Zwelethu Methetwa (Rome, 2000), Young Artsits of the Mediterranean Biennial (Rome, 1999), Festival Atlántico (Lisbon, 1998). She has published the books Posctulture (Meltemi, 2002), Cinemacchine del desiderio (Costa & Nolan, 1998), Metamorfosi do sentir (Assirio y Alvim, 1998) and Il Corpo Postorganico (Costa & Nolan, 1996). She is a contemporary art history lecturer at La Sapienza University (Rome). She writes for the Il Manifesto newspaper.CUCO SUÁREZ (1961, Pola de Laviana, Asturias, lives and works in Oviedo) Performer and multimedia artist, Suarez's projects have to do with the radical nature of corporal experience portrayed through performance, and with social themes, especially conditions of marginalisation and exploration of being in the age of globalisation. Individual exhibitions: Ministerio y Evolución (Ministry and Evolution) (Telefónica Foundation, Madrid, 2002), Pasión por Luis Bunuel (Passion for Luis Bunuel) (3rd Ciudad de Segovia Performance Festival, 2000), Autodestrucción+Zem (Self-destruction + Zen) (Dasto Gallery, Oviedo, 2000), Nine Dragon's Heart (International Art Symposium, Kong-Yu, Korea, 1998). Group Exhibitions: PRONOSTICA (Contemporary Art Museum of Ibiza, 2003) Observatori (Observatory) (Valencia, 2003), Artists Collection at ARCO (Fine Arts Museum of Asturias, 2001). Scholarship: Marcelino Botín Foundation, Santander. SISLEJ XHAFA (1970, Peja, Kosovo, lives and works in New York)A polyhedric artist, Xhafa uses action, installation, video, photography, drawing and sculpture. The world of immigration, present conflicts and dreams are at the centre of Xhafa's work. Individual exhibitions: Twice Upon a Time (Rome, 2003), Death Project (New York, 2002) Alì Amadou (Teseco Foundation, Pisa, 2002) Collective exhibitions: Tirana Biennal (Biennial Tirana) (Tirana, 2003), Fuori Uso (Pescara, 2003), Museum of Contemporary Art of Haifa (Israel, 2003), Hardcore (Palays de Tokyo, París, 2003), Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, Korea, 2002), Istambul Biennial (Istambul, 2001), Manifesta III (Lijubliana, Slovenia, 2000). Award: Furla per l'Arte Award. www.fundacio.lacaixa.es