We The Others

Reciprocity

Transformation does not happen to others it happens with all of us.

WEis becoming aware of others, in shared experiences, in the way we inhabit spaces, in what moves us. As a queer, migrant, and neurodivergent person, I work from this certainty: we are already connected through shared experiences, through the way we inhabit spaces, through what moves us. For over two decades, I have been developing curatorial projects and consulting approaches that ask not 'How do we integrate others?' but 'How do we learn together and from one another?' Formats emerge that practice reciprocity rather than manage inclusion. This reciprocity follows an ancient principle: In antiquity, a symbol was something people could share - the parts were always separated, yet each missing part pointed to the other. Each person could imagine this missing part quite differently. Here lies the opportunity: In encountering the unknown, the other, we fulfill this missing part anew each time. Not through appropriation, but through mutuality. This bringing together of the known part and the separated, unknown other gives inexhaustibly to imagination. This incompleteness is not weakness but potential - it creates space for plurality, for multiperspectivity, for a lived WE. It invites thought, transformation, new forms of coexistence.

In my consulting work, concrete strategies emerge for systemic unlearning of power structures through mutual learning. Vulnerability and interdependence become realistic starting points for solidary change. Even when people resist change, they are already in motion - they preserve nothing of the old but set new dynamics into play. My work is an invitation: to trace together what connections already exist. To create spaces where differences are not merely tolerated but lived. Transformation does not happen to others - it happens with all of us.

"Each of us needs the memory of the other... And if we want to share the beauty of the world, if we want to stand in solidarity with its suffering, we must learn to remember together."

Édouard Glissant - Mémoires des esclavages. La fondation d'un Centre national pour la mémoire des esclavages et de leurs abolitions, 2007, Gallimard

About Me

Emanuele Valariano

Emanuele Valariano

Curator, Mentor and DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion) Consultant

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I see myself as someone who opens spaces for encounter. Born in Rome, raised in Hamburg, I have always moved between different contexts. Early on, I learned to listen—not only to what is said, but also to what lies in between, to the unspoken. My queer and migrant perspective shapes how I see the world and act within it. It has taught me that connections often exist before we name them. And it has made me sensitive to the question: How can we be more just with one another? Not as an abstract ideal, but in the everyday, in shared spaces, in concrete encounters. I prefer working with others, in teams and collectives where different voices and experiences enrich each other. Since 2024, I have been part of the art collective Alternative Monument, where I work as dramaturg with international artists on the project 'Alternative Monument for Germany'. This kind of collaboration runs through my entire practice—whether with artists like Slavs & Tatars, MILM2, or Siska, in outreach programs between Berlin and Beirut, or in the residency program with the Benin-City National Museum. For over two decades, I have been translating this attitude into curatorial projects, cultural mediation, and DEI consulting. My interdisciplinary studies in philosophy, aesthetics, and archival sciences in Rome gave me theoretical tools, but the real work always emerges in dialogue, in shared movement with others. My approach is process-oriented and participatory. Drawing from my own experiences, I work alongside marginalized people whose voices are often too little heard: I have developed programs with different people with disabilities, different communities and groups—always in direct collaboration, never over their heads. Since 2025, I have been leading the working group 'Museum and Inclusion' at Haus Bastian, where we develop intersectional perspectives. What drives me is the conviction that justice begins in encounters at eye level—between people with different backgrounds, between art and life, between different forms of knowledge. I try to open spaces where differences can become productive and where the seemingly missing becomes an invitation to think something new together.

Experience

Curator (freelance)

Working Group Museum and Inclusion Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

2024-Present

Curator / Dramaturg

Art Collectiv Alternative Monument - Project 'Alternatives Monument for Germany' (ADfD)

2025-Present

Curator Education and Outreach

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz Generaldirektion II Fachbereich Bildung, Kommunikation und Besucherdienste - Ethnologisches Museum und Museum für Asiatische Kunst

2020-2023

Vatican Museum

Mediator Arts & Culture

2008-2011

Education

M.A. Philosophy of Communication and Aesthetics

Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

1998-2008

M.A. Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management

Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

1998-2008

Post-Graduate in Archival Sciences

Vatican School of Archival Studies

2009-2010

Specializations

DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion)
Strategic and artistic programming for museums
Discrimination-critical Educations
Queering Museum

Services

Consulting

Consulting that goes beyond the surface. That asks questions together: Who actually decides here? Whose voices are missing? How can power structures not only be named but actually changed? From over two decades of work with museums and exhibition spaces – and a background in philosophy, art history, and cultural heritage management – approaches emerge that set institutions in motion. The WE is not a phrase but practice: For specific topics such as racism, inclusion, or other forms of discrimination, I work together with people who themselves come from marginalized communities. Not as "experts about," but as partners who speak from their own experience. This network is not a contact list but grown collaboration, mutual learning, shared responsibility.

Services:

  • Community Outreach – Long-term partnerships instead of symbolic gestures
  • Critical reflection on collection and exhibition practice
  • Intersectional perspectives in education and outreach
  • Building networks between institutions and communities
  • Structural transformation: Rethinking personnel policies and hierarchies
  • Personal consulting and mentoring for cultural practitioners
  • Establishing error culture – Failure as part of learning

Concepts

Concepts emerge through encounter. At the intersection of art, performance, and social discourse, formats develop that build on reciprocal relations – between perspectives, between people, between disciplines. Not appropriation, but genuine collaboration. Space for the unexpected, for friction, for change.

Services:

  • Exhibition concepts with intersectional perspectives
  • Education and outreach programs
  • Event formats and dramaturgical development
  • Formats for young people – anti-adultist
  • Queering the Museum
  • Migrant and post-migrant perspectives
  • Performance and participatory methods

Workshops and Professional Development

Shared spaces for thinking rather than top-down knowledge transfer. Theoretical foundations meet practical experience – from work with major institutions, with communities, with artists. Diversity of methods that enables different approaches. For teams, curators, educators willing to leave familiar paths.

Services:

  • Introduction: Intersectionality in the Museum
  • From Inclusion to Reciprocity – Understanding power relations
  • Community Outreach in Practice
  • Anti-discriminatory Language and Communication
  • Queer Perspectives on Collections
  • Post-migrant Museum Practice
  • Anti-adultist Education
  • Error Culture and Transformative Learning

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