Olivia Abando

Olivia Abando is engaged in the arts for her passion to collaborate. She understands her practice as a window into many worlds, a bridge to exchange knowledge which provides infinite paths of collaboration to explore. She prioritises giving voice and collective exchange as methods of amplifying and considering narratives otherwise ignored. She commits to considering notions of belonging, ownership and exchange as ways to produce continually reflexive work.

Viewing curation as collaboration which she views also as inherently linked to the marriage between research and practice, she advocates for a process of extended engagement through constantly rethinking and actively questioning with a considered pace.

Her interests span socio political engagement, networks of knowledge production and embracing the conflicts and imperfections within contemporary art practice to foster a more reflexive, open and mutable working environment.

In her graduate dissertation ‘Agonism as Activism in Practice: Personal Quandaries on the Curatorial’ she explored how actively questioning and embracing conflict in practice can be used as a tool for curatorial activism.

In her graduate project in partnership with Camden Art Centre, In the meantime..., she implemented her interests in socio-political engagements and collaborative exchange to produce a project situated in the hyper locality of the redeveloping area of Somers Town, Camden.

In the meantime... platformed Somers Town narratives and gave voice to its local residents whilst also connecting these narratives to wider lived experiences for the audience to engage with.

Olivia believes that in the contemporary nothing is truly new but instead what is inherent to the contemporary is actively questioning and rethinking existing ideas and narratives. She hopes that her practice will continue to enquire into notions that feel urgent and is open to the fluidity of curatorial practice, committing to no set form but instead an overarching urge to be continually and actively engaged.