Below, the introduction to the opening session of the boldly titled SITAC VII, the annual Mexico City conference on contemporary art theory that opens this afternoon. This year it is organized by Cuauhtemoc Medina, the prominent D.F. art theorist who in his role shifts the entire focus of SITAC to Sur, sur, sur, sur -- referring to Latin American postcolonial subalternity, more or less:
In spite of the inequalitites of institutional and symbolic power, the South has acquired a new prominence in the fabric of global imagination. This is shown not only in the expanded geography of cultural activity, but also in the super-positions, tensions and currents of thought, ghosts and shadows that inhabit the South. These changes have not been the product of a generous concession: they are the result of a cultural counter-offensive that since the end of the 1980s has been questioning the geographical division of cultural power and the critique of the effects of colonialism.
An abundance of panels, screenings, cocktails, and events are scheduled at or around SITAC VII. The clinics are headed by Roberto Jacoby, Mariana Botey, Jorge Munguia Matute, and Daniel Garza Usabiaga. * The SITAC program graphic, above, is by Ricardo Basbaum.
* See all posts in Art here.