Content

Alongside the Ethics of Care, we can speak of an Aesthetics of Care that defends the thesis that the arts are not only forms of knowledge of reality, but are also an instrument for acting on reality. The subject has two distinct but complementary parts:
In the first part, on the one hand, the multiple forms of representation of the problem of care in the various artistic media are studied. On the other hand, the forms of agency over the problems of care developed by performative artistic practices are studied.
In the second part, the ethos of care is studied from a theoretical-practical perspective, taking as a reference concrete classical and contemporary cases that refer to current individual and collective experiences.
- The ethos of care.
- Contemporary multidisciplinary critical-propositional orientations.
- The ethos of power in its practical orientation.

Contents
The course will be organised around three blocks of issues:

Block 1
The affective turn
In the first block of this subject we will undertake a conceptual development of the philosophy of care in relation to aesthetics, exploring notions such as harm and practices of healing, paying particular attention to the complex mechanisms by which experience is formed, and we will therefore analyse some of the main contributions to the debate made by the so-called affective turn. However, the exploration here is directed towards the conceptual dimensions of care that inform specific care activities and practices. As Yuriko Saito argues, "while the relevance of ethical considerations may be evident in elder care, child care and medical care, the aesthetic relevance of care may not be so obvious" (Saito, 2022), nevertheless, these considerations are deeply embedded in the management of our everyday lives and may define the way we relate to other human beings, nature or the artefactual world. Human beings are aesthetic creatures, our relationship with the worldis realised through perception and sensibility.

Boris Groys argues that "we live in a culture that tends to thematise the bodies of desire and to ignore the bodies of care", a society where caring for others and oneself is considered unproductive yet the most important and necessary work (Groys, 2022). Therefore, we will focus on a conceptual analysis and artistic practices in which we can understand the place of aesthetics in a philosophy of care. 

Readings

Yuriko Saito, Aesthetics of Care : Practice in Everyday Life, Trade Paperback, 2022 [fragmentos seleccionados].

Boris Groys, Filosofía del cuidado, Caja Negra, Buenos Aires, 2022[fragmentos seleccionados].

Fabienee Brugère, La ética del cuidado, Metales Pesados, Santiago de Chile, 2022[fragmentos seleccionados]. 

Adriana Cavarero, Inclinaciones. Crítica a la rectitud, Fragmenta, Barcelona, 2022, [fragmentos seleccionados]

Sara Ahmed, La política cultural de las emociones. Mexico D.F: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Programa Universitario de Estudios de Género, 2015 [fragmentos seleccionados]

Alí Lara, Giazú Enciso, “The Affective Turn”. Athenea Digital. Revista de pensamiento e investigación social, 13(3), 101.doi: https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/, 2013.

 

Block 2
Art and life
The concept of care has redefined the boundaries between our bodies, collective structures and our environments in multiple disciplines. In this thematic axis we would like to examine how the work of care is central to current artistic practices, shifting the monumental understanding of art towards one centred on experiences, on the intimate alliances between the built environment and its material, social and cultural practices. In particular, the interest in developing new forms of care, at the intersection between space, subjectivity and interdependence.

Readings 

Suely Rolnik, ¿El arte cura? Quadernsportàtils, MACBA, 2001. 

Déborah Danowski; Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, “Is There Any World to Come?”, Revista e-flux, núm 65, mayo 2015.

Jaime Vindel, Estética fósil. Imaginarios de la energía y crisis ecosocial, Arcadia, Barcelona, 2020 [fragmentos seleccionados]. 

VV.AA, La condición postnatural. Glorsario de ecologías para otros mundos posibles, Cthulhu Books, 2024, [fragmentos seleccionados]. 

Eyal Weizman, Arquitectura forense: violencia en el umbral de detectabilidad, Bartlebooth, 2020 [fragmentos seleccionados]. 

 

Block 3
The ethos of care
Iliana Fokianaki argues that it is evident that where there was a welfare state this model has been dismantled: health care especially for the most dispossessed and unemployed, physical and mental health care, especially for those who are differently abled, the elderly, victims of domestic abuse, and at a more conceptual level, attention to social justice, social justice partnerships, intersectional partnerships and environmental justice. For so long we have been depriving citizens of care and attention, yet new forms of production capitalise on the individualistic notion of care, widely promoted as "self-care" through an industry with billions in revenue.

In reality, however, they are less and less interested in the well-being of bodies outside the immediate sphere of their family, class, workplace, city, country and continent. People are increasingly burdened with individual responsibility for their own care, as care has lost its character as a human right and become a paid service. Through a total disregard for the politics and ethics of care, contemporary forms of power clearly wish to banish the commons of collective consciousness. At the same time they annihilate all possibilities for people to come together, to debate, to organise in order to resist these narratives that are not just the production of discourse but of ways of life. 

Readings

iLiana Fokianaki, “The Bureau of Care: Introductory Notes on the Care-less and Care-full”, Revista e-flux, núm 113, noviembre2020.

iLiana Fokianaki,“A Bureau for Self-Care: Interdependence versus Individualism”, Revista e-flux, núm 119, junio 2021. 

Chus Martinez , “The Octopus in Love”, Revista e-flux, núm 55,  Mayo, 2014.

Juan Martín Prada, “¿Capitalismo afectivo?” Revista EXIT Book, núm. 15, 2011.

Judith Butler; Athena Athanasiou, Desposesión. Lo performativo en lo político, Paidós, Barcelona, 2022 [fragmentos seleccionados].

Simon O’sullivan, “The Aesthetics of affect thinking art beyond representation”, Revista Angelaki, Journal of theoretical humanities, Vo. 6, núm. 3, diciembre 2001. 

During the course of the course, references to recommended bibliography will be handed out.