Symposium: “Monstrous Compositions. The Documentary Dispositive at Work”
23–26 June 2014
Open call for research projects on artistic theory and practice
Application deadline: 30 May 2014
CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo
Av. Constitución 23
28931 Móstoles, Madrid
Spain
Achille Mbembe, Michel Feher, Marina Garcés, Alejandra Riera, Peter Pal Pélbart, Xavier Ribas, Louise Purbrick, Filipa César and Roger Bernat
Composition as the chosen premise extrapolates the exploitation of natural resources to a definition for social productivity today. There is a monstrous yet very real similarity between the depletion of natural resources and the exhaustion of our psyche. Beneath an apparent return to the colonial system, what we once confidently called the “first world” is beginning to show signs of a systemic crisis. The injustices we had always consigned to another dimension are becoming more common and encroaching more and more on our own dimension. Poverty on the rise, ecological collapse and economic inequalities are gradually creating a situation in which it is difficult to imagine cultural, aesthetic production that does not reflect the precarious state of affairs around us. Our recompense is the invitation we receive in a permanently connected world to, quite literally, consume ourselves.
If this is modernity, then “extractionist” is the only way to describe it. The fatigue that is spreading so inexorably is perhaps the symptom of what Teresa Brennan called “exhausting modernity.” In such a scenario, the moralisation of financial capitalism does everything within its power to annihilate critique. And it is in this context that documentary dispositives have acquired a particular relevance as points of intersection between different forms of knowledge, languages and institutions. The documentary has become a shared refuge for art, research and activism, and now operates as a dispositive no longer limited to producing images. Documentary practices today encompass the creation of dispositives that may be critical, therapeutic, theatrical, filmic, pedagogical and a whole host of other things.
CA2M presents the XXI Image Symposium. The symposium will comprise a forum of debate on these topics, three workshops led by artists and other agents, and critical sessions open to contributions from researchers.
Call
Call for Researchers’ projects in the fields of theory and artistic practice on the core topics of the Symposium: Extractionist modernity and New Forms in documentary dispositives.
The projects will be presented in the symposium in a discussion moderated by Carles Guerra and Vincent Meessen (to be confirmed).
Supporting documents and conditions
The following documents are required to participate in the critical sessions:
–Registration form fully completed
–Theoretical or artistic practice project; essays are to be presented in pdf or link to a website or to a video
Essays can be written in Spanish or English. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Successful applicants who live outside Madrid will receive a travel and accommodation grant over the course of the symposium.
Deadline
Applicants are requested to submit their documentation by 30 May.
Selection
The projects will be selected by Carles Guerra and Pablo Martínez, Head of Education and Public Progammes.
The list of participants will be posted on the CA2M website on June 6. Successful applicants will be notified officially of the day and time of their presentation.
More information:
www.ca2m.org / actividades.ca2m [at] madrid.org / T +34 91 276 02 27
