Thursday, March 9, 2017

Wittgenstein writes the following: In philosophy no hypotheses are formed, no inferences drawn, no assertions made. One does not say: 'this is the way it has to be', but how things are shown. The overcoming of misunderstandings happens by means of description. 'In philosophy we do not draw conclusions. "But it must be like this!" is not a philosophical proposition. Philosophy only states what everyone admits (...). Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language; it can in the end only describe it. 'For it cannot give it any foundation either. 'It leaves everything as it is (...). 'Philosophy simply puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything. --Since everything lies open to view there is nothing to explain. For what is hidden, for example, is of no interest to us. 'One might also give the name "philosophy" to what is possible *before* all new discoveries and inventions' (PI 599, 124, 126). It is difficult to find the proper beginning or rather not to want to go once again behind this beginning when one has found it (see OC 471). The difficulty is to accept something as a solution which first looks like a preliminary step towards it. The difficulty is: to stop (see Z 312, 314...). Copied from Brand, Gerd. The Central Texts of Wittgenstein. Robert E. Innis, trans. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,1979. p. 173. Print.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

About Statement by Karla Ochoa Verdecia



When you think on Cuban contemporary art a priori it is difficult to diagram a common topic line. Discourse proposals are as wide as the existing spaces for their spreading; it is a feature of post modernity the proliferation of trends, of artists, curators, art dealers, purchasers. Art in our country is living, stronger than ever, the experience of cohesion between painting, sculpture, installations, conceptualism, drawing, performances, photography, video-art, video performances, new means, etc. Likewise, there are authors that has chosen the social criticism, the erotic, the afro Cuban visualization, the genre discourse, the landscape, the hedonism, the consumerism or the heinous. But what happens when the artist’s interests go above the social problems, when his questioning becomes a reflection about art as such and about the theoretical, critique and investigative paraphernalia? What happens when the highly conventionalized means of communication are not enough for the individual expression? It is how Yornel Martínez proposes his thesis, from the purest conceptualism, about post modern art and its theoretical course during the last 50 years. Statement, title of the exhibition opened last February 16 in the alternative space El Apartamento, refers to the culture, the critique, the post critique, among other learnings that comprise the curricular base of an artist. Likewise, he establishes direct connections between personal creation and the theories that have supported the beginning and consolidation of hermeneutic movements, trends and methodologies. His production comes from the whole involvement of the walls in the exhibition space ,with texts that go from the introduction and definition of essentially post modern concepts, to the dissimilar bibliographic references and quotations of philosophers, professors, artists, writers and theoreticians as renowned as polemic. That is the case of John Cage, Jacques Derrida, George Bataille, Harold Bloom, Rimbaud and Lezama Lima. The proposal is found as luck of mélange where the links are given by the artist, who is in charge of coherently connects each one of the obvious discourses. In Yornel Martínez’s words: “my intention is to create a poetic untranslated influence in terms of language”. Therefore, the objective of giving new semas to typical conceptions in the history of art is explicit, with the aim of asking oneself about the value of those terms, interpretative techniques and classifications which in a way, have created the foundations for future conjectures about the artistic creation . On the other hand he sets groups, movements and trends like Dadá, Fluxus, the povera art, minimal and conceptual within the ideo-aesthetical possibilities of the twenty century, due to the aperture of the visual art and new expressive mechanisms. At the same time puts them as debtors Marchel Duchamp and the object trouvé, the one who made the target– book possible, the visual poetry and the “letrismo” that in this occasion is evident in his rhetorical. Yornel Martinez makes an interpersonal game with the receptor in which the premise of art for art´s sake and the inherent gesture supporting the theorical conceptual. Is in the very last, where in most of the time a total understanding of the works is achieved; and where positive or negative values are given to both, the author and to the work. It is not fortuitous, then, that one of the walls at the gallery has been selected for the bibliographic references that there are about him in magazines, blogs and catalogues. Thanks to the numerous publications, and to the signature of outstanding intellectuals in the field of national plastic art, it is possible to the author to establish his critique, his basis, his statement.
copied from http://artoncuba.com/blog/about-statement/

Sunday, March 5, 2017

MERCE CUNNINGHAM (1919-2009) was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his seventy-year career and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time. Through much of his life, he was also one of the greatest American dancers. With an artistic career distinguished by constant innovation, Cunningham expanded the frontiers not only of dance, but also of contemporary visual and performing arts. His collaborations with artistic innovators from every creative discipline have yielded an unparalleled body of American dance, music, and visual art. Of all his collaborations, Cunningham’s work with John Cage, his life partner from the 1940s until Cage’s death in 1992, had the greatest influence on his practice. Together, Cunningham and Cage proposed a number of radical innovations. The most famous and controversial of these concerned the relationship between dance and music, which they concluded may occur in the same time and space, but could be created independently of one another. The two also made extensive use of chance procedures, abandoning not only musical forms, but narrative and other conventional elements of dance composition—such as cause and effect, and climax and anticlimax. For Cunningham the subject of his dances was always dance itself. Born in Centralia, Washington on April 16, 1919, Cunningham began his professional modern dance career at 20 with a six-year tenure as a soloist in the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 1944 he presented his first solo show and in 1953 formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a forum to explore his groundbreaking ideas. Over the course of his career, Cunningham choreographed more than 150 dances and over 800 “Events.” Dancers who trained with Cunningham and have gone on to form their own companies include Paul Taylor, Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Karole Armitage, Foofwa d’Immobilité, and Jonah Bokaer. Cunningham’s lifelong passion for exploration and innovation made him a leader in applying new technologies to the arts. He began investigating dance on film in the 1970s, and choreographed using the computer program DanceForms during the latter part of his career. He explored motion capture technology to create décor for BIPED (1999), and his interest in new media led to the creation of Mondays with Merce. This webcast series provides a never-before-seen look at the Company and Cunningham’s teaching technique with video of advanced technique class, Company rehearsal, archival footage, and interviews with current and former Company members, choreographers, and collaborators. An active choreographer and mentor to the arts world until his death at the age of 90, Cunningham earned some of the highest honors bestowed in the arts. Among his many awards are the National Medal of Arts (1990) and the MacArthur Fellowship (1985). He also received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2009, Japan’s Praemium Imperiale in 2005, the British Laurence Olivier Award in 1985, and was named Officier of the Legion d’Honneur in France in 2004. Cunningham’s life and artistic vision have been the subject of four books and three major exhibitions, and his works have been presented by groups including the Ballet of the Paris Opéra, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, White Oak Dance Project, and London’s Rambert Dance Company. Cunningham passed away in his New York City home on July 26, 2009. Always forward-thinking, Cunningham developed the precedent-setting Legacy Plan prior to his death, to guide his Company and ensure the preservation of his artistic legacy. Copied from http://www.mercecunningham.org/merce-cunningham/