SACO9 Now or never

THE NEW ROLE OF ART IN TODAY’S MASS INFORMATION LABYRINTH | Elisa Montesinos Among the many activities included in the festival’s most recent edition, featuring both virtual and live exhibitions, workshops and panel discussions, was the colloquium What Do We Do in the Face of a Crisis? Examples From Latin America 1 and 2, in which curators and academics working in Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia were able to share their thoughts about the role of the state regarding the current crisis in the field of culture, as well as topics such as the advantage and disadvantages of online offerings. More than seventy people connected from different places throughout South America and Europe in order to follow the debate between the six panelists, as well as to participate by asking questions at the end of each of the sessions, one in May and the other, in October.

With regard to the kinds of experiences that are impossible to transmit through existing channels of communication, one of the questions had to do with what is gained and what is lost with the large number of current technological platforms.

The responses varied from the inability to truly express the artistic experience through online formats, to the exact opposite: that new aesthetics and experiences can emanate from virtual technology.

The Uruguayan artist and curator Fernando Sicco put it bluntly: “I strongly believe that the experience of art cannot be completely transferred to the virtual world. I am a staunch defender of the idea that art must alway fight against being moved from a place of physical encounter to some virtual space; regardless of whether or not we have certain tools at our disposal, we are not trained to use them. In my opinion, artists, museums, and galleries need to rally beneath the banner that live, in person experience is essential to art. Nothing can replace being immersed in an installation, looking at a painting, or looking at a sculpture with other people beside you with whom you can discuss the work in situ. That will always be something that is irreplaceable.

Dagmara Wyskiel put her seal of guarantee on a sort of declaration of principles, stating that the festival would not be offering virtual workshops. She went on to talk about all the efforts that were made in order to ensure the arrival in Antofagasta of the twelve international artists participating in the ninth edition of the festival before the borders were closed. “We did everything we could to get them work visas and travel permits. A surprising source of help came from the Antofagasta Regional Health Department, saying that direct contact with artistic expressions is vital to the maintenance of mental health in the community. It became our slogan in our fight against the bureaucracy.”

Artistic, Social, and Political Imagination All things considered, technology allows for different kinds of audiences, ways to dialog, and creative solutions. That was the point raised by the Brazilian visual 180