Arquetopia’s flagship residency program: Arquetopia SUMMER 2017 will focus on the relationship between individual art practices and the visual history of violence. How is the discourse of violence institutionalized? How is violence affecting art production systems and influencing art markets? How has violence become an important part of the visual history of Mexico? How is the normalization of violence through aesthetic principles critical to understand intention and representation?

Arquetopia SUMMER 2017 Special International Summer Academic Program (with Novohispanic Graphic Arts and Mural Art technique instruction, and self-directed Art Production) is a prestigious 6-week critical program that offers competitive professional opportunities for local and international emerging and mid-career artists, curators, art historians, and students age 22 and over.

This unique program offers critical methodologies to diverse art practices, exploring how violence is constructed through the language of aesthetics. The goal is to provide tools to understand visualities and gestures in art, while identifying institutional trivialization of intention, and representation in visual expression. Through the program, participants will conceptualize their art by engaging their practice in critical discussions. One of the central goals is to contextualize historical and contemporary articulations regarding the language of visual violence. The seminars and tours included in the program will explore the role of aesthetics in the construction of Mexico’s visual history and its categorization in the context of global visual culture. The program will also put into context the role of cultural institutions, such as museums and galleries, in the production of meaning through objects, social relations, and art consumption. Through hands-on workshops in collaboration with the Museum of Art of the Former Convent of Santa Monica, participants will have the opportunity to expand their art practice by exploring the artistic connections between the baroque graphic arts and the Novohispanic mural painting tradition.