18/6/2020 Queer Art Workers Reflect: Tatiana Muñoz Brenes Is Done With “Non-political Curatorship”

FEATURES

Queer Art Workers Re ect: Tatiana Muñoz

Brenes Is Done With “Non-political
Curatorship”
LGBTQ Pride month is now. Every day in June, we are
celebrating the community by featuring one queer art worker
and asking them to re ect on what this moment means to
them.
Dessane Lopez Cassell June 16, 2020

The month of June is a time to celebrate

LGBTQ communities. It’s a moment to
reflect on the rich history and culture of
the queer community, as well as more
recent advances made in the realm of civil
liberties. This year, as the COVID-19
pandemic continues, many queer
individuals are navigating greater risks to
their health, safety, and livelihoods.

Cognizant of the need to stay connected

and elevate queer voices amid uncertainty,
Hyperallergic is commemorating Pride

https://hyperallergic.com/571184/tatiana-munoz-brenes-done-with-non-political-curatorship/ 1/5
18/6/2020 Queer Art Workers Reflect: Tatiana Muñoz Brenes Is Done With “Non-political Curatorship”

Curator Tatiana Muñoz Brenes (all images

Month by featuring one queer art worker
courtesy of Tatiana Muñoz Brenes)
per day on our website and asking them to
reflect on what this time means to them. If
you identify as a queer art worker, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to learn more
about how to participate.

***

What’s your name?

Tatiana Muñoz Brenes

Where are you based currently?

Costa Rica

Describe who you are and what you do.

I am an art historian and a psychologist. I am a curator at the Museum of Identity

and Pride, or MIO (for its initials in Spanish, which is really a queer pun: when
you say it, you are saying “MY Museum,” because we want everyone to feel this as
a secure space for their own). It’s the first museum space in Costa Rica and
Central America with a LGBTQI+ theme. We seek to collect the history and
memory of the queer community in our country, and we are actually living a
historical moment right now: last month, [Costa Rica] legalized the same sex
marriage, becoming the 29th country in the world to take this step. We hope this
achievement will be embraced across the region… and become an example to the
world!

Curator Tatiana Muñoz Brenes stands in

front of a Pride exhibition in 2019

https://hyperallergic.com/571184/tatiana-munoz-brenes-done-with-non-political-curatorship/ 2/5
18/6/2020 Queer Art Workers Reflect: Tatiana Muñoz Brenes Is Done With “Non-political Curatorship”

parties, activist groups, and other museums and associations. In research I’m
conducting in this moment, it looks like there are around 100 collectives for the
queer cause around the country.

How are you celebrating Pride Month this time around?

I want to celebrate with my queer friends on a virtual platform (which is a

shame), wear my flag’s colors, and have a bottle of wine with my cats by my side.
Although we won’t have the happy parade we are used to this year, I think Pride in
2020 is making us think beyond our local bubble, and instead [many] are receiving
a call to be more introspective and socially aware at the same time. We must be
thankful for the lessons this crisis is giving us — the virus and the anti-racist
[uprisings] that are moving our planet — and for the opportunity that all of this is
giving us to construct a “new normal.” So, politically speaking, Pride in 2020 is
[especially] relevant for an intersectional activism.

Are there ways you think queer

artists and art workers could be
better supported?

I think we can always be better

supported. Despite the fact that the
cultural sector in Costa Rica is one of
those that make us most visible, much
funds are needed, as well as curatorial
research and new artistic exhibitions.

In the communities that you’re part

The staff of the Museum of Identity and
Pride of, what are you hoping to see shift in
the future?

I want the younger generations to grow up in Costa Rica (and around the world)
with a naturalized mind towards the LGBTIQ + community. Ideally, I would like
the more conservative sectors (the church, certain political parties, and boomers)
to accept us and live in a society of love, not hate.

What’s the first thing you’re planning to do when it feels safer to physically
gather again?

Go swimming again

https://hyperallergic.com/571184/tatiana-munoz-brenes-done-with-non-political-curatorship/ 4/5
18/6/2020 Queer Art Workers Reflect: Tatiana Muñoz Brenes Is Done With “Non-political Curatorship”

Enjoying this series? Check out other entries here.

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

https://hyperallergic.com/571184/tatiana-munoz-brenes-done-with-non-political-curatorship/ 5/5
18/6/2020 Queer Art Workers Reflect: Tatiana Muñoz Brenes Is Done With “Non-political Curatorship”

Tell us about your greatest achievement or something you’ve done lately that
you’re proud of.

I am deeply proud to be an activist fighting for the LGBTQI + community and [to
have fought for] the legalization of same sex marriage — more than an
achievement, it is a historical landmark in my country.

Favorite ways to celebrate your queerness and community?

I love using the colors of the rainbow or the bisexual flag, and having objects that
identify us as a group. I like to celebrate with joy, a parade, a beer…

What’s been top of mind for you lately?

What I can’t get out of my head lately is the new role museums and art workers
[stand to play] in the upcoming times. I’m really done with the “neutral museum”
and the “non-political curatorship” pretending in some institutions. As a woman,
as a Latina, as a bisexual, I’m concerned about equality, diversity, respect,
decolonization, human rights, and happiness. We need artists, curators,
researchers, etc., to be critical and to take an ethical and political clear position if
we want to be a valid sector with a voice in these new times. Cultural spaces must
generate dialogue and questioning, instead of being just white cubes.

Museo MIO

Talk to us about your immediate queer community/support systems. (Feel

free to shout out other folks or organizations you think are doing important
work.)

The queer community in Costa Rica is increasingly united and has more
representation in cultural spaces and politics. As a museum, we are able to form
alliances with diverse non-governmental organizations, pro-diversity political

https://hyperallergic.com/571184/tatiana-munoz-brenes-done-with-non-political-curatorship/ 3/5