THE AGENCY OF ART

(Europaeum Winter School)

The session scheduled for the MACBA, open not only to students enrolled but also to members of the public who may be interested, proposes a reflection on how art can help understand and respond to the challenges of the 21st century. Planetary problems such as climate change cannot be addressed, let alone solved, through science alone. Science gives us explanations and possible solutions, but we also need emotion: we must be moved by the explanations being offered to us. The facts alone, as Bruno Latour explains, are not enough to make us act. This social activation could come through art; that is, those spaces of creation that touch us, that are more intense than scientific explanations. In this session, an art theorist, a philosopher and a curator will try to explain how the changes we need can spring from art.

The participants will include, amongst others:

- Santiago Zabala is an ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

- T. J. Demos writes about contemporary art and global politics. He is Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture, at University of California, Santa Cruz, and founding Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. 

The detailed programme of this event is available at the MACBA website.

The activity is held in the MACBA Meier Auditorium, but you can also follow it live on the museum’s website and YouTube channel. 

All sessions will be in English, with no simultaneous translation.