Pláka Platform

Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz is the Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the Botín Centre in Santander, and a member of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee. Between 2014 and 2021, she was a curator at the Wellcome Collection in London. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with renowned institutions such as the South London Gallery, the Freud Museum and the Royal Opera House, all in London, the Gropius Bau in Berlin, and the MAAS – Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences in Sydney. She edited the anthology HEALTH, which is part of the acclaimed Documents of Contemporary Art series published by MIT Press and the Whitechapel Gallery. She has also published work in Art Agenda, Afterall, Concreta, Gwangju Biennale, Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, MARG and Mousse. She holds a Master’s degree in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art in London and has taught at various London institutions, including Goldsmiths, the London College of Communication and Central Saint Martins.

Carla Nobre Sousa has been the co-artistic director of the Alkantara Cultural Association since 2018. She joined the organisation in 2016 as production coordinator for the Alkantara Festival, later taking on the role of programming advisor. From 2011 to 2015, she collaborated with the cultural association Materiais Diversos, where she was responsible for producing and disseminating projects internationally by artists including Tiago Guedes, Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, Marcelo Evelin, Filipa Francisco, Pablo Fidalgo Lareo, and Teresa Silva & Elizabete Francisca. She holds a Master’s degree in Performing Arts from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis (Erasmus Mundus programme) and a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Political Science from McGill University in Montreal.

Rita Barbosa is a director and visual artist who studied sound and image at the Catholic University of Porto, graduating with a degree in digital arts in 2002. She mainly works with filmed images, but has also collaborated on the creation, writing and visual design of theatre and performance projects. In her work, she deconstructs operational processes through interdisciplinary approaches, viewing art as an aesthetic game.

Ana Carvalho is the director of EDITORIA and a consultant to the Municipality of Braga on the Braga 2030 Strategy. She is also a PhD student in Cultural Policies at the University of Barcelona. From 2017 to 2019, she was the artistic director of the Gaia International Forum, which focuses on sustainability and climate change issues through reflection and programming. From September 2014 to 2019, she was the director of the Armazém 22 project. She has also worked as a consultant on cultural projects for CIM do Alto Minho. She has worked as a cultural manager in various entities in the sector since 1999. From July 2011 to July 2014, she was Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for the Arts (DGArtes), having previously directed the Agency for the Development of Creative Industries – ADDICT. In 2008, she was invited to coordinate European projects and relations with the European Commission within the scope of the Eixo Atlântico Alto Minho. In 2006, she was the scientific coordinator of the 1^(st) Postgraduate Course in Arts Marketing at the Portuguese Institute of Administration and Marketing (IPAM). She holds a Master’s degree in Arts Management from City, University of London; a degree in Economics from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto; and a postgraduate degree in Marketing Management from IPAM.

André Sousa lives and works in Porto and Frankfurt. After graduating in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Porto in 2003, he has exhibited his work in both national and international collective and solo exhibitions. These include ‘Saudade’ (2018, Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, China), ‘Sad Movie’ (2018, Kunsthalle Freeport, Bangkok, Thailand), ‘Parte-se a guita, perde-se a bala’ (2017, Galeria Múrias Centeno, Porto, Portugal), ‘Uma Coleção = Um Museu’ (2007–2017), ‘Obras da Coleção António Cachola’ (2017, MACE, Elvas, Portugal), ‘Matter Fictions’ (2016, Museu Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal) and ’12 Contemporâneos: Present States’ (2014, Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal), ‘EDP Award – New Artists 2007’ (2007, CACE Cultural, Porto, Portugal), and many more. Since 2008, he has been the co-coordinator of the Uma Certa Falta de Coerência (A Certain Lack of Coherence) project and artistic space in Porto.

Samuel Leuenberger is an independent curator. Based in Basel and Berlin, he has over 20 years’ experience in the visual arts. He founded and directs SALTS, a non-profit exhibition space in Birsfelden, Switzerland. Since 2016, he has been the curator of the Parcours section of Art Basel. He has collaborated with various institutions, exhibitions, and international programmes, including Centre Pasquart in Bienne (2018); Salon Suisse–Pro Helvetia in Venice (2017); Les Urbaines in Lausanne (2015); and 14 Rooms in Basel (2014). His previous roles include artistic consultant at Frahm Ltd in London, assistant curator at Kunsthalle Zurich, and specialist in post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s Auctioneers in Zurich. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Post-War and Contemporary Art from the Sotheby’s Institute in collaboration with the University of Manchester, and he currently teaches at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHDK) in Zurich. He is also a member of the Kunstkredit Basel committee (Switzerland’s oldest municipal arts council).