Between the Past and the
Present:
Does Art Criticism Have A Future In De-territorialized Contexts?
29-30 September 2009,
Today contemporary art and art criticism are confronted with the challenges
of the globalizing world. The expansion of the sphere of immaterial production
in world economy, constant transformations of contexts of creation and
production and formats of representation, dissemination and archiving challenge
the age-old professional divisions of social practices depriving art from its
monopoly over the production of the symbolic.
If contemporary art opposes this tendency by offering direct social and
political critique, while simultaneously striving toward expanding its own
economical resources, art criticism has taken up the function to construct a
broad field of cultural mediation. Practices that come out of this field are
directed towards the protection of art’s positions, as well as legitimization
and justification of aesthetic strategies.
To be involved in the development of these practices and related theories
as well as in the educational processes is certainly evidence of the
functionality and relevance of art criticism today. However, while
restructuring the previous mechanisms of licensing and legitimization, these
inter-penetrations simultaneously come to question the legitimacy of art
criticism as a domain for autonomous aesthetic judgment and as prima prattica for artistic evaluation.
How are the transformations and changes which take place inside of art
criticism as a field reflected upon the local contexts of the geo-political
outskirts of the Western culture (Central Asia, Middle East, the Caucasus and
Turkey) — places in which art has been mostly conditioned by external religious
and ideological rather than aesthetic factors while art criticism has been
tolerated by power regimes only in its function as a persecutor? Is it possible
to find a position between the modes of the past and the imperatives of the
present in which art criticism would no longer be subservient to a dominant
political ideology but would not fall into the perils of commercialism either?
Is it possible to utilize its potential in directions that promote the
formation of a truly democratic public sphere and civil society essential for
the development of arts; encourage the transfer of knowledge and skills between
generations and re-establishment of historical continuity without harbouring nationalist values and rhetoric? Can art
criticism limit the resurgence of those phenomena which threaten cultural
differences and contemporary imperatives of inter-cultural dialogue especially
in territories and regions which have historically been zones of
religious-cultural antagonisms and geo-political competitions?
These are some of the questions we would like to touch upon during the
upcoming AICA regional seminar organized in
The seminars will take place throughout three-days and will be complimented by
visits to museums and educational institutions as well as meetings with local
art and cultural practitioners.
The panels are open to the public, and the priority will be given to audiences
of students.
The languages of presentations are English and
download the programm here (*.doc 90kb )
General Coordination
Nazareth KAROYAN (President of AICA
Communication cordination
Eva KHACHATRYAN (Member of AICA Armenia)
Production manager
Nora GALFAYAN(Utopiana Association)
Cultural Program cordination
Sona HARUTYUNYAN(Member of AICA
Speakers
Vardan AZATYAN(
Ruben AREVSHATYAN(
Hrach BAYADYAN (
Ramon Tio BELLIDO(Paris, France)
Gamal BOKONBAEV (Bichkek,
Kirghizstan)
Tony
CHAKAR (Beyrouth, Lebanon)
Katerina DEGOT (Moscow, Russia)
Christophe
DOMINO (Paris, France)
Galit Eilat ( Tel Aviv, Israel)
Deniz Erbas (
Vardan JALOYAN (
Khatuna KHABULIANI (
Sohrab MAHDAVI (
Ara NEDOLYAN(Erevan,
Armenia)
Support
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Ministry of Culture of RA |
OSI |
UNESCO |
Embassy of France in armenia
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AICA |
AICA
Armenia
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