To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life

  In the age of modernity, imagining and documenting were two opposing activities. The present age unites them, and I want to explore what takes place when that union occurs, because I see it as the most critical feature in much contemporary production. If the nineteenth century debated rea...

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Autor principal: Montaldo, Graciela
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades. Escuela de Letras 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/heterotopias/article/view/45388
Aporte de:
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record_format ojs
institution Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
institution_str I-10
repository_str R-333
container_title_str Heterotopías
language Español
format Artículo revista
topic Documentality;
Archives;
Contemporary Culture;
Latin America
documentalidad;
archivos;
cultura contemporánea;
América Latina
spellingShingle Documentality;
Archives;
Contemporary Culture;
Latin America
documentalidad;
archivos;
cultura contemporánea;
América Latina
Montaldo, Graciela
To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life
topic_facet Documentality;
Archives;
Contemporary Culture;
Latin America
documentalidad;
archivos;
cultura contemporánea;
América Latina
author Montaldo, Graciela
author_facet Montaldo, Graciela
author_sort Montaldo, Graciela
title To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life
title_short To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life
title_full To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life
title_fullStr To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life
title_full_unstemmed To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life
title_sort to imagine and document: art’s double life
description   In the age of modernity, imagining and documenting were two opposing activities. The present age unites them, and I want to explore what takes place when that union occurs, because I see it as the most critical feature in much contemporary production. If the nineteenth century debated realism, and if (generally speaking) the twentieth century dealt with the avant-garde, then the twenty-first century poses the question of the archive and the documentable, not merely a question about the past but also a concern for how practice relates to the present. The “archive” is a sort of fragmentary link to the past; it contests the idea of history and meaning (not discounting them altogether, but contesting them), for it presents not “an account,” but rather allows for different narratives. The word “archive” recurs in almost all social and humanistic disciplines and is a key element in the practice of art and literature. But at the same time, the archive can be conceived as an action imposed upon documentality. It is here that the imagination (in the sense of “creation”) enters, generating a dynamic that extracts art and literature from their isolation within institutions and re-orients them outward toward the artistic institution. I have selected certain works to explore the interplay between imagining and documenting; operating within an extremely wide panorama, they leave their mark and experiment with new possibilities. Specifically, I will focus on the works of Dani Zelko, Mariana Mariana López, Galo Ghigliotto, Vivi Tellas and Paz Encina. Art, literature, and activism can do nothing other than to continue to call attention to the world of violence and inequality, not in the sense of facts in themselves but rather the way in which our feelings toward those facts become naturalized. I think of this double life as the dual activities of imagining and documenting. But there is also the duality of “critical response,” the risk of encapsulating contemporary works within the space of their own field.
publisher Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades. Escuela de Letras
publishDate 2024
url https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/heterotopias/article/view/45388
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first_indexed 2024-09-03T21:10:20Z
last_indexed 2024-09-03T21:10:20Z
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spelling I10-R333-article-453882024-06-25T02:22:27Z To Imagine and Document: Art’s Double Life Imaginar y documentar: la doble vida del arte Montaldo, Graciela Documentality; Archives; Contemporary Culture; Latin America documentalidad; archivos; cultura contemporánea; América Latina   In the age of modernity, imagining and documenting were two opposing activities. The present age unites them, and I want to explore what takes place when that union occurs, because I see it as the most critical feature in much contemporary production. If the nineteenth century debated realism, and if (generally speaking) the twentieth century dealt with the avant-garde, then the twenty-first century poses the question of the archive and the documentable, not merely a question about the past but also a concern for how practice relates to the present. The “archive” is a sort of fragmentary link to the past; it contests the idea of history and meaning (not discounting them altogether, but contesting them), for it presents not “an account,” but rather allows for different narratives. The word “archive” recurs in almost all social and humanistic disciplines and is a key element in the practice of art and literature. But at the same time, the archive can be conceived as an action imposed upon documentality. It is here that the imagination (in the sense of “creation”) enters, generating a dynamic that extracts art and literature from their isolation within institutions and re-orients them outward toward the artistic institution. I have selected certain works to explore the interplay between imagining and documenting; operating within an extremely wide panorama, they leave their mark and experiment with new possibilities. Specifically, I will focus on the works of Dani Zelko, Mariana Mariana López, Galo Ghigliotto, Vivi Tellas and Paz Encina. Art, literature, and activism can do nothing other than to continue to call attention to the world of violence and inequality, not in the sense of facts in themselves but rather the way in which our feelings toward those facts become naturalized. I think of this double life as the dual activities of imagining and documenting. But there is also the duality of “critical response,” the risk of encapsulating contemporary works within the space of their own field. Imaginar y documentar fueron dos actividades opuestas durante la modernidad. Creo que el presente las une y quiero explorar su articulación en buena parte de la producción contemporánea. Si el siglo XIX debatió el realismo, si el siglo XX discutió la vanguardia (hablando en términos muy generales), lo que llevamos del siglo XXI nos coloca frente a la pregunta por el archivo y la documentalidad como interrogante no solo sobre el pasado sino como práctica que involucra lo contemporáneo, el presente. El “archivo” es una forma fragmentaria de vincularse con el pasado, que discute la idea de historia y memoria (no las expulsa completamente, pero las discute) porque no arma “un” relato sino que habilita diferentes narrativas. La palabra archivo se repite en casi todas las disciplinas sociales, humanísticas y es parte importante de la práctica del arte y la literatura. Pero el archivo se concibe también como una operación sobre la documentalidad; en este punto es donde la imaginación (en el sentido de “creación”) interviene, creando una dinámica que saca a la literatura y el arte de su inserción institucional y los re-orienta hacia un exterior de la institución artística. Voy a tomar solo algunas obras que exploran esa dinámica (entre imaginar y documentar) y que, dentro de un panorama muy amplio, dejan una huella y experimentan con nuevas posibilidades. Me enfocaré en las obras de Dani Zelko, Mariana Mariana López, Galo Ghigliotto, Vivi Tellas y Paz Encina. En conclusión, el arte, la literatura, el artivismo, nada puede, excepto seguir llamándonos la atención. Pero no en cuanto al sentido de las cosas sino en cuanto a las formas de naturalización de esos sentidos. Pienso en la doble vida como en esta doble actividad de imaginar y documentar. Pero también en la doble vida de una posición de “respuesta crítica” a un encapsulamiento en el espacio de su propio campo. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades. Escuela de Letras 2024-06-25 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion application/pdf https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/heterotopias/article/view/45388 Heterotopías; Vol. 7 No. 13 (2024): Writings on the edge of the abyss: How is the present constructed?; 1-18 Heterotopías; Vol. 7 Núm. 13 (2024): Escrituras al borde del abismo. ¿Cómo se construye el presente?; 1-18 2618-2726 spa https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/heterotopias/article/view/45388/45353 Derechos de autor 2024 Heterotopías https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0