Art, Politics and Counterculture. The World of Today

April 6 - May 18 2021 Tuesday and Thursday, 12:00 (Mexico City)

Curators: Francisco Carballo, Lizzie Sells and José Luis Paredes Pacho

Available: Facebook Live, Museo del Chopo YouTube channel and Cultura en Directo UNAM YouTube channel

A series of conversations with artists, thinkers, academics, activists and politicians from across the world, in dialogue on the state of the world today. Women and men from twelve different countries, belonging to different generations, political approaches and cultural references, will address issues such as the collateral effects of the pandemic, the challenges of climate change, the rise of the far right, the persistence of racism, the meaning and the risks of virtual engagement, the loss of legitimacy of capitalism as a form of economic organization, and new models of activism.

 

Currently the world is experiencing a moment of deep transition when all the usual certainties seem to have collapsed, making it inevitable to wonder where we find ourselves and which direction we want to take. These are questions that arise everywhere today in the context of the global pandemic, hence the interest in listening to voices from different disciplines and hemispheres, as well as from different generations, with a view to discussing the present and imagining glimpses of an alternative future.

 

The conversations cover three key themes: art, politics and counterculture, approached from different perspectives. When it comes to art, we must ask the questions: What is the role of artists in contemporary society, where the mechanisms that legitimized artists have been lost? What is the role of art and artists in today’s world? Is it possible to go beyond an art that produces objects to reach an art that contributes to building relationships?

 

Regarding politics, two key words of contemporary political language are explored—feminism and decolonization—as well as the central problem of the world today—climate change—paying special attention to the struggles of indigenous and Afro-Latin American peoples.

 

Meanwhile, the counterculture that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s hegemonized what was understood as forms of resistance to the system and the possibilities of imagining other ways of life. Radical politics and the art of rupture were intimately linked to the counterculture. What remains of that counterculture in the second decade of the 21st century? What is worth retaining from the spirit of the counterculture, and what should be abandoned? To what extent are there new countercultures today that attack the established order from the right? To what extent are these new forms of the counterculture embodied in the new fascisms?

 

This debate series is organized by the Museo Universitario del Chopo and the Centre for Postcolonial Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London (UK). In partnership with the Geography Institute at the UNAM and Cultura en Directo.