Meet Sana López Abellán: Transcending Disciplines

CFC Members Spotlight is a bi-monthly interview series showcasing the work of our members on our blog and social media. Through this series, we highlight the diverse curatorial practices in our community and encourage new connections and exchange.

 

Meet CFC Member Sana López Abellán

 

Sana López Abellán is a Dutch/Spanish curator, artist and anthropologist based in Spain. Her work is centred around transcending disciplines, oscillating between theory and practice and the tactile and the symbolic. Upcoming projects include curating the 4th Larnaca Biennale (Cyprus) 2025 under the theme Along Lines and Traces.

We recently interviewed Sana López Abellán to learn more about her curatorial journey, inspirations, and insights into the art world.

 

Image credit: Sana López Abellán

 

CFC: What inspired you to pursue a career as a curator? Was there a particular moment or experience that sparked your interest?

SLA: For me, curating is a natural component of my artistic practice. I find it hard to see it separated from what I do as an artist because it all comes down to creating. What I love about curating is the ability to connect it with research and writing, two elements I highly value. When I think about curating I realize that I have been doing since I can remember, in every room I had as a child I made exhibitions, in every job I had I managed to get some sort of exhibition happening, also at University I complemented my Master Research with an exhibition of my findings, very unusual in that context. I feel I am drawn to transmitting ideas on several levels simultaneously, and curating is a great pathway for doing that.

 

CFC: What thread or idea ties your work together?

SLA: I am deeply and ultimately interested in how we, as humans, give form to our place in the world. What we create to embody meaning and sense, and how we express ourselves in any medium possible.

 

CFC: Name a project or exhibition that holds special significance for you. What made it stand out?

SLA: For me at the moment the Larnaca Biennale 2025 is my highlight. In this fourth Larnaca Biennale, the theme ́Along Lines and Traces ́ will form the support upon which we can imagine metaphoric, symbolic and physical expressions of how we make sense of our world and our placement in it. From how lineages and traditions develop, how stories narrate, how thoughts are constructed, to how we move, how we connect and communicate, and how we create and produce meaning.

As humans, we are primarily sustained by our actions and our movements in life. What if we would imagine our world along lines and traces? As a start, we can think of how our repetitive movements over a territory would leave a trace on the natural landscape and how scraping over a surface could make our existence seen thousands of years later. Not only do the traces speak to us about our past, they also inform our future.

These lines become even more fascinating when they start reflecting connections between people: when the lines become an abstraction through which we communicate, but also a testament to our movement in history, a convergence or node.

 

Image credit: Larnaca Biennale.

 

CFC: What’s your favorite part about being a curator? And, if you don’t mind sharing, what’s the most challenging?

SLA: In curating I find a combination of all my passions: art, research, writing, imagination and ideation, but also management and problem-solving. It is an honour to be able to work with artists and make sure their works receives the attention it deserves. Being a curator comes with a high level of responsibility, and implies a deep commitment to relationships and empathy.

 

CFC: Any hot takes on the current state of the curatorial field or the art world in general? What do we need more or less of?

SLA: Sometimes I feel the curator is the Rock Star, there should be more attention to the content, the idea, the project, and mostly, the artwork. It should be less about appearance or personality.

 

Image credit: Opening last edition Larnaca Biennale 2023. Photo: Black Lemon.

 

CFC: What advice would you give to aspiring curators just starting their careers?

SLA: I feel I am still at the start of my career my self, even though when I look back, I also realize I have got quite some experience by now. I identify completely with the aspiring curators, I think the most important thing is to stay close to what you are really passionate about inside your self, don’t worry about what is fashionable or sellable, once you feel that you have found what really moves you from the inside, I am sure a platform for that will show up, or you will be able to create that for yourself.

 

Explore more of Sana López Abellán’s work on her website.

 

Profile photo credit: Cecilia Coca Peña

 

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