A Two-Day Workshop on Jorge Oteiza’s Radical Thought organised by Centre for Modern Thought and Hispanic Studies
Jorge Oteiza (1908–2003) is one of the key Spanish artists of the 20th century. His theoretical writings explore the connections between art and life ⎯more specifically the spiritual dimension of art and the political role of the artist. A few years before the publication of his most influential text “Quousque tandem…!” (1963) Oteiza had already decided to cease creating rather than to repeatedly reproduce what he considered to be the formal conclusion of his artistic experimentation, the work which had won him the top prize for sculpture in the 1957 Sao Paolo Biennial. At a time when Guggenheim museums are mushrooming everywhere, art seems to amount to little more than a commodity of the tourist industries of well-developed countries and regions. Meanwhile, the aura of great works is being stolen, or masked and even forgotten. Did art ever have any impact on society? Clearly visualizing this end of art, Jorge Oteiza sculpted, thought, and wrote, about all these contemporary concerns. Early next year a two-day workshop organised jointly by the Centre for Modern Thought and Hispanic Studies will discuss Oteiza’s theoretical writings from a multidisciplinary perspective (such fields as Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Sociology and Visual Culture), framed by the wider theoretical debates on art, and engagement, lost causes and grand narratives.
The seminar discussion will be based on readings of Oteiza’s “Selected Writings”. Each participant will offer a twenty-minute position paper, to be followed by a discussion. Participants include: Elixabete Ansa (Indiana University), Juan Arana (University of Nevada Reno), Nerea Arruti (Aberdeen), Nagore Calvo (Lancaster), Heather Delday (Gray’s School of Art), David Inglis (Aberdeen), James Leach (Aberdeen), Arturo Leyte (University of Vigo), Beth Lord (University of Dundee), Alberto Moreiras (Aberdeen),Teresa Vilarós (Aberdeen) and Joseba Zulaika (University of Nevada Reno).
