Thinking about Global Conceptualism

Seminar

The relationships between art and politics have been an endless source of material for the study of artistic behavior since 1960. The role of Totalitarian political regimes and the transition to Democracy undoubtedly marked the panorama of what we call conceptual art, bestowing on it both a social and a political character. Now the paradigmatic models have changed and, because of that, we must design a vivid heritage and a cultural dissemination; to be consistent we need strategies to tune into the interested sectors.

It has been thirty years since a new and singular way of understanding art appeared in the international panorama and had worldwide impact. Latin America and some countries in Southern and Eastern Europe participated fully, offering forms that were both specific and different both socially and politically and are, still today, rather unknown and have not been studied enough.

All options understood and continue to understand art not just as a productive and purely artistic force, but also as a social force, and they must be considered so that we can rewrite conceptual art. Historiographic, geopolitical and economic strategies for the documentation of all conceptualisms wonder about the contemporaneity of the conceptual debate.

Is it time to decide to confront the question? To make a new investment in the active recuperation of art's own heritage and abandon the majority of the conventional readings of conceptual art that have been made up until now?

Antoni Mercader (UB)

This is a part of the Vivid Memory Project from the European program Cultura 2000