Mélanie Bouteloup

Since 2021, Mélanie Bouteloup has been responsible for exhibitions and co-directs a curatorial programme at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. A Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, she co-founded and then directed Bétonsalon - Centre d'art et de recherche and the Villa Vassilieff (2003 - 2020), both cultural establishments of the City of Paris and centres for contemporary art of national interest accredited by the Ministry of Culture. In 2012, she was associate curator with artistic director Okwui Enwezor of La Triennale in Paris. In 2021, she was curatorial advisor to Jacob Fabricius at the Busan Biennale (South Korea).

Autohistorias, nepantla and radical utopias

Gloria Anzaldua coined the term « autohistorias » to define an empowering mode of writing, one that is based on expressing one’s multiplicity, one’s chaos, one’s vulnerability through poetic means, without seeking any form of linearity and homogenity. It is connected to the náhuatl notion of « nepantla » : a space of transition, between what is and what will be, in which the subject destabilises borders and binary representations, while multiplying connections. My curatorial practice is envisaged as a place where radical utopias inspired by these concepts can take form. How can institutions invent forms of engagement that reflect our personal experiences, so as to share diverse, intimate, and sensitive stories ?