Wide Audiences and the Visual Arts from 1950 to the Present

Organized by Valeria Camporesi, Olga Fernández López and Noemi de Haro-García.

Within the framework of the research projects:
-Long exposure: the narratives of Spanish contemporary art for 'wide audiences' (HAR2015-67059-P MINECO, FEDER).
-Our Many Europes. Europe’s Critical ‘90s and the Constituent Museum”, by L’Internationale, the European Confederation of Museums.

This international conference examines the media, narratives and practices which have sought to make contemporary visual arts accessible to wide audiences from 1950 to the present.

The development of the media (press, cinema, television, the internet), the proliferation of illustrated publications and the exponential increase in the number of exhibitions and new museums around the world has given rise to a vast array of mediums that have played a key role in configuring and disseminating narratives of contemporary art among a wide, diverse and unspecialised audience. The expansion of education and leisure- and consumerism-related activities has also led to a significant rise in the mainstream’s interest in the visual arts. Both the aims and effects of the initiatives steered towards the “popularisation” of the arts are diverse and often incompatible, ranging from the commercialisation of culture to the empowering of individuals and collectives. Consequently, the ways of approaching communication and dissemination vary according to the receivers, who are equally diverse: from political and cultural agents to consumers from the society of the spectacle and digital users.

Furthermore, it must be noted that although these receivers sometimes follow norms established by senders, they also frequently modify, misinterpret, deny or subvert them. Thus contemporary art is re-appropriated in unpredictable and unexpected ways, and counter-publics emerge. The demands on the worlds of culture and the humanities require them to have a social impact and to construct “from below”, contributing to empowerment, using new technologies wisely, and promoting freedom, democracy, equality and respect, as well as the integration of diversity. Yet there is also the need to combine critical analyses and productive reflections to elucidate the method of obtaining results.

The conference is structured around two sessions, including the presentation of communications selected via an international open call for papers, a round-table discussion and two lectures, combining to create a framework to debate and think about the problems, limitations and opportunities arising in the crossroads between the arts and wide audiences.

The event is free and open to all.

There will be simultaneous translation (Spanish, English) in all sessions.

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY, 29 NOVEMBER

9:30am – 10:00am. Welcome.

10:00am – 11:00am. Keynote address: Juan Martín Prada. "Art and Spectators in the Social Media Age".

11:00am – 11:30am Coffee Break.

11:30am – 1:30pm. Reception, Participation and Appropriation. Chair: Laura Caballero.
- Ivana Hanacek. "Strategies for the Democratization of Culture in Socialist Yugoslavia: Artistic Work in the National Front".
- Catalina Imizcoz. "ramona: Looping the Mechanisms of Production and Reception".
- André Rui Graça. "Audiences and Film-going in Portugal (1960-2010): Evolution of Policies, Reception Contexts and Visual Culture".
- Alia Soliman. "On the Popularisation of the Doppelgänger Figure in Contemporary Visual Culture".

1:30pm – 2:30pm. Spectatorship and Embodiment. Chair: María Íñigo.
- Vivian Kuang Sheng. "Confrontational Encounters: The Activated Spectatorship in Mona Hatoum’s Estranged Domesticity".
- Emily Watlington. "Pretty Gross: Aestheticized Abjection in Feminist Video Art, 1996-2009".

2:30pm – 5:00pm. Break.

5:00pm - 6:30pm. Art (and) Mediation. Chair: Javier Fernández Vázquez.
- Ariadna Lorenzo. "The Illustrated Lecture at MoMA’s Auditorium: Developing a Space for a New Audience".
- Elizabeth Stainforth and Ana Baeza Ruiz. "Technologies of Public Culture: Exploring the Role of Visual Communication Technologies in Cultural Heritage Institutions".
- Sonia Jiménez Hortelano and Clara Solbes Borja. "Programas públicos para públicos plurales. Las estrategias de mediación en Bombas Gens Centre d’Art".

6:30pm – 7:00pm. Break.

7:00pm – 8:00pm. "Towards a Constituent Museum. Politics and Practices of Mediation in 'Our Many Europes'".
Round-table discussion, with the participation of Pablo Martínez, Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, Onur Yıldız and Adela Železnik. Moderated by Jesús Carrillo.

FRIDAY, 30 NOVEMBER

10:00am – 11:30am. Biennials and Contemporary Publics. Chair: Desirée Vidal.
- Eva March. "Barcelona 1955: la apropiación social de la III Bienal Hispanoamericana de arte".
- María Dolores Barrena Delgado. "Fotografía, 1968, 1969 y un grupo de amigos: el aquí y ahora del aquí y ahora".
- Sophie Goltz. "22 Years After: What Is the Answer Today? A Comparative Study of Manifesta 12 (2018) and X Berlin Biennale (2018)".

11:30am – 12 noon. Coffee Break.

12 noon – 1:30pm. Broadening Audiences, Expanding Channels. Chair: Alberto López Cuenca.
- Briley Rasmussen. "Broadcasting Modernity: The Museum of Modern Art’s Experiments in Television Programming".
- Daniel Verdú. "In Search of Wider Audiences. Strategies of Spanish Art Criticism between 1975 and 1992".
- Laura Gómez Vaquero. "Modos de narrar el arte contemporáneo español en el documental reciente".

1:30pm – 4:30pm. Break.

4:30pm - 5:30pm. Keynote address: Lynn B. Spigel, "Talking Heads and Video Countercultures".

5:30pm – 6:00pm. Break.

6:00pm – 7:30pm. Artists and/or Wide Audiences. Chair: Laura Ramírez.
- Katharine J. Wright. "The Medium is the Media: Protest Art and the Infiltration of Postwar American Periodicals".
- Andrew Cappetta. "The Birth of Underground Music and the British Art School, 1960-1980 ".
- Patrick Van Rossem. "The Artist and the Worry Behind the Work. Just a Voice Amongst Many?"

7:30pm – 8:00pm. Closing remarks.

FURTHER INFORMATION:
In Spanish: https://www.museoreinasofia.es/actividades/grandes-publicos-artes-visuales-1950-nuestros-dias
In English: https://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/activities/wide-audiences-visual-arts-1950-present