The Politics of Aesthetics and the Aesthetics of Politics in Contemporary Venezuela
19-20 September 2014
Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge
This conference is generously supported by the Centre of Latin American Studies (CLAS) and the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS).
Keynote speaker
Dr. George Yúdice (University of Miami)
Organising Committee
Rebecca Jarman (University of Cambridge)
Penelope Plaza (City University, London)
Lisa Blackmore (University of Leeds)
For any questions, please e-mail: vzlaconf2014@gmail.com
For more information, please see the Venezuela Research Network webpages here.
Abstract
This two-day conference aims to engender interdisciplinary discussion of the aesthetic manifestations that emerge with, against, or alongside the State apparatus in contemporary Venezuela. The premise for this conference draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s proposition that: ‘Thought as such is already in conformity with a model that it borrows from the State apparatus, and which defines for it goals and paths, conduits, channels, organs, an entire organon.’ This ‘image of thought’ as a mirror of the State apparatus informs the aim to examine the relationship between political engagement and aesthetic manifestations in diverse realms, such as everyday cultural practices, official propaganda, digital technologies, literary production and the visual arts.
We ask: Can attempts to think culture outside of the State apparatus succeed in narrating identities beyond officialised discourse? Are cultural movements that resist the image of the State able to escape state logic through the innovation of artistic technique and theory? What effect does cultural policy have on aesthetic production?