Julia CSekö
Brazilian /American Visual Artist
Csekö’s work gravitates around conversations and eXxperiments grounded on a paradigm shift from competitive to collaborative practices in social actions and interactions.
Keynote Speaker at the GDIP 2023 International Art and Design Forum in Guangzhou, China.
BIO
Born in Colorado to Brazilian parents on self-exile during the Brazilian military dictatorship, Csekö grew up in Rio. Csekö has received the ALAANA Creative County Grant, the SMFA Travelling Fellowship, the Collective Futures Grant, a Be The Change Award, local cultural council grants from the towns of Somerville, Randolph, and Newton, a Sculpture Space Residency, the Create the Vote MassCreative Fellowship, and is a current Artist-in-Residence at the Boston Center for the Arts and the City of Salem Public Artist in Residence. As well as public commissions, her work is held in collections such as Tufts Permanent Collection, Emerson College, MAM Rio, Morris and Belkin Gallery, CC São Paulo, and private collections. In 2025 Csekö is invited to return to MassMoCA as an A4A Alumni AiR. She received an MFA from the SMFA at Tufts in 2013.
Her passion for organizing dates back to her BFA at the Federal University of Rio UFRJ, when Csekö participated in successful negotiations demanding an increase from 0.3 to 1% of Brazilian national funds be allocated to arts and culture. She was also a committee member in conversation with the Brazilian Ministry of Culture. She continues to be a Cultural Sector Arts Advocate within her communities in North America.
This exhibition, under the title Social Fabric, is the culmination of visual artist Julia Csekö’s eight-month-long Salem Public Artist in Residency program in 2024. The solo presentation features newly-created monumental textile work that responds to and engages with dozens of migration stories collected from local residents through the participatory public art installation Transcending Borders Immigrant Experiences and Dreams.
Photo: joana Traub Csekö
In addition, the exhibition showcases two video pieces created in collaboration with the Salem Access TV that will be premiered to the Salem Old Town Hall audiences. The first time-based project, consists of a series of interviews with members of local immigrant communities, and the second features three professional dancers invited by the artist to activate the Welcome Dresses, wearable pieces made of thousands of colorful satin ribbons printed with the phrase YOU ARE WELCOME HERE in fifteen languages commonly spoken by immigrants in greater Boston; these ribbons were distributed to the public during the residence period.
*This program is supported in part by a grant from the Salem Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency and the ALAANA grant from the Creative County Initiative of the Essex County Community Foundation.
Dates
January 13 to 31
Gallery Hours:
Mon. & Wed. 1-4 PM, Fri. 9 AM-12 PM, Sat. & Sun. 1-5 PM (or by appointment)
Address:
Salem Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Sq, Salem, MA 01970-3704
From Left to right:
Timothea Pham, Regina Zaragoza, Raquel Fornasaro, Oscar Corripio, Jacqui Valatka, Claudia Fiks, Julia Csekö, Saltanat Berdikeeva, Julio Mota
Social Fabric
Welcome dresses activated by dancers Abriana McCollim, Sarah Marie, and Keira Leigh Zagaeski at the Salem Old Town Hall
Photo: Joana Traub Csekö
Welcome Dresses worn by Beki Ferrari and Jacqui Valatka
Welcome Dress worn by Jen Lajoie
November 2024
I am partnering with local creatives, and human rights activists to create performances for the camera in sites of personal, cultural, and historical relevance to my multidisciplinary practice. These include the Federal University of Rio where I received my BFA in 2004, and the infamous DOPS building (Department of Political and Social Order). This police station was a feared destination during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, where political prisoners were incarcerated, tortured and many times never seen again after their arrest.
Thanks to the generous support of the SMFA Travelling Fellow Grant, I will live and work in Rio between November and mid-December 2024.
Denholm Building Window Display
October 2024 to October 2025
Worcester, MA
Hannah arendt Limited Edition Print
I am honored to announce that Bard College Hannah Arendt Center has commissioned a Speaking Truth to Power limited edition print featuring words by Hannah Arendt from the Origins of Totalitarianism.
15x15 in Limited Edition Print
Paulo freire LIMITED EDITION print
15x22.5 in Limited Edition Print
From the Speaking Truth to Power series featuring words by Brazilian educator and thinker Paulo Freire.
Each purchase made helps support my practice!
Original drawings compose this unique limited edition collection of print-to-order products. Each drawing is fun, with a dark sense of humor, savoring Love in all its manifestations, good and bad, the absolute delights, the perfect traps, and the catastrophic mistakes.
I've carefully tested these products, and I am delighted to say I am completely satisfied with the print and manufacturing quality.
