Art and Power: From Museum to Real World

This two-day conference focuses on the bonds between art and power from the point of view of poets, curators, historians and artists.

The symposium aims to foster discussion about the relationship between art and power, including reflections on the appropriation of visual and print culture by political regimes; the intersections of so-called high culture and popular culture in dictatorships or periods of political crisis; and the constructions of history in light of current events.

Speakers will include poets, curators, historians of art and propaganda, and contemporary artists. Spain serves as a central point of reference for a number of the presentations, including cases such as the recent exhibition Campo Cerrado: Arte y poder en la posguerra española, 1939-1953, a major exhibition about visual culture, architecture, design, and exhibition history under Franco at the Reina Sofia Museum; the efforts to return Guernica to Spain during the dictatorship and Transition; and the appropriation of Picasso to brand Malaga as a center for artistic tourism.

In addition, a number of the participants will offer perspectives related to art during political crisis elsewhere, with presentations that focus on cases such as contemporary Venezuela, and the recent exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum entitled We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-1985.

In English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.