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Intimate Rumors:
Landscape, México and Cold War
(in Colombia)
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Zabala argues that works of art are not simply for an elevated consumerism or the contemplation of beauty but are points of departure to change the world. Radical artists create works that disclose and demand active intervention into ongoing crises. Interpreting works of art that aim to propel us into absent emergencies, Zabala shows how art’s ability to create new realities is fundamental to the politics of radical democracy in the state of emergency that is the present.
To view the full article: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/why-only-art-can-save-us/9780231183482
Art and Literature are Vital to Society – Here’s Why
Silence, it is said, implies consent. But that’s only half the story. Silence also confirms oppression, because the ability to speak out is too often a luxury of the privileged.
The aggressive populism we see today seems to be a testament to people refusing to be silent — and rightly so. Our societies have largely failed to provide equally for all, and technology now gives us new avenues through which to to be heard, and with which to rebel against repressive ideas and structures. New leaders have latched onto that and now seek to speak for us, even though many of them are rallying us crudely around fear and mistrust. But there is hope where there is life, even such as it is now. Because it reveals potential. This is where, counterintuitively, literature and creative writing come in.
Fiction teaches us about characters and empathy, plot and consequences, and the value of nuance to truth. Poetry teaches us how to distill language, value silence, and understand metaphor. Non-fiction (which certainly includes journalism) teaches us accountability to facts, critical thinking about the systems in society, and the importance of getting out into the world to listen to others. These are but a few of the skills one learns from writing creatively.
Are those life lessons not vital to democracy? To have a voice is to have a vote. To have a vote is to be represented in society. To represent ourselves clearly and confidently empowers us citizens to air our own concerns and our community’s grievances, to be accountable for ourselves, and to demand the accountability of our leaders. If we are not trained to articulate our arguments properly, we will never be heard legitimately, and we can be ignored too conveniently.
So there is clearly work to be done. Not all art must be inclusive, but no art should be exclusive. Neither literature nor creative writing must ever be privileged as a luxury, for our story will be too easily controlled that way. And while art itself might not change the world, it’s abundantly clear that it can empower those who will.
Samantha Lee. Intern at Cultural Agents
To view the full article:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/literature-and-creative-writing-are-vital-to-democracy-here-s-why/
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Last May 12th, the ecuadorian daily El Comercio published an article entitled ‘Sin arte no se puede pensar en cambios sociales’ (Without art we can’t think in social changes) in which they unfold Harvard professor Doris Sommer’s premise: through humanism aesthetic judgment is developed. Sommer visited Ecuador to make a Pre-Texts workshop and facilitate a conference in the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, entitled ‘El arte obra en el mundo: Cultura ciudadana y humanidades públicas’ (Art Works in the World: Civic Culture and Public Humanities). The article makes emphasis on some important points on Sommer’s conference: the role of art in social development is indispensable as it is the only place in which one can ramble as a way of discovering and getting knowledge; the artist, she says, is the only one who will give one 4 answers to the same question. Therefore Sommer encourages everyone to exert the right of imagination based on the reflections of many thinkers, including Schiller, Kant, Augusto Boal even the former mayor of Bogotá city Antanas Mockus’s. As an intellectual, Sommer proposes this thought should not remain as discourse but become a practical thing that traverse the daily life. That’s why 
