Observe the cultural from its disputed rationalities

Organized by the GAM Studies Area, the colloquium “Observing the cultural from its disputed rationalities. Cultural policies, art and publics” is proposed as a space for situated thought and critical reflection, aimed at connecting the production of knowledge in the cultural field with the challenges of the current context.

Through a participatory methodology, this instance seeks to project common horizons between action and research, explore art as a tool of innovation and knowledge, and reflect on the role of audiences in the development of the cultural ecosystem.

Aimed mainly at students, academics, researchers, artists and cultural agents, the colloquium will take place in two sessions on November 10 and 19, in a format that combines exhibitions, group work and collaborative creation.

Session program:

1st Session: “Producing knowledge through art: Creativity, transformation and counter-hegemonic epistemologies”

November 10 | 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Conference Room 2, GAM

This session addresses the intersection between social research and artistic creation, exploring how art can be a legitimate form of knowledge production. We invite you to reflect on the ways in which creativity and the body become methodologies that displace data and open new ways of understanding reality.

Thematic axes:

• Artistic creation as a form of knowledge production.
• Research-creation practices in Chile: genealogies, tensions and possibilities.
• Bodies, memories and affects: sensitive epistemologies in dispute.
• Displacements between the artistic, the academic and the political.

They expose:

• Milena Grass
  Senior Professor of the Theater School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and current Vice President of the International Federation for Theater Research (IFTR). She has a PhD in Literature from the same university and a Master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Chile. His career focuses on the intersection between art, research and critical thinking, exploring the ways in which artistic creation can function as a methodology for the production of knowledge. He currently directs the Exploration–ANID project, focused on the development of an analytical model on rock art based on artistic methodologies of practice as research.
• Víctor Romero-Rojas
  Interdisciplinary Assistant Professor of the School of Theater and the School of Medicine of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He has a Doctor in Social Psychology from the University of Chile, a Master's degree in Cognitive Development from the Diego Portales University and an Actor trained at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He coordinates the Academic Research and Development Unit of the UC Down Syndrome Center and serves as Executive Director of the Mawen Foundation, where he leads the music-theater company of the same name. He is currently Coordinator of the Critical Disability Studies Group of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), he is a member of the DISCA Millennium Nucleus - Disability and Citizenship and the National Disability Collective (CONADIS). His work and research articulate arts, performance studies, public space and critical perspectives on disability, exploring how creative processes affect social participation and the construction of citizenship and knowledge from other corporalities. 
• Rodrigo Castro Hueche
  Mapuche Nagche visual artist and Master in Arts from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His work focuses on Mapuche identities as hybrid and transcultural constructions, which he addresses through restoration, assembly, deconstruction and intervention techniques of domestic furniture. Through his artistic practice he reflects on memory, territory and identity, proposing new perspectives on the tensions between the traditional and the contemporary in indigenous art.

2nd Session: “The public in the public: critical views on cultural participation”

November 19 | 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Conference Room 2, GAM

This second day focuses on the notion of audiences, their representations and the power relations that cross cultural spaces. It seeks to rethink how institutions can promote new forms of participation and recognition of collective agency.

Thematic axes:

• Absent, emerging and counterhegemonic publics: what bodies are left out of the institutional gaze?
• Representations and ways of making public agency visible.
• Artists and audiences: links, movements and shared learning.
• Cultural democracy and institutional transformation: new relationships between institutions, communities and artistic practices.

They expose:

• Carla Pinochet
  Anthropologist with a Master's and Doctorate in Anthropological Sciences, with a mention in Cultural Anthropology. She currently serves as Alternate Director of the Millennium Nucleus in Musical and Sound Cultures (CMUS). His line of research focuses on the links between culture, music and society, addressing cultural production as a space for encounter, identity and social participation.
• Macarena Goldenberg
  Curator and Coordinator of Public Programs of the Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum. His work is oriented towards cultural mediation and the development of projects that promote dialogue between art, institutions and communities. It has promoted instances of participation that question traditional forms of exhibition and seek to expand the relationship between artists, audiences and cultural spaces.
• Ximena Sepúlveda
  Member of the Margarita Ancacoy Popular Kitchen, a community organization that promotes self-management and solidarity in urban contexts. From her territorial experience, she provides a critical look at the dynamics of participation and the construction of the public, making visible the value of collective networks and collaborative practices in cultural and social life.