I Hope This Message Finds You Well is a podcast on curating hosted by Kris Dittel and Eloise Sweetman. In this episode we talk with Sofia Lemos who shares with us her curatorial trajectory, how she relates to art institutions and her interest in bringing together the discursive, the spiritual and the artistic. We also discuss the meaning of utopia and how art can help us to envision new worlds, alongside the question of intimacy as a possibility and the limits of institutional care.

Sofia Lemos is a curator and writer. She is curator at TBA21– Academy where she leads Meandering, a new live research program centring contemplative and creative practices for social and environmental justice. From 2018–2021 she was curator of public programmes and research at Nottingham Contemporary and was associate editor at The Contemporary Journal. Recently Lemos was Associate Curator Public Programmes to the 2nd Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art – RIBOCA (2020), with previous curatorial and research roles at HKW, Berlin, PRAXES, Berlin, DRAF, London, and MACBA, Barcelona. Her writing has been featured in various contemporary art and culture publications as well as exhibition catalogues and artist monographs.

The episode was recorded in November 2021.

If you have feedback we’d love to receive your email at [email protected]; you can also follow us on Instagram @ihopethismessage and find us on SoundCloud @ihopethismessage. The jingle was made by the artist duo Momu & No Es and sound engineering by Nick Thomas. Graphic design by Christophe Clarijs.

Show notes:

People mentioned in this episode:Paul B. Preciado https://monoskop.org/Paul_B._Preciado Sophie Lewis https://www.versobooks.com/books/3756-full-surrogacy-now Avery Gordon https://www.soc.ucsb.edu/people/avery-gordonHazel Carby https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2021/j-October-21/Hazel-Carby-joins-LSE-as-Centennial-Professor Pilvi Takala https://pilvitakala.com/the-stroker Anselm Franke https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/beitragende_hkw/persons/personenseite_195251.php Federico Campagna https://www.federicocampagna.eu/blank-3 Omar Kasmani https://omarkasmani.com/

Institutions mentioned in this episode:tba 21 https://www.tba21.org/#item--february-september-2020--2054 Nottingham Contemporary https://nottinghamcontemporary.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjwm8WZBhBUEiwA178UnHltUM8PpIFGuIpoRxaXqnQyhDnnc4aLOnGl890vSBsXgAkhZhospxoCLaUQAvD_BwE 2nd Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art https://www.rigabiennial.com/en/riboca-2