Photos: Musee Branly, Institute du Monde Arabe, Palais de Tokio, Ramon Tio Bellido, Ciaran Bennet, Ahu Antmen...

40th AICA CONGRESS 2006

Paris, 15 – 20 October

CRITICAL EVALUATION RELOADED

The Symposium examined changes and new directions in art criticism that have emerged with the shift in the prevailing artistic climate. With the globalisation of the last few years, we have observed the increasing importance attributed to curating, as an exercise in art criticism, as well as the rapid growth in the role of the internet, as a new medium, not only for communication, but for critical comment.

These changes derive logically from several related developments, starting with revisions in training and teaching methods practised in art schools and universities today, and the greater priority assigned to the new field of curatorial studies.

The current situation strongly reinforces a tendency to regard the exhibition as a performative medium, closely linked to a powerful economic system. This is also connected with the resurgence of interest in alternative, and often ephemeral, responses to the changing context of artistic creation. If art criticism is adequately to perform its task, it must respond to the realities of the new situation and attempt a better definition of its specific goals and systems of evaluation.

The Congress is organised under the auspices of UNESCO; is funded and sponsored by The Getty Grant Program, the DGLF/ Délégation Générale à la Langue Française, the Instituto Cervantes/ Madrid, and the Prince Claus Fund / The Hague; with the support of the Roberto Cimetta Fund for artistic mobility in the Mediterranean; with additional assistance from the Irish Cultural Centre/ Paris, the Instituto Cervantes/ Paris; and the support from the Palais de Tokyo, the INHA, the MAC/VAL, the MEP and the Ensba.