Where is art going? A talk by Gerardo Mosquera
Tuesday 29 October, 19.00–21.00
Rijksakademie Schip
Entrance free, RSVP here
We are witnessing a radical expansion in the canon of what has been labeled under the term “contemporary art”. A first expansion of it took place as a result of the internationalization of contemporary art production and circulation conditioned by globalization and electronic communications. Right now a more drastic process is happening: the formation of a pluriversal canon in contemporary art. It is the result of the legitimation in hegemonic circuits of diverse art practices formerly excluded: non-canonic poetics, indigenous, intuitive, minority, narrative, symbolic, community, and other outsider arts… The talk will examine how this occurred in the two last Venice Biennials, the two last Sao Paulo Biennials, and the last documenta.
Gerardo Mosquera is a freelance curator, critic, art historian, and writer based in Havana and Madrid. Member of the advisory council of several international institutions, magazines and journals, he was co-founder of the Havana Biennial (1984–1989), Adjunct Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1995–2009), and Artistic Director of PhotoEspaña, Madrid (2011–2013), among other positions. He has curated many international “perennials”; most recent ones: Guangzhou Image Triennial 2021; 21st Paiz Biennial 2018, Guatemala; 3rd Today's Documents 2016, Beijing; 4th Poly/Graphic San Juan Triennial 2015. Among his most recent exhibitions are: ‘Hot Spot’, Galleria Nazionale, d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, 2022–2023; ‘Useless. Machines for Thinking, Dreaming, and Seeing’, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 2019, and ‘Adiós Utopia. Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950’, The Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, 2017, and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2017. Author and editor of numerous texts and books on contemporary art and art theory, his most recent books are ‘Beyond the Fantastic. Crítica de arte contemporánea en América Latina’, Universidad de Granada, 2022, and ‘Arte desde América Latina (y otros pulsos globales)’ Ediciones Cátedra, Madrid, 2021. He has lectured in five continents and has organized several international conferences. He received the Guggenheim Fellowship, New York, in 1990.
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