MARCO

Xabier Arakistain is Director of the Centro Cultural Montehermoso Kulturunea, the first contemporary art and thinking centre in the State which develops and applies policies of equality between sexes in art and culture. Previously Arakistain worked as an independent curator beginning back in 1999, when he opened Trans Sexual Express, an exhibition in which he incorporated the sex quota as a curatorial criterion. From 2001 to 2003 he was head of programming at the Exhibition Hall of Fundación Bilbao Arte Fundazioa, and from 2003 to 2006 he headed the discussion groups on art and feminism at ARCO Art Fair, from where he launched the Arco Manifest 2005. He has also curated several Leigh Bowery retrospectives and the group shows Para todos los públicos/For all audiences, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, 45 años de arte y feminismo [45 Years of Art and Feminism], Switch on the Power. Ruido y políticas musicales [Switch On The Power. Noise And Musical Policies], and, together with Maura Reilly, La Mirada Iracunda/The Furious Gaze.