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Programa Arte y cultura en las sociedades del siglo XXI. Ctedra Jorge Oteiza
Universidad Pblica de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Patrocinado por:
Ctedra Jorge Oteiza
Jorge Oteiza Katedra
Edificio de El Sario / Sario Eraikina
Campus de Arrosada / Arrosadiko Campusa
31006 Pamplona - Irua
Tel.: 948 168 480 Ctedra Jorge Oteiza
catedrajorgeoteiza@unavarra.es Jorge Oteiza Katedra
Documentos
Alexander Alberro
Criticism, Dialectics, and Utopia
Crtica, dialctica y utopa
Sabine Breitwieser
Rume besetzen: die Politik des Kuratierens von Ausstellungen und der Leitung
von Institutionen
Ocupando espacios. Polticas curatoriales y direccin de instituciones
Occupying Spaces: The Politics of Curating Exhibitions and Directing
Institutions
Constantino Brtolo
La crtica como ausencia y ausencia de la crtica
Criticism as Absence and Absence of Criticism
Isabelle Graw
And the Winner is: Criticism. The markets for Dualisms, expanded competence
profiles and self-reflexivity
Y el ganador es: la crtica. Los mercados de los Dualismos, perfiles
competenciales ampliados y autorreflexin
From the specific nature of the spaces of art and written communication, from
the world of the university, it is up to us to turn it into practical knowledge that blocks
itself out from its reincorporation to the falsity of the aim of art. Only in this way will
it be able to unmask the mechanisms of domination to turn the spectator of a work
of art into an aware protagonist in the transformation of the world. The places of
criticism are the places of diversity.
as an author, a critic and an editor. The exhibition projects of both curators are often
labelled as Exhibition with the nature of a higher seminar, particularly in German-
language brochures.
Alexander Alberro
Criticism, Dialectics, and Utopia
The term art criticism suggests two very distinct kinds of activity. One is any
impressionistic commentary on or response to a work of art, contemporary or past.
The other is more complicated. It involves the attainment of critical distance and the
mobilization of judgments of value concerning works of art.
The logic underpinning art criticisms most important and relevant legacies
is located in the realization of publicness. Aesthetic judgments were achieved
dialectically: the quality of the aesthetic was determined by the effectiveness of
the art work in question to produce or significantly contribute to a discourse that
advanced the common good. The ideal of publicness, complete with its requirement
of critical distance, therefore held a kind of ontological function for Enlightenment
criticism. It also protected the aesthetic from radical excess such as the possibility of
an open-ended plurality of styles where anything goes.
The massive expansion of the aesthetic in the late-twentieth and early twenty-
first centuries has collapsed the possibilities of critical distance. As much of the social
realm has become cultural and aesthetic, the very practice of dialectical criticism
a practice of subversion, resistance, critique, utopian aspiration that required
distance has imploded and become assimilated. Where has that left art criticism in
the present? Are there still art critical practices that hold on to the radical promise
that was criticisms raison dtre? Or should we recognize that the pursuit of these
ideals is no longer possible?
La expresin crtica de arte se refiere a dos tipos de actividad muy distintos. El primero
sera cualquier comentario impresionista sobre una obra de arte, contempornea o
Sabine Breitwieser
Rume besetzen: die Politik des Kuratierens von Ausstellungen und der
Leitung von Institutionen
Immer wieder treten KuratorInnen von Ausstellungen mit der Intention an, mit ihrer
Arbeit zu einer Kritik an bestehenden gesellschaftlichen oder politischen Verhltnissen,
vor allem aber auch zu einer kritischen Revision des Kanons der Kunstgeschichte
beizutragen. Mit nicht weniger reformistischer Motivation proklamieren auch einige
LeiterInnen von Institutionen ihr Programm und die Art und Weise der Aufstellung,
der Leitung einer Kunsteinrichtung, der Arbeit mit den ffentlichkeiten als eine
Form der Kritik und letztlich als (Neu)Bestimmung der Aufgabe knstlerischer
Institutionen. Wenn Raymond Williams Kritik im Sinne eines criticism nicht als
Bewertung, Beurteilung sondern als Praxis erachtet, handelt es sich dann bei den
oben genannten Beispielen tatschlich um die Erweiterung von institutionellem
Handeln ber die Form einer Kritik hinaus, nmlich als Kritik? Hlt eine kritische
Praxis als AusstellungskuratorIn oder InstitutionsleiterIn den Vergleich mit dem
Handlungsspielraum jener des/der KritikerIn stand? Und knnen wir darber hinaus
von Institutionen als kritischen Einrichtungen sprechen? Knnen Kunstinstitutionen
mit einer kritischen Praxis in ihrer Programmierung, ihrer Sammelttigkeit und
Vermittlung etc. tatschlich gesellschaftliche Rume im Sinne ihrer Kritik einnehmen?
Every once in a while, the curators of exhibitions appear on the scene with the
intention of contributing with their work to the critique of existing social and political
conditions and also, particularly, on the critical review of the canon of art history.
Not with less of a reforming motivation, certain directors of institutions proclaim
their programme, their way of setting up and directing an artistic institution and of
working with public opinion as a form of critique and, ultimately, as a (re)definition
of the mission of art institutions. If Raymond Williams considers criticism no as an
assessment or rating but as a practical action, then the examples cited above, do
they really represent the scope of institutional action beyond a form of criticism,
that is, as a critique? Can a critical action as curator of an exhibition of director of
an institution withstand the comparison with the margin for action of the critic? And
further, could we talk about institutions as critical entities? Can art institutions with
a critical practice in their programming and their collecting and transmitting
activities, etc. really occupy social spaces in view of their critique?
Constantino Brtolo
La crtica como ausencia y ausencia de la crtica
La ponencia parte de una descripcin simple de la tarea del crtico literario: determinar
el gnero y la diferencia especfica de las obras literarias, para ir reconstruyendo
tanto el concepto de lo literario como las fronteras que en cada momento histrico se
adjudican a sus contenidos, observando el proceso de construccin del sistema literario
y el papel que la crtica desempea en ese trayecto. Detenindose brevemente en
la conformacin de las letras clsicas y en las propuestas renacentistas, analiza, en
busca de las categoras todava hoy operantes, el juego de tensiones que tienen lugar
alrededor de las Querellas en la Repblica de la Letras neoclsicas y su proyeccin
sobre la Ilustracin y el Romanticismo.
The talk stems from a simple description of the task of the literary critic: to determine
the genre and specific difference of literary works in order to reconstruct both the
concept of literariness and the borders that are assigned to their content in each
moment in history, observing the process of constructing the literary system and
the role played by critics along this road. Making brief stops at the formation of
classic arts and renaissance proposals, it analyses, seeking the categories that are
still operational today, the play of tensions that take place around the Quarrels of
the neoclassical Republic of Letters and its projection on the Enlightenment and
Romanticism.
The talk tries out the hypothesis that from the moment in which the avant-
garde movement broaches a situation of disappearance of Art and, therefore, the
disappearance of literature, literary criticism, as such, disappears. But even while
playing with this hypothesis it seems necessary to attend to the management of
the corpore insepulto that will carry out the late modernity. Finally, a reading of
postmodernity is proposed as a ceremony of burial of a corpse in the market tomb
and an account is given, absence of criticisms, of how critical activity passes from
semantics to the iconic specular image of a void.
Isabelle Graw
And the Winner is: Criticism. The markets for Dualisms, expanded competence
profiles and self-reflexivity
It is the central premise of my talk that Criticism, if only due to its etymological
origin, assumes and produces Dualisms. I will ask what happens, when one of its
central dualistic assumptions the polarity between Art and The Market can
no longer be maintained. As a symptom for the collapse of this polarity, I will point
to what I qualify as expanded competence profiles those many critics who also
work as curators, advisors, or dealers. Especially during Boom-Times, the expanded
competence profile is widespread as a result of increased economic pressures that
reach more immediately into our lives. If the borders between Art and The Market
are to be considered as instable also in other respects, this affects Criticism as well.
It has to reconsider what could be called its constituents blind spot the assumption
that it is outside or non involved in market conditions. But even if we opt with
Foucault for a more situational, self-reflexive Criticism we will have to realize that
there is a market for this type of Criticism too. Criticism produces meaning and
symbolic value it is highly in demand in our knowledge based economy. Especially
now, that the confidence in market values is shaken, it is Criticism that provides
meaning and credibility and is therefore highly in demand. Is Criticism therefore
the winner of the Crisis or do we have to opt for a more sceptical perspective? I will
conclude that there is no reason to celebrate. Those who welcome the crisis as
a readjustment are still attached to the neoliberal idea of the markets purifying
function.
constataremos que tambin existe un mercado para este tipo de crtica. La Crtica
genera significado y valor simblico y es muy demandada en una economa como
la nuestra, basada en el conocimiento. Especialmente ahora, que la confianza en
los valores mercantiles se tambalea, la Crtica es lo que proporciona significado
y credibilidad y, por lo tanto, est muy demandada. Es por lo tanto la crtica la
ganadora de la crisis o debemos optar por una perspectiva ms escptica? Concluir
que no hay razn alguna para celebraciones. Los que dan la bienvenida a la crisis
como un reajuste siguen aferrados a la visin neoliberal de la funcin purificadora
de los mercados.