Talks of the XII Biennial of Cuenca in the UDA

On November 23 and 24 days in the Multiple Use Room of the Universidad del Azuay, two keynote talks were given by members of the jury of the 12th Cuenca Biennial: Gaudencio Fidelis and Guadalupe Álvarez.

The first day, the Cuban and graduate in History of Art, Guadalupe Álvarez, gave a talk about the relationship that contemporary art has with cultural institutions. He argued that art no longer has essence or nature, but has become a construction of values ​​within the traditional institutional framework of it.

The Cuban pointed out that the question, what is art? it has been replaced by the question: when is there art? and said that in the last century art meant universal meanings, but today it has changed its canons.

He also spoke about the intellectual sensitivity within art, referring to this as a field in which there can not be only one scenario and it is necessary to understand several methodological processes in order to criticize it.

"The History of Art is already exploited, it is tremendously excluding and geopolitical, it has a Euro-North American axis and its lines are very aesthetic. It is important to question the cultural institutionality, because each of its functions are fundamental, "he concluded.

On the second day the Brazilian and magister in Art for New York University Gaudencio Fidelis spoke about the 10ª Mercosul Biennial and the transformation of the canon of large-scale exhibitions from a jury perspective before the public.

This event was held at the 2015 and tried to prioritize art in the countries of Latin America through a change of the traditional biennial model. Works were exhibited from the beginning of the 18th century to the present and there was no chronology, a mechanism of juxtaposition was used.

An extensive network of negotiations and cultural diplomacy was also developed to get works from all over Latin America and in this way contribute to the history of art and experiment.

The exhibitor made a "tour" of images of the main exhibitions with their respective works, these were: Antropofagia Neobarroca, Biography of Urban Life, Modernism and Parallax, Marginalia of Form and Dust and the World of Objects.

He mentioned that this event did not have hierarchies, that is, a canonical work was next to the work of an emerging artist. He also defined himself as "a historian who believes in the history of art as a very powerful instrument of knowledge".