Thinking

Presentation of Lucas Platero’s Por un chato de vino, a story of transvestism and feminine masculinity in which the writer invites us to discover a lost history in which he intertwines his experiences with those of María Elena and couples them with images by Eva Garrido. It is hard to classify this book because it situates itself on the boundaries, because it is odd and because it speaks about what is silenced. During the presentation we will read extracts from the book and discuss some of the issues raised.

Lucas Platero has been active in the feminist and queer movement since the 1990s, and at once seriously involved in research into non-normative sexuality. He has a PhD in Sociology and Political Science from UNED and lectures in socio-community intervention. Recent publications include Intersecciones. Cuerpos y sexualidades en la encrucijada (Bellaterra, 2012) and Trans*exualidades. Acompañamiento, factores de salud y recursos educativos (Bellaterra, 2014).

Eva Garrido works on artistic, educational and research projects from a feminist perspective within Colektivof, a collective formed with Yera Moreno. After graduating with a BA in Fine Art she has explored various fields such as artistic and industrial design, set design and drawing.

What happens if one day while out for a few drinks the Guardia Civil take you to the barracks? M.E. is trying to get by on the streets of Barcelona in the late sixties, sometimes donating blood, other times accepting charity or hand-outs from her friends. Until one ill-fated day she stumbles across some guardias civiles who discover the curves under her men’s clothing. The barracks, the prison and the hospital are spaces of discipline to which we must submit. All we know is what the doctors, police and judges declare in examinations or questionings, recorded in a few sheets of paper forgotten in some archive. What is most terrifying is not what is said but what can be easily imagined. M.E.’s masculinity was impossible for them to accept, declaring her desire for woman to be pathological and criminal, but also uncontrollable and therefore meriting punishment and imprisonment. Almost involuntarily, M.E. infringes the moral order of Franco’s regime which, while then on the wane, still harshly repressed anyone who dared to publicly challenge its dictates. Sparked off by “public scandal”, repression was vented particularly on all those whose sexuality and gender expression overstepped the limits of “decency”, binary gender roles and obligatory heterosexuality. This story still reverberates today, at a time which prides itself on its sexual rights, but in which these discontinuities with more normative expressions of gender are still signalled as evidence of pathologies which must be diagnosed in order gain access to a handful of incomplete rights.

http://www.ed-bellaterra.com/php/llibresInfo.php?idLlibre=108

Images occupy a privileged position in the whole framework of fictions, gestures and actions that make up our daily reality. Deliberately arranged, manipulated and shared, they have become undisputed agents that operate beyond the territory that, since modernity, has been defined as aesthetic –and which the Art Institution has inherited. For its affective capacity, its maddening traffic, its connection with the bodies, this issue of Re-visiones not only invites to critically rethink the whole field that the digitalisation of the world has put into circulation, but also to put spatial and temporal strain on concepts that are today thought ‘undercommons’ with others that have concerned us in moments of struggle with the public sphere or the popular, all that broke out in the great hope of the ‘cultural revolution’. We welcome articles that prompt to think of the discontent that underlies the forms of culture required for any community yet to come.

Acces to magazine

Organised by: Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo

Offices: Rompe el círculo (Plaza del Turia, 2, Móstoles), EnRedArte (Francisco Javier Sauquillo, 3) and CA2M

Free entrance

There is an incipient need to speak in terms of a crisis of civilization. The multi-faceted nature of the current-day social turbulence exceeds all partial categorizations. And it does so under all of the different banners that have become so widespread in the journalist, academic or political discourse: economic, financial, energy, environmental, food, dietary and care crises, to mention but a few. There are so many open fronts that it is no longer possible to interpret the situation within the habitual parameters of the economic cycles, and all the signs would appear to indicate that we are facing the bankruptcy of the capitalist civilizing model. That is, a departure from this civilization model in which its characteristics (dominance of the fetishist social manners; merchandise, value, abstract work and money) render it unique compared to other social forms from former times and other places.

Phenomena such as climate change, the energy decline, the depletion of strategic minerals or the suffocation of the capitalist accumulation process itself, all forewarn that the world as we know it is on the verge of an unprecedented change. In this context, the socio-economic elites are taking positions with a view to maintaining the predominant status quo at the cost of increasing exploitation, suppressing social and political rights, and focusing on an environmentally suicidal forward-moving escape. Citizens in general, and the social movements in particular, are faced with a dual task: to resist the pressure of the ruling classes and to find the capacity to build emancipating societal alternatives in a world obliged to decelerate.

This education cycle aspires to being a meeting point for the southern area of Madrid, revolving around two main objectives: on the one hand, to lay the foundations for a correct diagnosis of the present moment in time and its economic, social and political implications; and on the other, to raise awareness and collectively debate various experiences centered on the construction of alternatives to set in motion a process of transition to a post-capitalist world.

PROGRAM

SATURDAY 11 JAN. 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

What is capitalism?  Unravelling the commodity-based civilisation

Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo

Although the capitalist reality awakens opposition and resistance wherever it takes root, comprehension of the same remains an unsolved issue for those of us fighting against it. Capitalism is a highly slippery term, that combines an exuberant polysemy that is very generally used, rarely considered problematic and which, in the majority of cases, feeds off a misinterpretation: Engels’ deformation of Marx’s thinking, which was subsequently popularized by Leninism. The role played by this error in the defeat of the anti-capitalist approaches should not be underrated. Using the readings of Marx that have emerged in recent decades (Heinrich, Kurz, Postone), the aim of this talk is to offer a straightforward, collective and accessible analysis of the fundamental characteristics of the capitalist social formation. Its objective is to help clarify  the horizon of an anti-capitalist project, thus placing the common sense of the popular struggles on the same wavelength as the reality of the enemy they face.

The Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo is a group which has been working since 2008  to build alternatives  in pursuit of a post-capitalist and post oil-peak transition in the Southern Madrid area.

SUNDAY 19 JAN. 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

Crisis or decline of the capitalist model? On the internal limits of capital accumulation

Jordi Maiso

In the years following the «end of an era» as constituted by the year 1989, criticism of the Marx-style economic policy was considered a closed chapter in the history of thought, and to obstinately persist in criticizing capitalism seemed typical of those determined to ignore the new sign of the times. They were the euphoric «end of history» and «end of ideologies» years, and the imposition of the market economy on a global scale foretold the materialization of a One World system that would overcome the divisions between blocks and open up an era of world-wide prosperity. Two decades later, these expectations have proven themselves false. Following a brief period of prosperity on credit, with feet of clay, globalised capitalism has left in its wake a scene of new inequalities, poverty of the masses, a population increase that cannot be integrated into the production system and a chain of financial bubbles that, from 2008 on, culminated in a global crisis. In the face of this scenario, Marx  appears to be more than a mere specter, and his analysis of capitalism awakens an interest level that goes beyond the strictly academic. The imperative question in light of the global crisis situation is whether this is a temporary phenomenon or the beginnings of the capitalist socialization model decline, which had reached its inner limits and is now entering a phase of decomposition.

Jordi Maiso is a doctor of philosophy, linked to the Human and Social Sciences Centre (CCHS) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). His most important lines of work are: Critical Theory; philosophy following Auschwitz; forms of socialization in advanced capitalism; ethical-political challenges of synthetic biology.

THURSDAY 23 JAN. 19:00 IN CA2M

Growth limits I: the energy decline

Antonio Turiel

Since 2005, crude oil production has been gently dropping yet it now appears to be undergoing an acceleration. This fundamental historical occurrence has gone unnoticed amidst the media fanfare about new hydrocarbon sources, from biofuels to fracking, and even including the oil sands of Canada, in an attempt to disguise the fact that these substitutes are neither as versatile as crude oil nor offer such a good energy and economic yield. This crucial fact has been silenced in the media. The rare occasions on which it is mentioned, it is as «the end of cheap oil», without explaining that it was precisely cheap oil that made the expansion of capitalism possible in the first place, and that the lack of the same may give rise to the collapse of this economic system, and in turn, of our society. The entire energy debate is distorted, given that the non-renewable options (whether coal, natural gas or uranium) are also close to their zenith, while the renewable sources have so many limitations, always ignored, that they could never provide the vast amounts of energy currently enjoyed.

The end of the expansive cycle of energy availability and its inevitable contraction does not necessarily imply the end of modern society, and far less so the collapse and extinction of the same, but it does give rise to the end of growth −growth of the population, of the GDP, of trade, of capital− and therefore the end of the capitalist system. Such a possibility is unacceptable from a political perspective, and therefore an ideological response is given (in the shape of denial and cover-ups) to what is a simple matter of logic (the limits of the planet and of the human being). The progress discourse has introduced the myth of the homo invictus into the collective psyche, of man capable of overcoming any obstacles faced, even when to do so the fundamental laws of nature must be broken. Nowadays, to point out limits and impossibilities is considered reactionary and obscene, even when using a scientific argument.

The objective of this lecture is to rationally discuss why the energy decline is inevitable, as well as widely known, and why this will lead to the end of growth. There will also be a brief discussion of the implications of this historic moment.

Antonio Turiel is a doctor of physics and member of the Marine Sciences Institute of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). For years, he has been responsible for the fundamental task of raising awareness about the energy problem faced by modern societies. His blog The oil crash has become a point of reference for anyone interested in the 21st century energy decline.

SATURDAY 25 JAN. 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULOç

The Internet and new technologies: liberation or submission?

Cul de Sac

To review the new technologies, we must first position them within the framework of a broader reflection on technique. To oppose technique in its entirety makes no sense as it alludes to all relations between the human being and their environment. Our approach is as follows: what level of technical development is possible and desirable in a truly free, horizontal and completely oppression-free society? We believe that «technology» born of the application of science to technique in the context of industrialisation has led to more alienation and submission than progress, and it is our opinion that the Information and Communication Technologies are nothing more than another step on the journey towards the artificialisation of the our living conditions which remove us, even further if possible, from the possibilities of living a life worth living.

Cul de Sac is a critical thinking publication focused on injecting new life into the reflection on the old «social question». Following a line close to that of authors critical of the technical phenomenon, its first issues contained excellent monographic editions on the idea of Progress and the current role of the Information Technologies.

SATURDAY 15 FEB. 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

Collective consumption as a tool for change

Carmen Madorrán

The space for hope is open, as each day more and more initiatives call for responsible and fair consumption, a conscientious and transforming, collective and sustainable consumption. From the cooperatives and consumer groups, time banks, exchange groups, community vegetable gardens or energy cooperatives, among others; to the exchanges of homes, cars, clothes or resources: work tools, work space, etcetera. In short, we suggest considering this proposal of collective and responsible consumption within a process of global change, within a sort of «transition» towards a different model of both life and consumption, both an energy and a production model which will lead to a change in the group comprehension, in the way humans relate to the rest of the living beings and to the planet.

Carmen Madorrán is a philosopher and researcher with the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is co-author of a number of books on the socio-ecologic crisis published by Akal, Icaria and Los Libros de la Catarata.

THURSDAY 20 FEB 19:00 IN CA2M

Correlations between the economic crisis and the ecological crisis

Joaquim Sempere

Capitalism, and its situations of over-accumulation that result in speculative phenomena that are utterly destructive of economic life -associated with social inequalities-, is, for this very reason, destined to generate social unrest and chaos. The severity of this perspective will become more pronounced with the growth of the ecological crisis, the first massive sign of which will undoubtedly be the depletion of the fossil and nuclear resources. The current deregulated capitalism is the least appropriate system to preventively deal with this phenomenon (through the passage from an energy model based on renewables and a reduction of production and consumption), and it is headed for a worsening of the chaos and social injustices.

Joaquim Sempere is a doctor of philosophy, translator, anti-Francoist activist, columnist of the newspaper, Público, and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Barcelona. He is currently working, among other things, on the convergence between the ecological and the economic crisis. Along these lines, he published the essay, El fin del petróleo barato, in 2008.

THURSDAY 27 FEB. 19:00 IN CA2M

Urban development and the socio-ecological crisis

Pilar Vega

This lecture will explain how the productive, territorial and transport model has transformed the ecosystems. Its impact on urban settings has materialized in an extension of  suburbanization, the vulgarization of the landscape and the artificiality of the space. Yet it has also caused a pillaging of the resources needed for the functioning of cities in other ecosystems. These impacts equally affect the power relationships. Productive, rehabilitated, renewed, ordered and integrated cities that expel the undesirables of the model towards the outskirts. Unbalanced, unfair, violent, and therefore unsustainable, cities. To conclude, the possible reconstruction of the model departing from a territory and a society in crisis.

Pilar Vega is professor of Human Geography at the Universidad Complutense. Her field of activity revolves around territorial and environmental planning, as she is a specialist in transport. She has worked on the Strategic Infrastructures and Transport Plan (PEIT) and the Green Paper on Accessibility in Spain.

THURSDAY 13 MAR. 19:00 IN CA2M

Who decides what we eat? Agroindustry versus food sovereignty

Esther Vivas

Who moves the strings of the agricultural and food system? Who determines what we buy, what price we pay, how what we eat has been produced? At present, each section of the food chain, from the fields to the plate, is in the hands of a small number of agroindustry multinationals, who give precedence to their individual interests rather than our collective needs. Food sovereignty is put forward as an alternative to this model.

Esther Vivas, a journalism graduate, she also has a Master's Degree in sociology, is an activist and researcher of social movements as well as food and agriculture policies. The author of various books on these areas, she forms part of the Centre d’Estudis sobre Moviments Socials (CEMS) at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra.

SATURDAY 23 MAR. 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

Genetically Modified crops in the Spanish State + presentation of the book La invasión molecular (CAE)

Blanca Ruibal and Emilio Santiago (prolog writer of the book)

This lecture will be divided into two blocks. In one part, we will approach the reality of the Genetically Modified crops and how widespread they are in the agrofood market of our country, analyzing the political, social and ecological problems entailed in this controversial technology, as well as the vested interests behind it. In the second part, we will take advantage of the presentation of the book, La invasión molecular to talk about the various ways of fighting against the genetically modified organisms.

Organised with GAK Rompe el Círculo

Blanca Ruibal is an ecological activist and manager of the Agriculture and Food division of the NGO, Amigos de la Tierra. Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) was a group that emerged from the intersection between art and political activism. Her book, La invasión molecular, delves deeply into the political and social implications of the biotechnologies based on genetic engineering.

SATURDAY 29 MAR. 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

The organic food market

Cristina de Benito

This lecture will deal with the process of institutionalizing agro-ecology and the creation of the organic industry, offering data on the market and regulations both in Spain and on an international level. It will then go on to analyse the tensions that emerge in this respect due to the movements attempting to make agro-ecology a form of social transformation, but taking into account the logic the organic farmers are subjected to and the market need for the social reproduction of these projects.

Cristina de Benito is an anthropologist and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is writing her doctoral thesis on the transforming potential and contradictions inherent to organic food.

SATURDAY 5 APR. 18:00 IN ENREDARTE

The geopolitics of energy

José María Iniesta

The tumultuous world-wide geopolitical re-planning is determined by the race to monopolize the natural resources, particularly those revolving around energy, with historically unheard of competition levels. This lecture will attempt to shed some light on the current process of decline of the North American supremacy, the rise of China and the role of the rest of the world players, in a context marked by a growing and irreversible scarcity of raw materials which will tend to increase global tension and armed conflicts.

José María Iniesta has a degree in Political Science and is an activist of the Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo.

SATURDAY 26 APR. 18:00 H IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

Growth limits II: Climate change and the depletion of materials 

Jorge Riechmann
At present, the carbon dioxide and methane emission levels are similar to those of the «Ecocene Hothouse», 55 million years ago, when the temperature rose by an average of  5º in the tropics and 8º in the warm latitudes, and the planet took 200,000 years to recover a certain degree of climatic balance. And in the space of one century, the industrial societies have degraded a significant part of the base reserves of non-energy minerals. All of this would indicate that we have gone beyond the point of no return, in ecological-social terms. Is sustainability still possible?

Jorge Riechmann is a doctor of Political Sciences and professor of moral philosophy at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Poet, essayist, translator, activist of Ecologistas en Acción and Izquierda Anticapitalista, he is one of the key figures in the Spanish language eco-socialist thinking.

SATURDAY 10 MAY 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULOç

Experiences based on the neo-rural (round table)

Duarte Artabe, Javier de Miguel, Álvaro Sanz and Alfonso Serrano

The return to the fields is a recurrent theme in debates on sustainability and a transformation strategy ever more deeply rooted in the social movements. Following a general overview of this historical social process, in which we will ask ourselves what all these initiatives have in common to be considered a unit, a round table will take us close to the various neo-rural practices from the perspective of their protagonists' experiences.

Duarte Artabe is a farmer, and entrepreneueur of the neo-rural project, Pumido ao Natural in the area of Ferrolterra (Galicia). Javier de Miguel is a member of a neo-rural community in El Berrueco. Álvaro Sanz is a shepherd and libertarian activist on the hillside of Somosierra. Alfonso Serrano is the director and editor of the publishing house, La Oveja Roja and has lived in Comminges, a village of St Bernard (Midi Pyrenees) for 5 years, and a year in a village to the north of Bastia (Corsica).

THURSDAY 22 MAY 19:00 IN CA2M

Preparing the energy decline: a roadmap

Lino Blanco, member of the Asociación Véspera de Nada por una Galiza sen petróleo

The Oil Peak represents the physical impossibility of continuing with the current civilization model. Industrialism, capitalism and perpetual growth are unfeasible from the moment in which this crucial yet non-renewable raw material no longer supplies the ever-increasing energy amounts required. The Guía para o descenso enerxético recently published in Galicia, aims to offer criteria to allow the actual citizens to urgently and decisively adapt in the face of this unprecedented panorama in the history of mankind.

The field of application of this guide should not be exclusively restricted to Galicia, even if it has been developed by and for Galicia. All the alternatives to obtain, generate, distribute and consume energy are applicable to any territory. The priorities the available energy should be concentrated on, whether to obtain food or to ensure the safety of a limited few, will determine the time before violence becomes widespread. The choice between a society dominated by warlords and a charitable society, will be determined by access to energy. The availability of energy, its production and consumption will mean that "power" be imposed by a minority rather than a majority.

The association, Véspera de Nada por unha Galiza sen petróleo, is a group from Galicia which has been working for six years to raise awareness of the oil peak problem and towards the organization of alternatives to deal with this energy decline.

SATURDAY 31 MAY 18:00. PUBLIC SPACE TO BE CONFIRMED

Anti-capitalist ways out of the crisis: Growth as a solution or as a problem?

Oscar Carpintero and Juan Pablo Mateo Tomé

Capitalism is in the grip of a heartrending contradiction: if it does not grow then it does not work, and if it continues to grow it will destroy the natural foundations that make it possible. In this talk-debate, we aim to establish a dialogue to find potential ways out of the crisis from an anti-capitalist perspective, with the controversial issue of economic growth as the centre of gravity. On this issue and from the protest movements, occasionally contradictory messages are launched. The debate generated around grants to the mining sector is one example of these contradictions. It is essential to find a common ground that enables us to combine the forced decline imposed on us by the material context of our times with the immediate survival needs of the popular classes.

Oscar Carpintero is a doctor of economics and professor of Applied Economy at the Universidad de Valladolid. An ecological economist, he has been a member of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) for years, and is also a member of the CIMA (Scientists for the Environment).

Juan Pablo Mateo Tomé is a doctor of economics and has been a professor at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. Positioned within the Marxist economy, he is co-author of the works, Ajuste y salario: las consecuencias del neoliberalismo en América Latinay Estados Unidos and Las finanzas y la crisis del euro. Colapso de la eurozona.

SUNDAY 8 JUNE, FROM 12:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

Post-capitalist economic alternatives: self-management and cooperativism

12:00 Mapping of the cooperativist movement. Jorge Navacerrada 14:00 Popular lunch 15.30 Presentation of the local social currency 17.00 Cooperativism and self-management: presentation of the book La autogestión viva, by José Luis Carretero (ICEA); 19:00 The Integral Catalonian Cooperative: lessons from an experience, by Enric Durán –via Skype. 21.00 Celebrations

Cooperatives, self-employment, self-management, social economy... these terms are more and more in vogue and reflect a change in the way we understand the social struggles. An idea that is on everybody's mind: in a chronic crisis context we cannot solely focus on defending the job. In the same way we have occupied the squares, the time has now come to move on to the offensive and take over production. The aim of today is to provide a space of convergences in which to think and discover new modes of production which will serve as tools to generate a different socialization model, based on economic cooperation, that will allow us to build everyday post-capitalist realities.

Jorge Navacerrada is a member of the cooperative, Altekio Iniciativas hacia la Sostenibilidad, a cooperative project created to intervene in the fields of the environment, community development and the social economy. Jorge will outline, based on first-hand knowledge, a map of the cooperative movement at the current time, with its strengths and its weaknesses.

Jose Luis Carretero is a teacher, writer, lover of critical thinking and member of the ICEA (Institute of the Economic Sciences and Self-Management). His talk will focus on the self-managed cooperativist movement and its possibilities with a view to social emancipation, which he will deal with through the presentation of his book La autogestión viva. Proyectos y experiencias de la otra economía al calor de la crisis.

Enric Durán became known in the year 2008 for the expropriation of almost half a million euro from banking entities, money which was used to finance various social causes. In his talk, he will go over the experience of the Cooperativa Integral Catalana, a benchmark project in the state post-capitalist initiatives, touching on both its achievements and, above all, its problems and pending challenges.  
Furthermore, on this occasion we will also enjoy the presentation of various social currency projects to be confirmed.

SATURDAY 14 JUNE 18:00 IN ROMPE EL CÍRCULO

The sky beneath the rubble: the anti-capitalist strategies under debate

José Manuel Rojo (Grupo Surrealista de Madrid) and Emilio Santiago (Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo and GSM)

With the presentation of the essay, El cielo bajo los escombros, by both of its authors, we wish to create a debate on the strategic possibilities of the anti-capitalist movements in the context of the crisis of civilization we are currently immersed in:

«The revolution project, as it was understood by the classic worker's movement, cannot survive the end of the material and energy abundance that inspired it. The historic spoils of the development of the productive forces have been lost. And will never return. Any social emancipation horizon we wish to head towards will demand, as a primary condition, an emergency landing. To save ourselves from this great leap, promoted by the myth of progress which has proven a failure. To rethink the fundamental lines of the emancipation of our times requires us to depart from the following certainty: the sky can no longer be taken by assault; in the XXI Century, the sky will be cultivated beneath the rubble».

José Manuel Rojo is an historian and a member of the Grupo Surrealista de Madrid since 1987, while also collaborating with various publications by the publishing house, Pepitas de Calabaza. He is the author of some of the most acute analyses of the anti-capitalist social criticism of recent years.

Emilio Santiago is a social anthropologist and researcher of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, an activist of the Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo and a member of the Grupo Surrealista de Madrid. He researches the societal transitions from a perspective in which Marxist criticism, libertarian thinking, political ecology and surrealism converge.

Program subject to modifications, changes, contingencies and various matters to be confirmed

www.rompeelcirculo.org
mostolessinpetroleo.blogspot.com

Coordination: Juan Albarrán and Iñaki Estella / CA2M / Department of the History and Theory of Art -UAM

The purpose of this seminar is to compare some of the studies of the practice and theory of performance conducted in Spain in recent years form a dialogue-based and inclusive perspective. The event is aimed at educators, researchers and students working in the field of art history, aesthetics and theatre studies, as well as artists and professionals who work in the contemporary art context. The activity consists of two round tables at which six specialists will share research approached from very diverse platforms and disciplinary traditions, ranging from feminism to curatorial studies, as well as the theory of theatre and the history of art. All of this with a view to revealing the wealth of debate  generated around performance at a time in which it is beginning to occupy a central role in both museum and art centre programs, and in the trends towards methodological renewal of both art history and other similar fields.

PROGRAM

THURSDAY 24 APR

16.30-18.30
Round table: “Performance: curatorial discussions and tales”. Lola Hinojosa (Reina Sofía Museum), Patricia Mayayo (UAM), Ferran Barenblit (CA2M). Moderator: Iñaki Estella (UAM)

18.30-19.00
Break

19.00-21.00
Round table: “Performance and meditation”. Judit Vidiella (Universidad de Évora), Óscar Cornago (CCHS-CSIC), Gabriel Villota (UPV/EHU). Moderator: Juan Albarrán (UAM)

With the collaboration of:

Department of the History and Theory of Art, UAM

Vice-chancellorship of University Cooperation and Expansion, UAM

Junior Dean of students and cultural activities- Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, UAM

SPEAKERS

Juan Albarrán is a doctor of the History of Art from the University of Salamanca. He has been an associate professor of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Cuenca (UCLM) and, between 2009 and 2012, he formed part of the editorial team of Brumaria. At present, he teaches at the Duke Center for Hispanic Studies (Duke University, Madrid) and is Associate Professor of the Department of the History and Theory of Art at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. His research has reveolved around Spanish art in recent decades. In this area, he has coordinated the collective volume Arte y transición (2012).

Ferrán Barenblit is the director of CA2M in the Madrid Region, a space that has housed exhibitions of the ilk of Bestué / Vives, Leopold Kessler, Cristina Lucas, Guy Ben Ner, Estación Experimental, Sonic Youth Sensational Fix, to mention but a few. He was formerly the director of the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica de Barcelona and curated various exhibition cycles in Espacio 13 of the Fundació Joan Miró. He has also worked at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in Nueva York. He has given seminars and conferences on curatorial practices in numerous museums and universities all over the world. In 2008, he co-curated the SITE Santa Fe Biennial, in New Mexico. He is on the board of directors of the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) and the Asociación de Directores de Arte Contemporáneo Español (ADACE).

Óscar Cornago is a Tenured Scientist at the Instituto de la Lengua Española del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spanish Language Institute of the National Research Council), in Madrid. In 1997 he received a doctorate in Philosophy and Arts, with a specialisation in Hispanic Studies from the University of Strasbourg, and he spent two years at the Freie Universität of Berlín with a post-doctoral research scholarship. His studies have focused on the history and theory of contemporary theatre and literature. Between 2001 and 2006 he led a research project called "La teatralidad como paradigma de la modernidad: análisis comparativo de los sistemas estéticos en el siglo XX" (Drama as the paradigm of modernity: a comparative analysis of 20th century aesthetic systems), financed by the Programa Ramón y Cajal of the Ministry of Education and Science. Apart from numerous articles, he has also published a number of books: La vanguardia teatral en España L (1965-1975):del ritual al juego (Visor, 1999), Puesta en escena y discurso teórico en los años sesenta. La encrucijada de los "realismos" (CSIC, 2001), Pensar la teatralidad. Miguel Romero Esteo y las estéticas de la modernidad (Fundamentos, 2003) and Políticas de la palabra (Fundamentos, 2005), which include texts by Spanish stage creators from recent decades, such as Esteve Graset, Carlos Marquerie, Sara Molina and Angélica Liddell; he also directs the edition of those works by Miguel Romero Esteo that are appearing in the Editorial Fundamentos.

Ignacio Estella Noriega is a doctor in the History of Art. He has given conferences in Spain, Chile and the United States, where he has also spent a post-doctoral period at Columbia University. Among his publications, the first four volumes of Desacuerdos y Fluxus (Nerea, 2012) particularly stand out. He has been a lecturer at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid and is currently an Alianza Cuatro Universidades researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He is a member of the research group Art History in Spain: Development Narratives and Proposals (HAR2012-32609).

Lola Hinojosa is an Art History graduate, has a Master's in Museum Studies and an Advanced Studies diploma in Contemporary Art. Her main fields of research are performance, the moving image, the institutional review and the gender theory. She is responsible for the Performative Arts and Intermediate Collection of the Reína Sofía Art Museum of Madrid, and has formed part of the curatorial team of the collection presentations since 2009. She has participated in the curatorship of film and video cycles, such as Merce Cunningham, Archipiélago Val del Omar or La pantalla convulsa.

Patricia Mayayo holds a Master's Degree in the History of Art from the Case Western Reserve University (Ohio, E.E.U.U.) and a Doctorate in the History of Art from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. At present, she is a Full Professor of Art History at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Between 1998 and 2006, she was a professor of the History of Art at the Universidad Europea de Madrid. Various fields of work are interspersed in her research: the history of women, feminist historiography and the study of contemporary art practices. Among other publications, she is the author of the books Cuerpos sexuados, cuerpos de (re)producción (Barcelona, UOC, 2011), Frida Kahlo. Contra el mito (Madrid, Cátedra, 2008), Historias de mujeres, historias del arte (Madrid, Cátedra, 2003), Louise Bourgeois (Hondarribia, Nerea, 2002) and André Masson: Mitologías (Madrid, Metáforas del Movimiento Moderno, 2002). Together with Juan Vicente Aliaga, she has recently jointly curated the project Genealogías feministas en el arte español, 1960-2010 (Feminist Genealogies in Spanish Art, 1960-2010).

Judit Vidiella is a Doctor of Fine Arts from the Facultad de Barcelona. Her research revolves around studies of performance, education and feminism. She is a member of the performance group, Corpus Deleicti. At present, she is a lecturer at the Universidad de Évora and forms part of the teaching team of the Master's in Visual Arts and Education, at the Universidad de Barcelona.

Gabriel Villota Toyos, since1996, he has been a lecturer in the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising of the Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences, at the Universidad del País Vasco. He has worked as an artist, author and organiser of multiple activities relating to the visual arts. He has collaborated in various publications, such as Rekarte, Zehar, Papers d’Art, Banda Aparte, Política y Sociedad, Revista de Occidente, or Impasse. He has also written texts for exhibition catalogues such as Señales de vídeo (MNCARS, Madrid, 1995), Històries sense argument. El cinema de Pere Portabella (MACBA, Barcelona, 2000), Malas Formas. Txomin Badiola (Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2002), and Esfuerzo (KM, Donostia, 2004), among others. Some of his publications include Sujeto e imagen-cuerpo. Entre la imagen del cuerpo y el cuerpo del espectador (UPV/EHU, Bilbao, 2004) and the video, Devenir vídeo (adiós a todo eso) (2005).

How to create an exhibition on performance in the present time? From what curatorial approach was PER/FORM born? What are the challenges to exhibiting performance nowadays? Why is it important for the museums to conceive new ways of displaying contemporary art? What are the challenges and specific problems, and even the difficulties?

Why is the pragmatic approach ideal to handle performance? What has art history done or not done for performance? How does performance challenge our view of art and art exhibition in the institution or the space and in the public spheres?

What are the precedents for PER/FORM in my career as a curator? How does this project enhance some of my previous work?

What can be done in the future of exhibition practice that takes performativity and contemporaneity into account?

Chantal Pontbriand is art critic and curator. Her work is based on the exploration of questions of globalization and artistic heterogeneity. Since 1970, she has curated numerous international contemporary art events: exhibitions, international festivals and international conferences, mainly in photography, video, performance, dance and multimedia installation.

 She founded PARACHUTE contemporary art magazine in 1975 and acted as publisher/editor until 2007. In 1982 she was president and director of the FIND (Festival International de Nouvelle Danse), in Montreal. She was appointed Head of Exhibition Research and Development at Tate Modern in London in 2010 and since then lives in Paris and has founded PONTBRIAND W.O.R.K.S [We_Others and myself_Research_Knowledge_Systems]. www.pontbriand-works.com

The administration of fear, the discourses of hate, and the common experience of shock are other ways of speaking about the control that neo-liberalism exerts upon our bodies. Although Brian Massumi considers today that fear is an ontogenetic concept, we can think about a kind of “passion” that concerned us since the beginning of modernity when Hobbes proposed the binomial fear-security as the basis for the state’s authority. As for the shock, Walter Benjamin had already situated his experience (shockerlebnis) at the heart of modern life, considering that its reception had become the rule. All these ideas lead us to work with images, which may help us understand the “now” as a crystal of time.

We use the word management in relation with fear for its double meaning. On the one hand, there are works which criticise and analyse the production and handling of shock/fear via images (and the devices on which they can be displayed). On the other, there are those which question how to bring about, from the worlds of art and thought, this kind of operation whilst resisting the politics of fear.

We welcome papers dealing with this state of affairs, through general analyses, case studies regarding artistic practice or concrete events, genealogies, as well as visual or curatorial essays. We expect them to meet the editorial requirements of the journal, included in the guidelines of Re-visiones.

Papers should be submitted by 15th July 2015

The digital magazine Re-Visiones is a yearly, indexed, bilingual publication in which previously unpublished recent works in Spanish on visual theory, art history and art research are published. CA2M, as an observer entity involved in the promotion of the research and development project I+D VISUALIDADES CRITICAS: REESCRITURA DE LAS NARRATIVAS A TRAVES DE LAS IMÁGENES  (HAR2013-43016-P, Ministry for the Economy), undertakes this collaboration with Re-Visiones with a view to helping to promote and support the research conducted in this field. Which is why one of CA2M's missions is to foster and support image-related research. The Centre's own collection along with the Jornadas de Estudio de la Imagen organized by Madrid's regional government and held yearly since 2009 are just two examples, perhaps the most outstanding, of their work in relation to image.

Author’s Rights and Creative Commons

Authors publishing in Re-Visions are subject of keeping their authorial rights over their work. Unless stated otherwise, the distribution of articles in Re-Visions is done under the following Creative Commons license, allowing for free distribution and public communication with the mandatory condition of referring to the original source and author, and excluding any commercial use and its utilisation in derivative works without being properly cited.

During  three consecutive afternoons on June, 17, 18 and 19, three simultaneus workshops  will take place at CA2M by: Ayreen Anastas & Rene Gabri, Asier Mendizábal and Luis Jacob. The workshops, independent, will be personally addressed by each of the artists. These artists have worked in experimental formats of knowledge production, with teaching experience; they have also participated in many collective works.

These three consecutive workshops will be hold in the afternoon, parallel to the Symposium as a space for reflection.

For artists, critics, theoreticians or anyone interested in the image. Groups of 12 people max.

LUIS JACOB is an artist, writer, curator and educator living in Toronto. Luis Jacob’s diverse practice addresses issues of social interaction and the subjectivity of aesthetic experience. In 2012, his work display as part of Pop Politics: Activism at 33 Revolutions at CA2M, year that his work is also part of another exhibition in Spain Visible, Móvil, Vidente, at Center Párraga from Murcia. His works been displayed in Taipei Biennal in 2012, Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Witte of With Contemporary Art, Guggenheim New York, Generali Foundation, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and  Documenta 12. His solo exhibitions has been showcased in sites as: Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Fonderie Darling, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Kunstverein Hamburg and Galerie Max Mayer.

ASIER MENDIZÁBAL. Bilbao-based artist, whose practice, linked to the sculpture program, is developed through diverse media and procedures, including writings habitually. Multiple crossings between specific modern codes and some of his last updates in shape of popular culture (politics, music, cinema…) sets recurring references in his work. He has exhibited in solo shows at en Culturgest, Lisboa; DAE, San Sebastian and in the Museu d’Art Contemporani in Barcelona; Raven Row in London; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. He has participated in group exhibitions such as: IllumiNATIONS, 54 Venice Biennal; Scenarios about Europe, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig; In the First Circle, Fundació Tapies, Barcelona; Às Artes, Cidadãos, Serralves Museum, Porto; Després de la notícia, at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània in Barcelona, Manifesta 5 and the Biennials in Taipei and Bucarest.

AYREEN ANASTASREEN is a Palestine artist living in Brooklyn. Anastas is one of the organizers of the 16 Beaver group, an artist community that functions as a social and collaborative space on 16 Beaver street in downtown Manhattan, where the group hosts panel discussions, encounters, film series, artist talks, radio recordings, reading groups and more. Anastas’ recent artistic projects and exhibitions include: Pasolini Pa* (2005) Palestine, M* of Bethlehem (2003) and  Library of Useful Knowledge (2002). RENE GABRI was born in Tehran and now lives in New York. He is also member of 16 Beaver group, he is interested in the complex mechanisms which constitute the world around us. Ayreen Anastas' and Rene Gabri's collaborative projects have evolved a great deal through their work at 16Beaver. Their Radioactive Discussion series was a physical counterpart to their fictional Homeland Security Cultural Bureau project. The artists recently had a solo exhibition entitled 'eine welt ein thema ein korn ein zeichen ein lied ein spaziergang ein lächeln eine wand eine notiz ein datum eine karte eine und eine frage' at Kunstverein Arnsberg (2011). Other collaborations include: Camp Campaign, Artist talk, Radio Active, United We Stand, What Everybody Knows, Eden Resonating, 7X77, Case Sensitive America and more.

The workshops will be conducted in Spanish, except for the ones by Rene Gabri and Ayreen Anastas, conducted in English.

To attend the workshops, send form (download form) and send it before June 7 to actividades.ca2m@madrid.org

MAPEAR Madrid is a work group created in response to a shared desire to seek out and identify the artistic structures and various agents involved in the cultural sector of the region of Madrid. Following an initial period of research and investigation, an announcement will be made, and sessions open to the public will be offered on the first Tuesday of each month until July. At a later stage in the project, a tool for public use will be created to provide the agents and intermediaries of the contemporary creation and art scene with an efficient channel for pursuing professional projects.

The goal is to encourage interaction between artistic communities, strengthening professional ties to help the sector operate more effectively and efficiently; to democratise access to and use of information on the art and creative sector, and achieve greater transparency in its professional practices; and to promote dialogue between contemporary creation and civil society.

Following the technical research phase – interviews with sector professionals and cultural agents in the region in order to detect and identify their professional relations with universities, industry, the authorities and the media – a tool has been created which allows us to visualise these interconnections.

Register now at http://www.mapearmadrid.net/ 

 

Download full program

ORGANIZED BY YAYO AZNAR AND MARÍA IÑIGO CLAVO

“Politics is only exposed as a means of conflict, paradoxes, reciprocal impacts which knit the complete history”, as Didi-Huberman mentioned,  knitting, by the way, the whole past, that one that is almost unseen when building History. That´s the way we were told, so, that is the way things are. Nevertheless, History can also be a battlefield. History With No Past is concerned about images and counter-representations of the History (and) of Art in relation to the national/colonial discourse of Spain and Latin America.

Aníbal Quijano uses the term colonialidad –coloniality-  to propose the fact of how colonialism, far from keeping itself in the past, keeps on building discourses of powers, knowledge and difference in contemporary society. In our opinion, during the Bicentennial of Latin America, the inner latency of these colonial structures and its spread into the Spanish historical narratives became apparent. From that point of view, this congress aims to review the Spanish-Latin America historical and discursive links with the objective of creating an active debate necessary in Spain about today´s relation with its colonial past and present.

History, indeed, will become a space of reply. Art, furthermore, considered as a way of thinking capable of catalyzing the contributions from any theoretical field within the visual field, to reveal itself as a place for constructing and deconstructing narratives.

LECTURERS: Helena Chávez Mac Gregor, Giuseppe Cocco, Loreto Garin Guzmán y Federico Zukerfeld (Grupo Etcétera...) Olga Fernández, Esther Gabara, Leah Gordon (Ghetto Biennale), María Iñigo Clavo, Jaime Iregui, Jorge Luis Marzo, Eduardo Subirats, Jaime Vindel, Michael Asbury, Valerie Fraser and Isobel Whitelegg.

Congress organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Innovation, UNED, I & D D  Imágenes del arte y reescritura de las narrativas en la cultura visual global, Meeting Margins, Transnational Art in Latin America and Europe 1950-1978. University of Essex and University of the Arts London, TrAIN (Transnational Art Identity and Nation).

DAY 1. FRIDAY 20TH APRIL

10:00 INSTITUTIONAL PRESENTATION

Aurora Fernández Polaco, Valerie Fraser, Pablo Matínez and María Perex, Dean of the Faculty Geography and History of  Spanish National Distance Education University.

10:30  CorpoBraz. Giuseppe Cocco. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

PANEL I   Counter-Celebration of the Bicentennials
11:30-  Bicentennial Pavillion - Pabellón del Bicentenario- Jaime Iregui. (Esfera pública, University of the Andes)
12:30  From Spectres and other Ghosts: Past, Memory and History - De espectros y otros fantasmas: Pasado, memoria e historia- Helena Chavez Mac Gregor. (MUAC, National Autonomous University of Mexico)
13:30- Racializing history and other fears… -Racializar la historia y otros temores…- María Iñigo Clavo. (Meeting Margins research Group + “Imágenes del arte…”), Spain.

14:30-16:00 LUNCH TIME

16:00- La amnesia de Clío y la revolución de sus cuerpos errantes -The amnesia of Clio and the revolution in their wandering bodies- Loreto Garin Guzmán and Federico Zukerfeld (Grupo Etcétera…) Artists, Argentine.
17:00- Round table: Jaime Iregui, Helena Chávez, Grupo Etcétera, María Iñigo Clavo. Moderator: Olga Fernández. (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid/ Royal College of Art).

PANEL II. Counterbiennials

18:15 - The Ghetto Biennale: where first world art rubbed up against third world art. Did it bleed? -Guetto Biennale: El salón de los marginados del siglo XXI. ¿Qué pasa cuando el arte del primer mundo se restriega  contra el del tercer mundo? ¿Sangra?- Leah Gordon. Artist, photographer and independent video creative, London.
Reply: Change of format? Biennials, Ghetto and Pirate Bay -¿Cambio de formato? Bienales, guetos y bahías de piratas-. Olga Fernández (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid/ Royal College of Art).

DAY 2. SATURDAY. APRIL 21.

PANEL III:  Spain-Latin America colonial memory
10:30 The museologic triangle of Bermuda: Prado, Museo of America and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia -El triángulo museológico de las Bermudas: El Prado, el Museo de América y el Museo Nacional de Antropología-  Esther Gabara (Duke University).
11:30-  The Baroque d-efect: the failure of politics and the myth of culture -El d_efecto barroco: el fracaso de lo político y el mito de la cultura- Jorge Luis Marzo (Escuela Elisava/universitat Pompoeu Fabra de Barcelona).
12:30  The Reform of Memory -La reforma de la Memoria- Eduardo Subirats . (New York University).
13:30- Round table: Eduardo Subirats, Esther Gabara and Jorge Luis Marzo. Moderator: Antonio Urquizar (National University of Distance Education-UNED-), Spain.

14:00-15:30 LUNCH TIME

PANEL IV. Spain and UK researching and exhibiting “art in/from Latin America” 
15:30- Archive Policies, networked knowledge production and cultural counterhegemony: dilemmas about the revival of the experiences of Latin American conceptualism -Políticas de archivo, producción de conocimiento en red y contrahegemonía cultural: dilemas en torno a la reactivación de las experiencias del conceptualismo latinoamericano-. Jaime Vindel. (Conceptualismos del Sur), Spain.
16:30- Meeting Margins.
18:00 Round table: Michael Asbury, Valerie Fraser, Jaime Vindel, Isobel Whitteleg. Moderator: Valerie Fraser

ABSTRACTS

CorpoBraz. Giuseppe Cocco
Claude Lévi-Strauss, already in 1985, characterized the new paradigm of production and technology as a shift in the industry trend by reducing man to machine, up to the point where men will be replaced by machines. Consequently, the production of subjectivities became the terrain itself of accumulation, not in the sense of replacing men by robots, but in that of a machine-man hybrid. With this lecture, we intend to develop new reflections by taking up the aesthetics of the paltries by Glauber Rocha and especially his unfinished institution of a Brazilian "Utopya" which "metaphorizes in a  Baroque symbolic language of our tropicalism, speaking as it structures the collective poyetika unconsciousness, maxim by Aleijadinjo and Vila-Lobos, image and sound by Kuerpo Brazyl, KORPOBRAZ".

Bicentennial Pavillion. Jaime Iregui
It will be addressed a series of drifts and journeys made as bicentennial counter-celebration in Bogota. Monument transformation and displacement will be reviewed in various places in Bogota in relation to the celebration of independence. Specific cases will be presented about spontaneous ceremonies and rituals in public spaces.

From Spectres and other Ghosts: Past, Memory and History. Helena Chavez Mac Gregor.
This lecture aims at placing within the Mexican the relationship between past and History. Within this frame, we will put into question the artistic and curatorial exhibitions that from 2010 (official year of the celebrations of the bicentenary of the Independence and centenary of the Mexican Revolution) till now have been trying to present a critique of History in a complex net of memories and ghosts. We want to ask these practices what kind of relationship we are establishing, within the failure of the ideological narrative structure, with History? And most importantly, what kind of subjects arises from this landscape of fragments, ruins and spectres? Will it be possible from here to generate another political formulation of History?

Racializing history and other fears... María Iñigo Clavo
Avoiding indigenous peoples' progress, the debates around the race or around the Haitian Revolution mean to evade the bond of the American Independence movements together with the vindications of the race at a moment when the notion of pure-blooded still had a huge influence on the distribution of power within the South Continent (Fernandez Retamar). This paper provides an overview of art pieces and investigations that during the last years have contributed to that racialization of the Western history, intending to expand the old framing of the narration of Modern history, incompletely told and today, from post-colonialism trends, it is aimed to redeem, under a permissive acknowledgement of what is being called “other modernities”.

The amnesia of Clio and the revolution in their wandering bodies. Loreto Garin Guzmán and Federico Zukerfeld (Grupo Etcétera...)
This lecture will address the inseparable link between art, politics and society. Assuming that any cultural manifestation necessarily reflects, testifies or leaves traces of the causes of its origin in its specific context. The poetic use of the word mirror, in this case, questions the very notion of representation and at the same time defines the cultural production as a reflex or illusion. During the lecture, the artists will present a journey through those reflections and refractions that arose as a result of the investigation within the framework of the project ESPEJOS. A project contextual en el tiempo, based on the collective investigation of extra-disciplinary collaboration, originally conceived as part of militant research on the role of the cultural industries concerning the official celebration of the Bicentenary of the Latinamerican "independences".
http://crisisrepresentacion.wordpress.com/

The Ghetto Biennale: A Salon des Refusés for the 21st century.  What happens when first world art rubs up against third world art? Does it bleed? Leah Gordon. 
Leah Gordon, one of the founders and curators of the Ghetto Biennale, will discuss the conception of the Ghetto Biennale and its roots in social, racial, class and geographical immobility. Gordon will discuss the multiple, and sometime contradictory, agendas underpinning the event. There will be an evaluation and comparison of the outcomes of the 1st and the 2nd Ghetto Biennales, the effect of the earthquake and the ensuing NGO culture in Haiti. There will be a presentation of a number of projects from both Biennales accompanied by images and films. Finally Gordon will discuss the potential futures of the Ghetto Biennale including collaborations with Deptford X and mechanisms to broaden the demographic of visiting participants to include a greater class and racial spread. The conclusion will be an analysis of the question ‘did it bleed’, and if so, where?

The museologic triangle of Bermuda: El Parado, Museo de America and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. Esther Gabara
Contemporary Latinamerican art is not in vogue in Spain, although it has high selling market in Fairs and Galleries. How is this contradiction understood? Is it being created another real collection/corporative to be divided in the triangle future of Bermuda? Will those contemporary Latinamerican art pieces be destroyed or sold abroad, as were the great part of the golden pieces during the colonial time, casted in order to brace the new market economy of Spain?  Intending not to limit the project to the artistic work, the current Spanish immigration politics will have its space, the renew government´s outspread of the Spanish language, and the expansion of the Spanish banks throughout Latinamerica together with cultural, educative and artistic programming.

The reform of Memory. Eduardo Subirats
Under the wide open prospect of a “Reform of Memory”, Eduardo Subirats will present a series of intellectual topics closely related with these historical dilemmas, such as the absence of a critique of the national-catholic project of 1936, and of the colonial and postcolonial cultural processes of Latin America, the absence of a enlightened intellectual reform during de eighteen, and nineteenth centuries, and last but not least the Inquisitorial destruction of sixteenth century Spanish Jewish Humanism.

The Baroque d-effect: the failure of politics and the myth of culture. Jorge Luis Marzo
From 2004 to 2011, a group of people from Peru, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador and Spain analyzed to what extent the recurrent referrals to the Baroque within the cultural tales about what is national and Latin (or Hispanic) hides certain strategies to legitimize specific models of cultural politics and of memory.  This lecture will state the main arguments of the investigation process, the questions that guided him and the conclusions reached, which can be summarized as follows: when referring to the Hispanic, we are then talking about how a speech model has pervaded cultural dynamics, regardless if these dynamics account for the model.   The inability to handle the Hispanic world drew the attention of the Baroque as an apparent adhesive.  The self-interested impotence in the exercise of power gave rise to a sick exaltation of cultural exceptionality, which was cleverly exploited in the early eighties to spread the idea that some cultures ballasted by their anti-modernity had the best conditions to preside post-modernity.

Archives Policies, networked knowledge production and cultural counter-hegemony: dilemmas about the revival of the experiences of Latin American conceptualism. Jaime Vindel
"As a member of Red Conceptualismos del Sur, Jaime VindeI will present the general outlines of the epistemological project and the political positioning of this collective initiative and, then I will highlight the achievements as well as the contradictions that, from my point of view, the project has faced and faces.   This diagnosis will enable to widely reflect on the problems of archives policies regarding the dematerialized practices, of the relation between networked knowledge production and of the inherent aporia in an attempt to "reactivate" today, the memory from Latinamerican "critical" experiences from the sixties and the seventies. 

MEETING MARGINS: Michael Asbury and Isabel Whitelegg

BIOGRAPHIES

Giuseppe Mario Cocco is currently professor at the Universidad Federal of Rio de Janeiro, a member of the Graduate School of Communication and Program in Information Science (Facc-Ibict), Main Investigator of the CNPq, Scientist of Nosso  Estado (Paperj) and also editor of the journals: Global Brazil, Lugar común and Multitudes (Paris). He is also coordinator of the collections (ed.  DP&A) and << A Política no Império>> (Civilização Brasileira).

Jaime Iregui is an artist living in Bogotá, Colombia. His artistic work deals with a wide conception of the space and the spatial as found in practices related to information dissemination and mediating processes in the public arena.

Helena Chavez has a PhD in Philosophy from the UNAM, Mexico, and a MA at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona on Contemporary Art Theory. Currently, she is the Academic Curator of the MUAC, University Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City where she has developed the project Extended Campus a Critical Theory research program.

María Iñigo Clavo is artist and researcher. She has been Research Officer for the AHRC Project Meeting Margins: Transnational Art in Europe & Latin America 1950-1978, University of Essex. She finished her PhD at Universidad Complutense of Madridand teaches MA courses at the European University of Madrid.

Loreto Garín Guzmán & Federico Zukerfeld. In 1997 they both, with other artists, form the group Etcétera… working closely with the human rights group H.I.J.O.S. (Children for Identity and Justice Against Forgetting and Silence) in developing and popularizing “escraches,” acts of public denunciation. In 2005, together with artists and intellectuals from different places of the world formed part of the foundation of the movement International Errorist, an international organization that claims error as a philosophy of life.

Leah Gordon (born 1959 Ellesmere Port) is a photographer, film-maker and curator who has, in recent years, produced a considerable body of work on the representational boundaries between art, religion, anthropology, colonialism and folk history. In 2010 she published the photography book Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti.

Olga Fernández is an academic researcher, teacher and curator. Since 2009 she lectures at the History and Theory of Art Department, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and she is deputy coordinator of the History of Contemporary Art and Visual Culture MA. Currently, she is carrying out a research about the specificities of the exhibition medium and its critical possibilities for curatorial practice.

Esther Gabara is Associate Professor of Romance Studies and Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University. Her main area of specialization is the relationship between literature and visual culture in modern and contemporary Latin America. She is currently working on a new book project on theories of fiction in contemporary artistic and popular visual culture, entitled "Non-Literary Fiction: Invention and Interventions in Contemporary American Visual Culture".

Eduardo Subirats born in Barcelona in 1947, studied in the Paris and the Berlin from the sixties. He is author of about 40 solo and collective publications among the following:  Culturas virtuales (México: Coyoacán, 2001); El continente vacío (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1994; Bogotá, 2011), Linterna Mágica (Madrid: Siruela, 1997),  Memoria y exilio (Madrid: Losada, 2003), Viaje al fin del Paraíso. Un ensayo sobre América latina (Madrid: Losada, 2005). His latest books are: Existencia sitiada (México: Fineo, 2006), Arte en una edad de destrucción (Madrid: Ciencia Nueva 2010) and Filosofía y tiempo final (Madrid: Fineo 2010) Subirats is professor at New York University.

Jorge Luis Marzo (Barcelona, 1964). Art historian, art curator, writer and professor at Escola Elisava and Escola Massana in Barcelona. His latest curatorial projects are The Baroque D_effect. Politics of the Hispanic Image (2010-2011), Low-Cost. Free or accomplice (2009), Political Ads. The Spectacle of Democracy (2008). As a writer, his latest two paper The Administered Memory. The Baroque and the Hispanic (2010), May I speak to you openly, excellency? Art and Power in Spain since 1950 (2010) www.soymenos.net

Jaime Vindel. Historian, critic and teacher of contemporary art. European PhD in Art History from the University of Leon and MhD in Philosophy and Social Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. He has integrated several research groups, among which Research and Development project «Art and Politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Spain, 1989-2004» He has been a visitor researcher at the National University of San Martin (Buenos Aires, Argentina, MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA) and TRAIN (Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, University of the Arts, London, United Kingdom).

Isobel Whitelegg is Curator of Public Programmes at Nottingham Contemporary, UK.  She was previously Director of the MA Curating Programme at Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London (UAL) and is an Associate member of TrAIN, UAL's centre for research on transnational art. She writes regularly on modern and contemporary art with a particular emphasis on art and artists in Brazil, and has also curated exhibitions. She completed her MA (1998) and PhD (2005) in Art History & Theory at the University of Essex, specializing in modern and contemporary art from Latin America.

Michael Asbury is a British/Brazilian art historian, critic and curator. He is a faculty member at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, where he works in conjunction with the CCW Graduate School and the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN).  He received his MA in Study of Contemporary Art at Liverpool University and his PhD entitled "Helio Oiticica: Politics and Ambivalence in 20th Century Brazilian Art" at University of the Arts London.

Valerie Fraser teaches in the School of Philosophy and Art History at the University of Essex, specialising in the art and architecture of Latin America with particular emphasis on the early colonial period and the 20th/21st centuries, and on popular and indigenous culture. She is Chair of the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA, www.escala.org.uk). She has won a number of awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council including funding for a fully-illustrated online catalogue of ESCALA (2002-2005) and, in collaboration with the University of the Arts in London, a major research project into artistic relations between Latin America and Europe, Meeting Margins: Transnational Art in Latin America and Europe, 1950-1978. 

On the occasion of the exhibition No Heroics, please, an encounter will take place  between the curator of the exhibition, Tania Pardo, and the artists involved at the exhibition: Iván Argote, Sara Ramo and Teresa Solar Abboud. The encounter will introduce topics about the development and global context of the show and, also, about previous works of the three artists.