Community Engagement on Marcela Villanueva

Bardo 2026 — Artistic Direction & Programme Development

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Artistic direction of Bardo Projektraum’s 2026 programme, developed within the space’s two-year Basisförderung 2026–2027 from the Berlin Senate. Marcela Villanueva shaped the overall programme, selected and accompanied curatorial proposals, coordinated artistic and institutional partnerships, and ensured coherence across exhibitions, residencies and public programmes developed by invited curators and artists. The year brought together projects including Dreams That Wake, Topographies of Memory, PINOCENO, Archivum Naturae, But Call Me Lolita, Unhousing: An Enclave for Queer Utopia, LAR, Miradas a Chile and Making Places Inbetween, addressing migration, memory, ecology, queer futures, belonging, displacement and diasporic experience. The programme positioned Bardo as a platform for migrant, feminist, queer and Global South artistic practices in Berlin.

SIESTA / Ruhezeit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A transnational curatorial project developed from SIESTA, an installation by Ravenna/Borchardt (Mariano Ravenna and Mara Borchardt) documenting moments of rest among construction workers. After presentations in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, Marcela Villanueva curated its Berlin chapter as Ruhezeit at Bardo Projektraum, expanding the work into a site-specific exhibition and public programme around labour, exhaustion, care and the politics of rest. At its centre, the Siestario transformed the visual language of a construction site into a temporary refuge for pausing, listening and collective reflection. Through local collaborations, mediation and conversations around workers’ rights, gender and queer participation in the construction sector, the Berlin edition reframed rest as both a social right and a political gesture within cities organised around productivity

Territorial Bodies

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Collective exhibition treating the body as a landscape shaped by movement, displacement, histories of violence and practices of reclamation.

ABC Kultur → ABC Incuba

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A long-term professional development and cultural incubation programme created and directed by Marcela Villanueva through Sorora e.V. to support transnational FLINTA artists and cultural workers in Berlin. Initially developed as ABC Kultur, the programme provided practical orientation on cultural management, funding, self-employment, language and professional networks. It later evolved into ABC Incuba, a six-month incubation model that combines direct project funding, weekly mentoring, specialised workshops, peer exchange and public presentations, supporting participants from early concept development through production and implementation. Each selected project receives €2,000 and ongoing accompaniment, while many workshops remain open to the wider community. ABC has become a sustained access structure for migrant cultural practitioners navigating Berlin’s cultural ecosystem, helping them build projects, networks and greater professional autonomy.

Bardo Projektraum

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

An independent contemporary art space and cultural hub in Berlin-Friedrichshain, founded and artistically directed by Marcela Villanueva as the central physical platform of Karne Kunst’s curatorial ecosystem. Bardo supports Latin American, Caribbean and diasporic artistic practices in Berlin while creating sustained space for migrant, feminist, queer and historically underrepresented positions. Its programme combines exhibitions, curatorial residencies, artistic research, performances, screenings, workshops, talks, publications and public programmes, bringing artists, curators, researchers and local communities into close exchange. Beyond presenting finished work, Bardo functions as a site for experimentation, professional development and long-term project development, supporting both Marcela’s own curatorial practice and projects led by invited curators. Since 2026, the space has been supported through Berlin’s two-year Basisförderung für Präsentationsorte, consolidating its role within the city’s independent art ecosystem.

NEST — Maternar en Residencia / Resistencia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A long-term residency and artistic development programme created by Marcela Villanueva to rethink the conditions of cultural production for artists who mother. Since 2022, NEST has developed residential, exhibition and research formats in Coswig, Berlin and Colombia, integrating children, care, collective living and artistic practice rather than treating caregiving as an obstacle to professional development. Across its editions, the programme has brought together more than thirty artists and cultural practitioners and generated exhibitions including Parallel Maternal and Care and Revelations, as well as longer-term projects such as Gabriela Rivera Lucero’s Maternajes Transfronterizos. Developed through Karne Kunst with Sorora e.V. and a growing network of artists, curators and cultural partners, NEST positions care as both cultural infrastructure and a field of artistic research

Nosotras Luchamos / Wir kämpfen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A transnational feminist artivism platform initiated in Berlin in 2018 by Karne Kunst and Xochicuicatl. Bringing together material from around fifty Latin American feminist collectives, the project connected photography, video, graphic work, zines, textiles and documentation of public actions addressing feminicide, gender violence, inequality, bodily autonomy and collective resistance. Developed through exhibitions, workshops, public encounters and institutional collaborations, the project was repeatedly reactivated across community, cultural and academic contexts. In 2022, 105 photographs and related materials were recontextualised at Universität Heidelberg as Reclaiming the Body: Feminism, Community, and Territory, contributing to the research and discussions that later developed into the academic journal issue MIRADAS 08 (2025) on feminist artivism and decolonial feminism in Latin America.

Karne Kunst

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karne Kunst is a Berlin-based cultural platform founded in 2017, working across curatorial practice, programme development and cultural infrastructure. Rooted in Latin American, Caribbean and diasporic communities, it develops exhibitions, residencies, festivals, public programmes, professional development initiatives and opportunities for artists and cultural workers. Through projects in Berlin and across Germany, as well as transnational collaborations, Karne Kunst creates spaces for migrant, feminist, FLINTA and historically underrepresented practices while building networks, resources and long-term structures that support cultural production and participation.

A Constant State of Becoming

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Group exhibition curated by Marcela Villanueva bringing together six Argentine artists based in Berlin — Delfina Carmona, Jasmine Bakalarz, Julieta Pestarino, Justina Leston, Lucía Szych and Martina Zamudio — to explore migration as an ongoing process of transformation rather than a fixed condition. Through photography, video, installation, sound and experimental practices, the exhibition examined fragmented identities, memory, language, motherhood, dislocation and the unstable experience of belonging between places. Developed within an existing diasporic network, the curatorial approach foregrounded the ways migrant artists rebuild both personal narratives and forms of community in Berlin, positioning the exhibition as a space where individual experiences of displacement could be read in relation to one another.

Bardo Curatorial Residency

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A curatorial development programme created at Bardo Projektraum to support emerging and mid-career curators working across migrant, queer, decolonial and intersectional perspectives. The residency combines mentorship, workspace, research time, studio and institutional visits, professional networking, public presentations and production support, allowing participants to develop projects in direct dialogue with Berlin’s independent art ecosystem. Longer residencies can culminate in an exhibition at Bardo, while shorter formats include talks, workshops and other public activations. Priority has been given to FLINTA curators and practitioners from the Global South, positioning the programme as a platform for curatorial development, international exchange and access to networks that are often difficult to enter from outside Berlin.

Resonance Residency

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A two-month European music residency created and directed by Marcela Villanueva for FLINTA musicians with migrant backgrounds living across Europe. Funded through LiveMX and co-funded by the European Union, the programme was hosted at Projektraum Coswig and combined accommodation, travel support, mentoring, professional workshops, collaborative sessions, paid public performances in Coswig and Berlin, and professional studio recording. Designed to address structural barriers faced by underrepresented musicians, Resonance provided participants with time, space, resources and industry connections to develop new work, strengthen their professional practice and expand their visibility within the European music scene.

Uprootings and Reconnections

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A group exhibition curated by Marcela Villanueva and Irene Sánchez at Bardo Projektraum, bringing together Bárbara A. Bielitz, Carla Abiles, Zahra Luengo, Lena Becerra and María Ferrer around experiences of migration, displacement, belonging and the reconstruction of identity. Rather than approaching migration as a single narrative, the curatorial framework connected different material and embodied practices—from installation, embroidery and light-based work to video and performance—to examine how memory, labour, gender, ecology and personal histories are transformed through displacement. The exhibition extended into a public programme of artist talks, performances, activations and workshops, with contributions including Luján Cordaro and direct activations by the exhibiting artists, turning the exhibition into an ongoing space for dialogue around diasporic experience and new forms of connection in Berlin.

Art is Urgent — Emergency Residencies for Ukrainian Artists

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Art is Urgent was an emergency residency programme developed in 2022 in response to the displacement of artists and families following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The first residency was initiated and self-managed by Karne Kunst, rapidly transforming Projektraum Coswig into a safe living and working environment offering free accommodation, workspace and community support to Ukrainian artists and their families. A second residency was later developed with support from the Culture of Solidarity Fund – Ukraine Special Edition, expanding the model through basic living support, artistic production, mentoring and professional networking. Marcela Villanueva led the project management, programme development and fundraising. The residencies resulted in the exhibitions No Words for War and Ukrainian Glances, both curated by Villanueva, with No Words for War later expanding at CLB Berlin into a public programme around artistic mobility, cultural funding, displacement and arrival in Germany.The residency supported Ukrainian artists Elina Bilous, Iryna Daragan-Bogodist, Lidiia Moroz, Natalie Golubenko, Svitlana Galdetska and Vladyslava Kriuk, alongside artist-researcher Samantha Justine Domingo. Their work developed into No Words for War, curated by Marcela Villanueva and first presented at Projektraum Coswig before travelling to CLB Berlin. The Berlin presentation expanded the exhibition into a week-long programme addressing artistic mobility, access to cultural funding, crisis and displacement, and the experiences of newly arrived artists, in collaboration with organisations and cultural workers including Touring Artists, LAK Berlin and Berlin Artists Connected.

Projektraum Coswig

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A rural centre for artistic creation and residencies in Coswig (Anhalt), Sachsen-Anhalt, created by Marcela Villanueva in collaboration with Lucas Dima as part of Karne Kunst’s cultural infrastructure. Located between Dessau and Wittenberg, the 330 m² live-work space provides accommodation, studios, shared working areas and outdoor space for national and international artists, curators and researchers. Conceived as a bridge between metropolitan and rural cultural contexts, Projektraum Coswig supports long-term artistic processes, experimentation and community exchange, with a particular focus on migrant, FLINTA, feminist and socially engaged practices. It has hosted and developed residency programmes including Art is Urgent, NEST, FlussLab and Resonance, combining artistic production with care, ecology, professional development and international exchange

Maternar en Cuarentena

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A collaborative artistic laboratory and development process initiated by Karne Kunst during the COVID-19 crisis, bringing together artist-mothers Alma Rayén Molina Carvajal, Ana Kavalis, Ana Sofía Hernández, Bárbara E. Bielitz, Glenda Rosero, Jazmín Ra, Kari Paredes, Patricia Jurado, Senoritaugarte and Soledad Ramírez. Through collective exchange, artistic experimentation and ongoing support, the project explored motherhood as a lived, political and creative condition, addressing care, domestic labour, isolation, family lineage, exhaustion, support networks and resistance. Karne Kunst The process extended beyond its initial virtual laboratory and exhibition, supporting works that continued to develop in other contexts. Jazmín Ra’s Amanece en Chile: La esperanza no ha sido robada was later presented at Performing Arts Festival Berlin in 202. Bárbara E. Bielitz’s Banquete del día de la madre, originally developed through Maternar en Cuarentena, was later activated at Bardo Projektraum within Uprootings and Reconnections in 2024.

Vierte Welle Film Festival

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

International feminist film festival launched in Berlin in 2019, combining screenings, workshops and discussions and adapting through in-person, online and hybrid editions.

Señores, esto es una teta / Gentlemen, This Is a Breast

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A collective exhibition of emerging Latin American women photographers examining the female body as a site of autonomy, censorship, violence, desire and political struggle. Through portraiture and self-representation, the participating artists challenged socially imposed ideas of femininity, beauty and gender while proposing new ways of inhabiting and representing the body. Presented within Monat der Fotografie OFF Berlin, the exhibition extended into a multilingual public programme of talks and workshops in German, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Sorora e.V.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A feminist cultural organisation co-founded by Marcela Villanueva in Berlin to develop programmes, resources and professional opportunities for FLINTA artists and cultural workers, particularly those with migrant and transnational backgrounds. Through Sorora, Villanueva has worked on the conception, funding and implementation of long-term initiatives including Vierte Welle, ABC Kultur / ABC Incuba and Resonance Residency, combining programme design, mentoring, cultural management and community-building. Sorora represents a key strand of her practice focused on building organisational structures that enable underrepresented cultural practitioners to access networks, develop projects and sustain their work.

Archivo Madre

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Created by Marcela Villanueva as a long-term artistic development programme for Latin American migrant artists who mother, Archivo Madre was funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste and developed in collaboration with Lola Arias Company and Karne Kunst. Under the artistic mentorship of Lola Arias, participants Jasmine Bakalarz, Laura Jiménez, Anna Mariscal, Nicol Rivera Aro, Laura Santos and Citlali Huezo developed personal archives around motherhood, migration and feminism into lecture-performances. The programme combined collective workshops, individual mentoring, an intensive development phase and childcare support, culminating in public presentations at Studio Я, Maxim Gorki Theater, within Gorki en Español. Belén Marinato led production for Karne Kunst, with dramaturgy and production by Laura Cecilia Nicolás / Lola Arias Company

Flame Zine

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A transfeminist independent publishing platform developed by Karne Kunst and Sorora e.V. from 2020, creating space for artistic and written practices often underrepresented in mainstream cultural publishing. Through thematic collective issues and artist-focused editions, Flame Zine brought together illustration, photography, comics, poetry, essays, performance, video and experimental writing, with particular attention to migrant, Black, Indigenous, queer, trans, non-binary and disabled perspectives. Editorial and artistic direction was initially led by María Victoria Rodríguez, later joined by Carla Abilés. Contributors across its editions included Titihoon, Martina Haro, Dyuti Mittal, Agustina Garro, Candela Medina, Esdian, Alicia Morán, Cynthia Gabbay, Laura Sussini, Rocío Genovese, Camila Camélia, Larissa Merzthal and others. Editions such as Cuerpx / Body, Magic, Deseo—developed in collaboration with Berlin-based poetry platform Pasajero del Muro—and Diverse expanded the project into a sustained space for self-publishing, artistic exchange and intersectional transfeminist expression.

Mujeres ilustradoras en pequeño formato / Latin American Illustrators in Small Formats

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A two-edition collective exhibition bringing together Latin American and Ibero-American women illustrators working in A4 format. Conceived as a compact and easily transportable exhibition model, the project explored diverse representations of femininity while enabling the work to circulate internationally. The exhibition was presented twice in Berlin and later travelled to Russia, Latvia and Armenia, expanding the visibility of participating artists across different cultural contexts.