ONLINE: Escape to Despecialization: The Shapes That Art Takes on the Edges

press release: Please join UW Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program for the LACIS Lunchtime Lecture, Tuesdays at noon. The events are free and open to the public.

About the presentation: In my presentation I will focus on certain transdisciplinary initiatives that integrate the artistic way of thinking and action in their constitution and development, analyzing some examples of which I have witnessed and participated. These initiatives comprise strategies linked to social contexts, which contrast against the modernist ideology of the neutrality of art and which operate not only between discursive presuppositions and institutional sites of the world and artistic audiences, but between discourses.

About the presenter: Combining artistic and environmental activism, Alejandro Meitin’s work reflects local politics, landscapes, and communities throughout Argentina and Latin America. Predominantly unfolding in the La Plata region of Argentina, an area characterized by its rivers and basins, Meitin’s interventions concern social transformation and grassroots collaboration in an effort to confront environmental injustice. In 1991, Meitin co-founded Ala Plástica, an art collective that reimagined abandoned spaces into community centers, developed arts education opportunities, and addressed our ongoing climate catastrophe through a myriad of interventions, including Junco/Especies Emergentes (The Reed/Emergent Species). Initiated in 1995, the Junco project involved planting reeds along the La Plata River to create new ecosystems while simultaneously cleansing existing ones. By inviting the local community to participate in the planting process, Ala Plástica successfully bolstered both artistic engagement as well as a deeper understanding of the environmental changes unfolding throughout the La Plata basin. More recently, however, Meitin founded Casa Río Lab, an organization dedicated to innovative approaches to environmental activism, art, and research. As an interdisciplinary network that connects political actors, scientists, artists, and activists, Casa Río Lab has produced research, exhibitions, workshops, and other interventions that highlight the complex environmental issues at the heart of the La Plata region.

Links of interest: https://www.casariolab.art | https://territorios.casariolab.art | https://alaplastica.wixsite.com/alaplastica