Experts in art criticism from Spain, Argentina, Colombia, United States, Cuba and Mexico met to discuss art critism - an activitiy vital for cultural life that invites to understand, see and think of artistic creation.
The three-day- Ibero-American Colloquium of Art Criticism, which began on Wednesday July 16 at the National Museum of San Carlos and will continue on Thursday 17 at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes and Friday 18 at the Museum of Modern Art.
There will be two key note speeches by Néstor García Canclini and José Luis Barrios as well as six panel and round table sessions as well as two clinics of art criticism on 14 and 15 July.
The director of the INBA, Maria Cristina Garcia Cepeda, stressed the importance of this symposium and said, "is an important academic endeavor that offers, for the first time, a forum for the study of the state of art criticism, emphasizing its importance within the arts, museum and cultural activity in our country. "
She said that art criticism plays a key role, because "it's good for us and we need it. When we go to see a play, or enjoy a work of art in any of the disciplines, we feel we know everything or understand everything, but when we have the support of art criticism that opens up other avenues for understanding the work of art. "
Therefore it was necessary to encourage reflection on art critism that includes various disciplines such as art history, literature, promotion and journalism, in order to provide tools to see, feel and read the work of the creators and understand art according to one's own sensibility.
Thus, this symposium, organized by the National Museum of San Carlos, the Palace of Fine Arts and Modern Art, will feature internationally renowned critics, as Estrella de Diego and Orlando Britto, of Spain; Néstor García Canclini and Graciela Speranza, Argentina; GustavoOrti and Carolina Ponce z, of Colombia, as well as national experts, including José Luis Barrios, Minera María and Antonio Espinoza.
José Manuel Springer, codirector of the Ibero-American Colloquium,said that art criticism "opens a door to work, allows us to introduce to see art from a place that perhaps we had not anticipated or imagined; art critic is a translator, is a nomad who moves from one territory to another, going from the territory of the floor to the images, and through that ride help us to understand a work of art from multiple angles. "
Although previously art criticism wasmore normative in the sense of pointing what is considered art and showing the merits of a work, he said that today, with the emergence of new platforms, especially digital, the criticism has democratised through, for example, social networking, blogs and web pages, where there are people willing to give their views on an artistic event.
Juan Manuel Springer said that in Mexico "art criticism lacks vision, rigor and ability to create stories; it has reached just the description and I think we need to see art criticism as an exercise of visual literacy. "
Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros, also co-director of the conference, said that precisely this initiative arose from the need to professionalize the art critics.
About the organizers he said that, "We are a generation that did not have formal training, because there was none, we come from different areas: communication, literature, cinema, and over time we have become voices of arts criticims in the media. "
He noted that while these media spaces have been reduced they have also produced new platforms, such as blogs and web pages, where there are reflection of visual arts. It is necessary to analyze what is happening with art criticism and how it is evolving and how people can learn about it.
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