Intimate Resistance
- Date
- 10 December 2020
5th Negra40 – Club del Dibujo Conference Days December 10, 11, 15, and 18, 2020 Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Special guests Josep María Esquirol (Barcelona) Eleonora Finkelstein (Santiago de Chile)
With the support of CEAC, Centro de Arte y Ciencia, UTN Regional Mar del Plata MAR, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires Librería El Gran Pez
Registration and participation
Those interested should send an email with the subject line: Resistencia íntima + first and last name, requesting the password for the video conference. Please note this is a free activity with limited spots. The talks will not be recorded.
What efforts does this time demand of us? Where should we direct our attention when widespread dispersion masks the meaning of life, of community, of dignity? A meaning that seems ever more fragile and fragmentary, to the point that we no longer quite know how to orient our actions and intentions. In the midst of confusion there rise — there always rise — simple, definitive words that announce a gentle alternative and a renewed trust in collective projects.
At the same time, the pandemic reminded us how defenseless we are without affection. The embrace and the kiss have recovered their value in the real, vital marketplace, the one that keeps us grounded on this earth. The deprivation of touch, of closeness, of the body always near another body, has struck hard, above all, at Latin American societies, for whom closeness is a specific identity trait and a way of being in community. Will we see, in the future, the marks of this suspension of tenderness in the arts and crafts, in essays and theory? Or will we have recognized the quiet importance of what we always had at hand: affection, the tactile?
But we were speaking of words that, at low decibels, bring us clarity and shelter, aimed at offering us a fresh narrative for walking through these times. The Catalan philosopher Josep Maria Esquirol proposes, in this vein, “La resistencia íntima. Ensayo de una filosofía de la proximidad” (“Intimate Resistance: An Essay on a Philosophy of Proximity”), words we feel compelled to amplify and share. The proposal is simple: return to the essential — that is, to want the force that wants us; to give thanks for the shelter, the refuge, and the love that surrounds us; to accept that there is no “I” without “you”; that we are condemned to disintegration, that the elements are stronger than us, and that, because of this, we must give thanks for and value the elemental: home, food, affection; that the center is always a choice, the modest center we can frame within our own home; that to live is to resist; that lighter is better, among other ethical possibilities.
In light of these ideas, the Negra40 – Club del Dibujo Conference Days will focus on presenting and encouraging this perspective of resistance and proximity in sound, correspondence, poetry, and philosophical practice. And to honor these positions, we have the honor and privilege that the Catalan philosopher Josep María Esquirol, as well as the poet and editor Eleonora Finkelstein, will take part in these days with two presentations that honor the trajectory of this cycle. With proximity and intimacy as our destination — now more than ever, for the times we must retrace — we celebrate that there are still essential words left to hear.
Bios
Josep Maria Esquirol
Josep Maria Esquirol is a professor of philosophy at the University of Barcelona, where he directs the Aporia research group. He is the author of numerous studies on contemporary philosophy and teaches seminars on the subject at universities in several countries. His publications include Uno mismo y los otros (2005), El respeto o la mirada atenta (2006), El respirar de los días (2009), and Los filósofos contemporáneos y la técnica.
Eleonora Finkelstein
Eleonora Finkelstein (Mar del Plata, 1960) is a poet and editor. She studied Literature and Theater, and worked as an actress and theater teacher for ten years. She is the author of Hamlet y otros poemas / Hamlet and Other Poems (bilingual edition, Fairfield University, USA, 1997); Las naves (Las Dos Fridas, Chile, 2000); Delitos menores (Melusina, Argentina, 2004 and 2016); Todo se transforma (Valparaíso México, 2017); Grandes inventos (Buenos Aires Poetry, Argentina, 2018); Partes del juego (Editorial Lilliputienses, Spain, 2018); Ne l’oublie pas: je mens (bilingual edition, Al Manar, France, 2019); and Tutto si trasforma (bilingual edition, Fili d’Aquilone, Italy, 2020). She has also written numerous articles and translations. She has lived in Santiago de Chile since 1991, where she works as an editor and publications director for RIL editores. She is co-founder and director of Ærea, Revista Hispanoamericana de Poesía, along with its poetry and translation collections.
Mario Gemin
Mario Gemin (Mar del Plata, 1960) is a graphic designer and photographer. Between 1985 and 1997 he collaborated with Edgardo-Antonio Vigo, who connected him to the international network of distance communication known as mail art. He took part in publications and exhibitions, and exchanged correspondence with Ana Banana, Vittore Baroni, Arthur Berkhoff, Guy Bleus, Paulo Bruscky, M. B. Corbett, Robin Crozier, David Dellafiora, Dogfish, Harley, György Galántai, John Held, Michael Leigh, Pascal Lenoir, Pere Sousa, Chuck Welch, among others. From 1986 to 1989 he lived in Barcelona, where he joined the Yves Zimmermann design studio and met América Sánchez; the two struck up a close friendship and have continued tirelessly with the practice of drawing, researching outsider art and popular graphics, among other things. In 1999, together with Daniel Besoytaorube, he founded the Fondo Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo, an NGO associated with Fundación Antorchas and Trama. In 2002 he founded Club del Dibujo together with Claudia del Río and América Sánchez. Since 2009 he has been a member of the Longevo Instituto de Altos Estudios Patafísicos in Buenos Aires, and since 2013 an active member of the Negra40 group.
Esteban Prado
Esteban Prado (Mar del Plata, 1985) is a polygraph of sorts. He has written novels, screenplays, poems, reviews, articles, pamphlets, slogans, and biographies — many stories, for children and otherwise. Sometimes he even gets paid for it. He’s also something of a polyglot, fluent in nearly every register of the Río de la Plata Spanish spoken along the Atlantic coast. He works as a university lecturer in Literature (UNMdP), as a bookseller, and as a cultural manager. He indulges his self-publishing habit whenever he can, and attends literary workshops if only to argue with the metropolitans who feel superior for looking down on them. He founded — and sank — the Puente Aéreo publishing house together with Esteban Quirós. With five others, he runs the bookstore El Gran Pez and the Tifón reading club. He publishes children’s books with Mr. Corrales under the Mandril de Lata imprint, and with another crew runs Monerías, a picture-book club. For ten years he’s wanted to shoot a great horror film with Lucio Ferrante and Sofía Bras Harriott, but they still haven’t found their patron. He finds it hard to spend time alone, but likes his bio to be full of people. More information: www.estebanprado.com
Martín Virgili
Martín Virgili (Buenos Aires, 1976). Holds a degree in Arts (UBA). Composer, guitarist, and arts researcher. Artistically shaped by the musical community of Bogotá, his work spans musical composition, sound poetry, sonic experimentalism, literature, and film. He has received grants and support from the Université de Paris, the University of Helsinki, Duke University, the Fondo Nacional de las Artes, the Fundación Telefónica de Argentina, and the Centro Cultural España in Buenos Aires. He is an active member of Negra40, Música Naranja, Club del Dibujo, and Proyecto Intemperie. He lives on the cliffs of Mar del Plata. More information: www.martinvirgili.com.ar
Ivana Vollaro
Ivana Vollaro (Buenos Aires, 1971) works on the links between word and image, exploring the boundaries between the formal and the informal, language, and the errors that generate those limits. Her work becomes a territory for reflecting on form, translation, and identity. She develops her artistic practice across different media: photography, video, object, audio, performance, site-specific pieces, publications, and artist’s books. More information: www.ivanavollaro.com