Vol. 2 No. 1 (2014): Memory and the Other: Translocal and Transdisciplinary Memories
Juan Antonio Ramírez, A Tribute
Juan Antonio Ramírez (1948-2009) was one of the most prestigious art historians, not only on the national panorama, but also—exceptionally—on the international scene. Without a doubt, his greatest legacy to art history, in addition to his dedication to teaching and mentoring future researchers, as well as his commitment to several causes linked to the “craft” of the art historian, have been his books. Numbering over 40 since the appearance of his first work in 1975, and with over 10 books translated into several languages, some in various editions, his publications cemented him as an art historian, but also as a widely read art critic, essayist, poet, novelist and fabulist.
We wish to publicly recognize and show our appreciation of this historian—who left with so many things yet to say, teach, and communicate—through this modest tribute; and more specifically, through the words and thoughts of those who were his pupils, colleagues and friends: Rafael Jackson, Davic Moriente, Julián Díaz Sánches and Carlos Reyero.
Anna Maria Guasch
Thematic Issue: “Memory and the Other: Translocal and Transdisciplinary Memories”
One of the paradoxes of globalization’s impact on artistic production and reception has been its dual alliance with a homogenizing drive and with the utopia of relationality and reciprocal generosity. In this context, Andreas Huyssen (2003) has argued that the discourses of memory have shifted their initial focus from territorialized, nationally bounded forms of memory (the result of a legacy of memory studies based mostly on Holocaust research) towards a memory of the “other” that takes into account the re-territorialization of space, interactions on a local-global level, and dialogic experiences between cultures. Moreover, Huyssen suggests that this memorialist turn makes it possible to think of works of art as repositories for “other”forms of memory insofar as artworks may function as sites that amass memories from different contexts and latitudes, beyond conceptualizations of the national space as a homogenous location with closed boundaries.
In this issue, we focus on the “memorialist turn” in contemporary art and visual studies from a re-territorialized, transnational and transdisciplinary perspective through which the dynamics of alterity come into play. Highlighting the importance of the strategic principle of a dialogic imaginative engagement that opens the “self” to “others”, our aim is to explore the relationship between translocal forms of memory and the possibility of an aesthetic openness towards otherness.
Some of the questions addressed in this number are: how does the memorialist turn in art and visual culture help to reconsider the changing relationships between the global and the local? How are various geographical experiences marked by mobility, displacement and multiplicity, and how is this memorialized in contemporary art and visual culture? How is memory deployed in art for maintaining or questioning relations between Western Europe and other minority contexts, both European and non-European?
Anna Maria Guasch and Nasheli Jiménez del Val, guest editors
Miscelanea
On this occasion we have invited the participants of the “On Mediation: Theory and Curatorial Practices in Global Art” seminar (AGI-Universitat de Barcelona, 2013-2014) to present the curatorial statements that they developed throughout the interdisciplinary discussions that took place during the theoretical phase of the seminar.
