Fundación La Laboral selects Óscar Abril Ascaso as Director of Activities
The Selection Committee has valued his proven experience as curator and cultural producer specialising in the context of techno-scientific culture and new socio-cultural models
Óscar Abril Ascaso
The Fundación La Laboral has selected Óscar Abril Ascaso as the new Director of Activities of the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial de Gijón, following the proposal by the Selection Committee, integrated by members of the Foundation’s Trust, with the addition of the expert Gerfried Stocker, Director of Ars Electronica, Linz, and member of the Scientific Committee of LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial.
Óscar Abril Ascaso has been selected among more than 70 candidates for this position, after valuing his proven experience as curator and cultural producer specialising in the context of techno-scientific culture and new socio-cultural models. Abril has developed countless projects which fall within digital art, visual arts, sound art and performance art practices.
Óscar Abril Ascaso (Barcelona, 1966) is an art historian, curator and cultural producer, he has got over 20 years of professional experience curating exhibitions and taking part in congresses, seminars, symposiums and workshops. He has been artistic manager of the Sonar Festival in Barcelona during 13 years and, during the last four years; he has worked as curator at L'Estruch creation factory in Sabadell. He has curated Techformance an exhibition around performance and technology for ARCO. Also important is his researcher side and his participation in cultural innovation key platforms, such as Zzzinc (with José Luis de Vicente, Pau Alsina, Rubén Martínez, Jaron Rowan, Imma Vila and Andrea García, among others), or initiatives as relevant as copyfight, that he co-curated with the art group Elastico, or Zeppelin, in which he took part as curator member of Orquesta del Caos.
The proposal defended by the new Director of Activities, who will be publicly presented next March 6, focuses on research, development and innovation in the cultural field. Thus, he aims to turn LABoral in an advanced art centre for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, what he defines as “a lab for the cooperation of artists, scientists, humanist entrepreneurs and social agents”. In the Committee’s view, this vision is in line with the near future needs of the centre.
The new Director of Activities will be part of the Management Team of the Centre, together with the Managing Director. His functions will include being in charge of developing the current Strategic Plan of LABoral, which comprises a programming strategy covering all areas of the Production Centre –production, education, research-, leading the development of a theoretical discourse within the framework of LABoral’s management project and the conceptual principles derived from it.
The new Director of Activities must articulate the conceptual principles of LABoral, in accordance with the said Plan, through production and research projects, exhibitions, meetings or any other activity, and stablish programming lines which foster the integration of activities in such a way that all areas (production, education and research) complement each other.
