Ankaria Foundation, in collaboration with the Cátedra Jorge Oteiza of the Public University of Navarra, publishes this bilingual book with the lectures given during the 2nd International Symposium “What is Contemporary Art Today?”, which was held in the Museum of Navarra on 4 and 5 May 2010 , and then in CaixaForum Madrid on 6 and 7 of that month.
Directed by de American academic Professor Alexander Alberro, it brought together the leading international experts Terry Smith, Pamela Lee, Juliane Rebentish and Andrea Giunta.
Artistic practice today is a complex conjunction of modalities in the midst of which coexist the survival of a traditional art, in other words a “modern” one that has incorporated 20th-century avant-garde innovations of a formal nature, and a “contemporary” art that not only refers to present day creation but which sees itself as a “reinvention” of art.
In this sense, the very question asked about the identity and the meaning of this type of innovative artistic practice as well, as the way its revolutionary development obliges us to refocus our critical analysis, are crucial issues that must be approached in a bold and rigorous way. This was the approach adopted by the participants in the symposium, the lectures of which are now published in a bilingual edition that will undoubtedly become a work of reference.