The AMA Study Centre at Artium Museoa is a platform that works in close relation with the museum’s exhibition programme to provide a space for research in the contemporary art and the formats of production and expansion of knowledge and  critical research methodologies based on collaboration and experimentation.

The public programme Formas de habitar esta tierra otra engages with the exhibition by artist Marwa Arsanios (Washington, D.C., 1978) The Land Shall Not Be Owned, hosted by Artium Museoa until 12 April.

Through conferences and workshops, this programme seeks to create a space for thought and reflection on land distribution and extraction policies in various regions of the Middle East, South America, and closer contexts. The aim is to explore forms of self-organisation and reappropriation of land use as collective ways of affirming life.

With Marwa Arsanios (artist), Nader Koochaki y Kimia Kamvari (artists), Paisanaje (collective), Leire Vergara (curator) and Françoise Vergès (writer and feminist theorist).

Rapporteur: Ane Abarrategi. 

PROGRAMME

29 January
5 - 6 pm
visit to the exhibition The Land Shall Not Be Owned, with Marwa Arsanios

6 - 7 pm. Auditorium.
Nader Koochaki & Kimia Kamvari
Lecture

7 - 8 9m. Auditorium.
Marwa Arsanios & Leire Vergara
Conversation

30 January
11 am to 2 pm. Plaza Gallery.
Paisanaje
Workshop. Registrations: ikasketazentroa@artium.eus

6.30 to 8 pm. Auditorium.
Françoise Vergès
Lecture

Marwa Arsanios (Washington. D.C., 1978) is an artist of Lebanese origin. Her recent exhibitions include BAK Utrecht (2024), Kunsthalle Bratislava (2023), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2023), Mosaic Rooms, London (2022), Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2021); Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2018); Beirut Art Center (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2016); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2015), and Art in General, New York (2015). Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Documenta 15 (2022), Mardin Biennial (2022), the Sydney Biennale film program (2022), 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Pristina (2021), and the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), among others.

Nader Koochaki (Donostia / San Sebastián, 1983) and Kimia Kamvari (Colonia, 1986) met in Tehran in 2014 and have since accompanied one another through different life moments and working processes. Since 2015, they have lived and worked in Astigarreta (Gipuzkoa), where they share a context of research, life, and artistic production. Although each develops an independent career, they have collaborated on various joint projects connected to territory, field research, and editorial practices. In 2023 they founded the cooperative a—koop, and in 2025 the publishing house Tapetum Lucidum.

Paisanaje is a collective of exploration and action that addresses the ecosocial crisis through art. Based in Madrid, they practice alternative modes of imagination that move away from the hegemonic narrative of collapse in order to envision more hopeful futures. The work of Paisanaje is structured around four interconnected lines of action, always grounded in everyday practice: food autonomy, fairer urban transitions, traditional knowledge and learning through artistic making; and imaginaries of the commons as a way of living. These lines take shape through collective walks, food transformation workshops, communal meals, publications, gatherings, exhibitions, and celebrations. 

Leire Vergara (Bilbao, 1973) holds a PhD in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is a curator, writer, educator, and a member of Bulegoa z/b (Bilbao). She has curated numerous exhibitions and programs, including Artelekun zehar: 1987–2002. An Exhibition on Arteleku through the Archive (2025) and edonor denok inor ez. Processes of Institutionalization of Art Education in the Basque Country, 1978–1991 (2024), both of them with Sergio Rubira and Mikel Onandia, presented at Artium Museoa. Other projects include In qualche luogo lontano: Roma (Academy of Spain in Rome, 2021) and Recurring Images (with Pablo Martínez, MACBA, 2017). Her writings have been published by Mousse Publishing, Bloomsbury, MIT Press/Sternberg Press, Duke University, and Letra Caniche. 

Françoise Vergès (París, 1952) is a writer, decolonial antiracist feminist activist, and independent curator. She is currently Senior Fellow Researcher at the Sarah Parker Remond Center for the Study of Racism and Racialization, UCL, London. Her most recent publication is Making the World Clean: Wasted Lives, Wasted Environment, and Racial Capitalism (2025).

All activities in this public programme are free to attend until full capacity is reached, except for the workshop, for which prior registration is required at ikasketazentroa@artium.eus with a letter of motivation (200 words).

Certificate of participation
It is possible to request a certificate attesting to participation in the programmes required.
The request must be made to ikasketazentroa@artium.eus prior to the start of the corresponding programme.