Canopy for Broken Time – A conversation with Marco Scotini, Monica Narula, Yasmin Naderi Afschar

Venue: Shamiana meeting space

This conversation brings together curator Marco Scotini, artist Monica Narula (Raqs Media Collective) and Yasmin Naderi Afschar, Co-Director at Migros Museum, for a conversation on the curatorial and artistic conception of the current presentation of Disobedience Archive (Canopy for Broken Time) – in dialogue with Raqs Media Collective.

Conceived by Marco Scotini in 2005 as a long-term, evolving project, Disobedience Archive assembles film works that articulate practices of dissent, resistance and collective imagination across different geopolitical and historical contexts. The present iteration unfolds in dialogue with Raqs Media Collective, whose practice engages with notions of time and its role in shaping how we live together.

The discussion will reflect on how Canopy for Broken Time rethinks the archive as a spatial, temporal and political proposition – one that is provisional, porous and attentive to intervention. Central to this edition is the Shamiana, a temporary architectural structure that functions both as a meeting space and as an artistic model, foregrounding notions of gathering and shared attention.

Through this exchange, the speakers will address questions of curatorial methodology, artistic collaboration and the role of the archive in times marked by fragmentation, ecological precarity and political urgency. The talk invites visitors to consider how practices of disobedience might generate new temporalities, forms of attention and modes of being together.

Marco Scotini is the Artistic Director of NABA (Milan, Rome, London), after leading its Visual Arts Department since 2004. Formerly Artistic Director of FM Centre for Contemporary Art in Milan, he’s currently Head of the Exhibition Program at PAV – Parco Arte Vivente in Turin.
He has curated over 300 shows worldwide, including Biennials such as the Venice, Istanbul, Bangkok, Prague, Yinchuan and Anren ones, as well as the long-term project Disobedience Archive, presented internationally since 2005. He has collaborated on exhibitions and conferences with major institutions such as Castello di Rivoli, Documenta, Museo Reina Sofía, MAXXI, MAMCO Geneva and Migros Museum, and is Scientific Director of several artist archives, including those of Gianni Colombo, Bruno di Bello, Bert Theis, Clemen Parrocchetti, Laura Grisi, and Nanni Balestrini and Emilio Scanavino Foundations. Author of Artecrazia, Politics of Memory, and The Unarchivable, he is the Artistic Director of the Geoarchivi book series for Meltemi.

Raqs Media Collective was formed in 1992 in New Delhi by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. Known for their interdisciplinary practice that spans installation, video, photography, performance, text, and curation, Raqs works at the intersection of contemporary art, historical enquiry, philosophical speculation, and research. The collective has exhibited extensively at major international venues and biennials worldwide, curated significant exhibitions including the Shanghai Biennale and Manifesta 7, and co‑founded the Sarai program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, where they also edited the Sarai Reader series.

Yasmin Naderi Afschar is a curator whose work operates at the intersection of institutions, the public sphere and democratic processes. She is part of the collective leadership of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich, where she is responsible for exhibitions. Since 2022, she has been working as a mediator for Neue Auftraggeber:innen Schweiz. She previously held roles as Interim Director of Kunsthalle Mainz (2023–2024) and Curator at the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau (2018–2021). In 2021/2022, she was awarded Asia Society Switzerland’s inaugural Curator Residency at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong.

• Language: English
• Barrier-free access
• No registration required
• Free of charge