In Mexico, as in many other parts of the world, the contemporary art circuit is facing an enormous quantity of theoretical postures from many different latitudes which informs the analysis of the artistic production. Because of the influence of some postures, it is possible to consider them as canonical speeches, i.e., as a process “defined through the conformation of an accumulated of authors, movements, epochs and works that, through time stand as validated references of which art if [… and its] bonded to the idea of the ‘aesthetic paradigm of an epoch’”. Now, the most influent canonical discourse is the one derived from the modern Eurocentric tendency to generate universal values, which depart from a privileged position. For the artistic speech, Gerardo Mosquera identified this hegemonic canon as “internationalism”, or, in the words of Hans Belting, the “world art”.
Mexico has a tradition of art criticism since the 19th, strongly bonded to the academic European tradition, specular aspect of its peripherical condition. Towards the end of the 19th century, the visual arts showed a strong tendency to indagate the “the self” of the national art. The identity issue became fundamental of every cultural practice, and numerous proposals emerged from different fields of thinking the philosophical, the political, and the social. Currently, due to the social and historical conditions of the Mexican productions, two postures are distinguished for the creation and discursive projection for the arts, which can be understood as canonical: the Eurocentric canon and the Latin American canon. Both postures coexist temporarily nevertheless the different perspectives which inform them.
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Publicado en: Entkunstung Journal; Número 1
Diciembre, 2016