Vol. 10 No. 1 (2022): Writing about art / Expanded writing and artistic practice: Connections, ruptures and displacements
In this issue of AusArt we focus on exploring some of the relationships between writing and artistic (what) to do, bringing together experiences and proposals that allow us to explore different areas of contact, friction and rupture.
The praxis of writing is addressed transversally in visual studies and in the field of artistic creation, so its form and content should be addressed from multiple perspectives in academic curricula, where we believe there is still a lack that we must pay attention to.
The text crosses temporalities, norms and structures; it inhabits disciplines, permeates them and overflows them to activate writing as a plural, diverse and experimental field that contributes meaning to the dynamics of the transdisciplinary. It adapts to different formats, reconfigures itself and deals with the dimension it possesses in both physical and virtual spaces. Sometimes it becomes the discursive framework or the context from which a project is constructed, sometimes it becomes a curatorial reflection and at other times it is used as an artefact or device for scriptural activation. Thus, it appears, is resituated and becomes present: in the pages of a catalogue, in an artist's book, in audiovisual scripts, interviews and manifestos; in visual essays, podcasts or where the text itself is formalised as an exercise in work.
From the consolidated group AKMEKA IT 638-22 we have been developing different lines of research that outline the possibilities that exist between the praxis of art and writing to open spaces of constant learning, that stimulate debate and promote contemporary creation. Since 2016 we have been holding the annual Jornadas Escribir de Arte at the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Fine Arts, with the aim of generating a context of exchange to accommodate the heterogeneity of writing from/against/for/by/about art. In addition to addressing issues intrinsic to academic writing, through its different sessions we have experienced the need to expand its boundaries to incorporate, in addition to lectures, practical activities in the form of laboratories, workshops, performances, collective writing, public readings and exhibitions.
As a consequence of the impact and the transfer value that these meetings have generated, we considered it appropriate to produce this monograph, which, as could not be otherwise, has had an important response through the contributions received. However, the publication admits a limited number of articles, so many have been left out, but this leads us to understand that the relationship between art and writing must continue to be worked on in order to delve deeper into its contours, margins and vanishing points.
On this occasion, the routes followed are heterogeneous, but at the same time complementary: from writing methodologies for academic research, to works that incorporate the performative and critical textualities or writing as a production strategy... The volume reflects a panorama that dialogues between disciplines and modes of resolution, through theoretical and practical operations that delve into both conceptual and formal possibilities for rethinking writing as expanded knowledge.
We hope that the result of this issue will generate an interesting set of ideas and reflections to continue opening up questions that will encourage us to continue along other lines from which to address the relationship between art and writing.
Edurne González Ibáñez - Monographic issue coordinator
Published: 2022-06-28