Arts and Culture

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Martina Bacigalupo: Gulu Real Art Studio

At the Situational Junta, Work was put on trial

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect at the first Situational Junta. To find some sort of footing, I mulled over potential meanings for the chosen nomenclature: situational, junta. The title of the three-part artistic venture, for me, was politically charged. My kind of event.

Monkeys as Judges of Art (1889) by Gabriel Cornelius von Max

1. Criticism is being involved

2. Criticism is an offering

3. Criticism is “a genre unto itself”1

4. Criticism “is crises”2

5. Criticism is generosity

6. Criticism is looking at a work of art long enough for it to speak to you

7. Criticism tries to negate that art is an it

8. Criticism says, forge clarity out of language

9. Criticism is like romance, all the highs and lows

10. Criticism is disassembling a subject and failing to couple it together

The United States Department of Culture (USDAC) and the Associação Espaço Cultural Lanchonette (aka Lanchonete) are taking over the Bowery Poetry Club for a series of evening encounters and exchanges. The Situational Junta, as the multi-part event is called, is equal parts happy hour, radio talk show, creative mixer, and ideas incubator.