For us, curatorial practice begins with the idea of connection: experiences, knowledge, passions, perspectives, and ways of making and viewing art. To curate means bringing thoughts together, weaving personal and collective memories, and linking contexts and cultural elements. Collective work is therefore central to our practice — not merely as a methodology, but as a shared position. Collaboration has been a driving force among artists since the avant-gardes of the 20th century; why not embrace it fully in curatorial practice as well? Even today, working collectively as curators remains an uncommon and distinctive stance.
Statement
Ballate Armas Curatorial Collective
Since 2015, our working methodologies converged and have since consolidated into a collective, integrated approach. This is how the curatorial collective Ballate Armas came into being — a shared practice through which we think, research, and curate. Working as a collective is neither a formula nor a sum of names: it is a conscious position taken against the individualizing logic that runs through the art system.
Our curatorial practice is grounded in research and activated through praxis. We are interested in contemporary art as a space of friction, narrative, and memory; in new artistic practices; in accompanying artists; and in the search for critical tools to rethink the contexts in which we work. We position ourselves within — and give particular emphasis to — peripheries (geographic, symbolic, and structural) and to the work of artists who produce from those margins, understood as spaces of resistance and knowledge production.
The collective runs through our entire process. We are interested in exploring how collective experiences generate alternative methodologies for learning, production, and the transmission of knowledge. From there, we develop exhibition projects, curatorial research, critical writing, and collaborations with artists, professionals, independent spaces, and institutions, always grounded in a logic of dialogue, horizontality, care, and shared responsibility. Our practice is thus built through transit and connection between territories.
Trajectory & Projects
Ana Gabriela Ballate Benavides and Yadira de Armas Rodríguez live and work in Salamanca (Spain) and hold a Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Art History from the University of Salamanca (Spain). They also hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History from the University of Havana, and are currently pursuing a PhD program in History and Arts at the University of Granada.
They bring with them a significant track record in gallery management and project direction. Furthermore, they were founders, assistant directors, and curators of the Havana branch of Galleria Continua (2014–2018) – the first foreign contemporary art gallery based in Cuba. Ana Gabriela and Yadira coordinated and produced, from 2014 to 2018, numerous solo shows and group exhibitions by artists such as Anish Kapoor, Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Daniel Buren, Nikhil Chopra, Chen Zhen, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Gu Dexin, Carlos Garaicoa, Elizabet Cervio, Alejandro Campins. Yoan and Iván Capote, among others.
They have collaborated with various institutions in the management, production, and curatorship of curatorial projects, including: the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, the Wifredo Lam Center for Contemporary Art (Cuba), the Fototeca de Cuba, the Havana Biennial, the Domus Artium 2002 – DA2 in Salamanca (Spain), Afundación (Spain), the Provincial Councils of Badajoz and Cáceres, the University of Granada, and the Institute of the Americas – Damián Bayón Center, among others. Between 2019 and 2025, they managed and curated the Luciano Méndez Sánchez Contemporary Cuban Art Collection, housed at the Domus Artium 2002 in Salamanca. They are also the creators of the online platform Art Project Inside, dedicated to promotion, communication, editorial content, advisory services, and collaborative projects with artists and active agents in the international contemporary art field.
Their academic trajectory includes lectures at international events, conferences, and symposia in Mexico, the United States, and Canada, as well as at academic institutions such as the University of Granada and the University of Salamanca. In addition, they have courses and diplomas from various universities, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Pablo de Olavide University, Complutense University of Madrid, and UNED. They have been fellows of the Fundación Carolina (Spain). Independently, Yadira de Armas served as coordinator of the contemporary art fairs JUSTMAD and JUSTLX from November 2022 to March 2024.