On the Paradox of Tragedy : Notes for the Balance of Its Theoretical Heritage

This paper examines some of the theories that were proposed to answer the paradox of tragedy during the eighteenth century, tracking what these theories, in their diversity, show with respect to the assumptions within which the paradox of tragedy arises and the limits and possibilities this approach may offer to answer the problems raised by our aesthetic response to the pain of others. The theories can be classified according to four basic positions. The analysis of these positions encourages us to study this phenomenon from a perspective that takes into account the broader anthropological and ethical context of our emotional reactions to others and keeps in mind the peculiarities that involves the viewer's position (in contrast to the sufferer's position). Also, the analysis suggests that we set aside the search for a common solution and try to develop answers that account for the relevance of differences in both the cultural and normative context of emotional reactions, as well as how various genres and particular works model and structure these reactions

On Art, Compassion, and Memory

ABSTRACT: The late twentieth century saw an upsurge of visual artworks that vindicate the importance of artworks that show the pain endured by victims of political violence in the name of art’s unique ability to create shared memories. However, it is unclear what kind of memories art can create, and how can it create them. One common answer is that art can communicate empathically the most intimate perceptual aspects of pain and engrave them deeply in the spectator’s mind. This paper proposes to consider that question and evaluate this answer within the framework provided by the cognitive theory of emotions (Nussbaum 2003; Goldie 2000). I will first provide an analysis of an artwork by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo with the help of the theory of “criterial prefocusing” (Carroll 1998). This allows me to claim that the artistic and political importance of this artworks derives from the fact that it does not only try to generate empathy, but models it through compassion. The strength and depth of the emotion makes the experience memorable, but the cognitive structure of compassion imposes certain conditions in what kind of memory can be generated: it’s a memory not of the events recreated and not from the point of view of the victim, but a memory of the experience of the work and from the point of view of the spectator

The domesticated modernism : some aesthetic ideas in Eduardo Castillo's critical work

RESUMEN: En su obra crítica, Eduardo Castillo defiende muchas de las ideas estéticas que el modernismo introdujo en Colombia: que el artista se opone a la moderna sociedad materialista, que el arte está limitado al círculo estrecho de los mandarines del gusto y que el sacerdocio exclusivo del arte exige sacrificar la vida al cultivo de la forma perfecta. Pero en sus textos estas ideas se encuentran armonizadas con algunas de las tesis principales del clasicismo hispanizante promulgado por la Regeneración a finales del siglo XIX, y carecen de la voluntad de contemporaneidad que caracterizó y validó el primer modernismo.ABSTRACT: In his critical work Eduardo Castillo defends many of the aesthetic ideas that Modernism introduced in Colombia: that the artist opposes the modern materialist society, that art is limited to the narrow circle of the mandarins of taste, and that the exclusive priesthood of art demands sacrificing one’s own life to the creation of a perfect form. But in his texts these ideas are harmonized with some of the main theses of the hispanizing Classicism spread by the Regeneration at the end of the 19th century, and lack the will of contemporarity that characterized and validated early Modernism

Kant, Baudelaire and the breakup of the Neoclassical Ideal of Human Beauty

RESUMEN: Sobre la belleza humana pesa, en el reino de las artes visuales contemporáneas, casi una prohibición tácita. El cuerpo humano es todavía uno de los temas centrales del arte, pero no se lo suele representar como bello: el énfasis se pone en su fealdad, o en los aspectos terribles o abyectos de la corporalidad. Este artículo intenta comprender el proceso que lleva a esta situación a partir de la transformación del concepto de “belleza ideal” entre Kant y Baudelaire, que muestra una profunda conexión entre el concepto de belleza humana y la esperanza del progreso moral. La ruptura de esta esperanza, sostenemos, es una de las razones por las cuales el arte moderno y contemporáneo ha rechazado con tanta fuerza la representación de la belleza ideal.ABSTRACT: In the realm of Contemporary Visual Arts, here hovers over Human Beauty a tacit ban. The Human Body is still one of the central themes of Art, but it is not in the habit of being represented as beautiful: emphasis is laid on its ugliness, or in the terrible or abject aspects of Corporality. This paper tries to understand the process that led to this situation starting from the transformation of the concept of “Ideal Beauty” between Kant and audelaire, which shows a deep connection between the concept of Human Beauty and the hope for Moral Progress. We maintain that the break-up of this hope is one of the reasons why Modern and Contemporary Art have rejected so forcefully the representation of Ideal Beauty

Here, today, out loud: about contemporary in Colombian art

RESUMEN: Apoyado en las tesis del “fin del arte” y el “fin de las vanguardias”, y a través del análisis de una serie de entrevistas realizadas a artistas, críticos, curadores e historiadores del arte colombianos, en este texto se exploran algunos de los conceptos que sirven para construir la autoconciencia de la contemporaneidad en el arte colombiano. El análisis muestra que esta se determina casi siempre por la penetración y el afianzamiento en el ámbito colombiano de las nuevas maneras de hacer arte promovidas por las neovanguardias, suscitando versiones locales de las mismas inquietudes sobre el papel de las instituciones y las relaciones entre arte y vida. Los conceptos más influyentes para comprender esta situación vienen en muchos casos de las teorías de la posmodernidad.ABSTRACT: Based on the thesis of the “end of art” and of the “end of the avant-garde”, and through the analysis of a series of interviews to Colombian artists, art critics, curators, and art historians, this paper explores some of the concepts that are used to construct the self-awareness of contemporarity in Colombian art. The analysis shows that this self-awareness is almost always determined by the penetration and consolidation in Colombia of the new ways of making art promoted by the neo-avant-gardes, that arouses local versions of the same concerns about the role of the institutions and the relationships between art and life. Very often, the most influent concepts used to understand this state of affairs come from the theories of postmodernit

Consumerist Culture and Politics of Compassion

RESUMEN: Este artículo evalúa la idea de G. Lipovetsky y J. Serroy según la cual la modernidad ha favorecido una ampliación de la compasión. A la luz de las investigaciones sobre la naturaleza y estructura de la compasión, realizados por M. Nussbaum, y algunos estudios sobre cultura de consumo, se puede sostener que la compasión efectivamente se ha generalizado gracias a un conjunto de fenómenos característicos del mundo actual: la individualización, la globalización, la interconexión informativa y la extensión del presupuesto democrático de la igualdad jurídica ante la ley. Sin embargo, el actual sistema económico y social promueve, al mismo tiempo: la competencia individual despiadada en todos los niveles, la fragmentación selectiva de la información en unidades mínimas, el aislamiento de los individuos y un temor paralizante a quedar por fuera del juego económico. Esta situación favorece una compasión poco profunda, que no necesariamente se convierte en acción efectiva, y, en ciertos casos, bloquea completamente su aparición.ABSTRACT: The article assesses G. Lipovetsky and J. Serroy’s idea according to which modernity has favored an expansion of compassion. In the light of researches on the nature and structure of compassion –undertaken by M. Nussbaum– and some studies on the culture of consumerism, it is possible to argue that compassion has indeed been generalized due to a group of phenomena characteristic of our time: individualization, globalization, connectivity, and the expansion of the democratic principle of equality before the law. However, the current economic and social system, at the same time, fosters such things as: ruthless individual competition at every level, selective fragmentation of information in minimal units, isolation of individuals, and a paralyzing-fear of being left out of the economic game. Such a situation boosts a poorly deep compassion that not necessarily becomes an effective action, and that, in a certain way, completely blocks its appearance

Dreams of another World: Art, Modernity and Wealth in Jose Asuncion Silva

RESUMEN: La obra de José Asunción Silva representa uno de los primeros ensayos de crear un arte autónomo y moderno en la Colombia de finales del siglo XIX. Este artículo explora las reflexiones de Silva respecto las dificultades a las que se enfrentaba cualquier intento de este tipo en el mundo moderno y, particularmente, en Colombia, tal como se escenifica sobre todo, pero no únicamente, en la relación entre arte y mundo burgués. En un primer momento, ejemplificado por la Carta abierta, Silva instaura oposición radical entre el mundo del arte y el mundo de la “vida práctica”. De sobremesa, en cambio, propone una comprensión más compleja de esta relación, que saca a la luz la manera en la que el artista también participa del horizonte vital de la vida burguesa, particularmente en las experiencias de la sensualidad y el lujo.ABSTRACT: José Asunción Silva’s work represents one of the first attempts to create an autonomous and modern art in the late ninetieth century Colombia. This paper explores Silva’s reflections on the difficulties of any effort of this kind in the modern world and particularly in Colombia, as it is presented mostly (but not only) in the relationship between art and bourgeois world, and that reaches different results in different parts of his work. In a first moment, exemplified by the Carta abierta, Silva establishes a radical opposition between the world of art and the world of “practical life”. De sobremesa, instead, proposes a more complex understanding of this relationship, bringing to light the ways in which the artist necessarily participates in the life-horizon of bourgeois life, especially in the experiences of luxury and sensuality

Vidales, Vallejo, Vanguardia

RESUMEN: El colombiano Luis Vidales y el peruano César Vallejo se cuentan entre los máximos exponentes de la vanguardia literaria de sus países. El artículo indaga, a través de distintas nociones del concepto vanguardia y a través del análisis de dos poemas, hasta qué punto es válida esta afirmación general.ABSTRACT: Luis Vidales and César Vallejo, both writers from Colombia and Perú respectively, and considered the most important representatives of the vanguard literature of their countries. The article goes deep into the rightness of this general affirmation by taking into account difeent acceptations of the concept vanguardism and analyzing a poem each of them

Repertorio bibliográfico : Artes, estética e historia del arte en Colombia 1870-1929

RESUMEN: Se describe el origen, el proceso y el resultado del trabajo de investigación bibliográfica realizado para el Grupo de Investigación en Teoría, Práctica e Historia del Arte en Colombia de la Universidad de Antioquia, cuyo resultado principal es una base de datos que reúne los registros bibliográficos de las áreas de arte, estética e historia del arte en Colombia en el periodo 1870 a 1929. El texto enfatiza las cualidades necesarias de la investigación bibliográfica especializada y el papel que en ella cumple el trabajo interdisciplinario entre bibliotecólogos y expertos en el área, su importancia para el fortalecimiento de los procesos de investigación y plantea futuras posibilidades de investigación en esta y otras áreas siguiendo la experiencia descrita.ABSTRACT: This article describes the origin, process, and results of a bibliographic research Project carried out by the Research Group on the Theory and History of Art in Colombia in the University of Antioquia. The primary product of this study is a database that combines bibliographic records in the fields of Colombian art, aesthetics, and art history for the period 1870 to 1929. The text emphasizes bibliographic research and the role that interdisciplinary cooperation can play between librarians and subject experts in this area of study, as well as its importance in improving the research process. It also suggests possibilities for future research in this and other areas, following the experience here described