Carlos Chávez

Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (b. 1899–d. 1978) was one of Mexico’s leading composers, conductors, administrators, and musical educators during the 20th century. Born in Popotla, a suburb near Mexico City, on 13 June 1899, Chávez’s began his musical career with piano lessons, studying initially with Manuel M. Ponce. Then, at the age of sixteen, he became a music teacher during the changing social and political landscape of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). After successful publications of some of his short piano works, he soon received a commission from the Secretary of Public Education (SEP), José Vasconcleos, to compose a ballet. For this charge, Chávez chose an Aztec legend, labeling his work El fuego nuevo. Unfortunately, this work was never performed in Mexico, which led Chávez to seek other opportunities, first in Europe, then in New York City. Chávez’s collaborations with modernist composers and artists in New York City proved to be transformative for the composer, leading to a wave of compositions that reflected the modernist currents of the time. Upon returning to Mexico City, Chávez took on new roles, including the director of Orquesta Sinfónica Mexicana (later called the Orquesta Sinfónica de México), and then an appointment as the director of the Conservatorio Nacional, where he provided robust changes to the curriculum. In 1933, Chávez served as the chief of the Department of Fine Arts for the SEP and later collaborated with Paul Strand on his film project Redes (1935). His varying positions in Mexican institutions and his search for a Mexican musical identity initiated a wave of nationalism that can be heard in his works H.P. (1932) and Sinfonía India (1935) and his participation in the Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art Exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Later works reflected an approach to universalism and cosmopolitanism, such as the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1938). During the 1940s, Chávez became the director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), which oversaw several national artistic projects in Mexico. After resigning from INBA, Chávez returned to composition and taught courses at the Conservatorio Nacional. Chávez’s musical career was eclectic and diverse, spanning several important areas of Mexican musical and artistic culture. He rose to become one of the most recognized musicians in Mexico during the 20th century.

Faces places: Countermapping art, subalternities and counterpublics

This article is a critical reflection on our forays in the curatorial practice and exposition in March 2018 for a map art exhibit called Faces Places: Mapping Embodiments held at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman. The exhibit was an exposition of different and alternative forms of mapping through the works of three Filipino artists: Mideo Cruz, Cian Dayrit and Mark Salvatus. We analysed their interventions in making visible the progressive geographies inherent in the everyday lifeworlds of Filipinos. Drawing from Nancy Fraser’s subaltern counterpublics, we argue that their artistic outputs are forms of counter-mapping vignettes that allow the possibility to illuminate the voices and habitus of the sifted and the excluded as new cartographical interventions intended for critical reflection and pedagogy. The art maps and countermaps of the artists evoked different responses that broadened and expanded understanding beyond what maps are, which allowed us to further interrogate the power structures that define world order through time. The production of new knowledges was derived not only from analysing the textual and symbolic aspects of the artistic countermaps but also with the processual aspect of art-making as emancipatory politics.

When does reputation lie? Dynamic feedbacks between costly signals, social capital and social prominence

Performing a dramatic act of religious devotion, creating an art exhibit, or releasing a new product are all examples of public acts that signal quality and contribute to building a reputation. Signalling theory predicts that these public displays can reliably reveal quality. However, data from ethnographic work in South India suggests that more prominent individuals gain more from reputation-building religious acts than more marginalized individuals. To understand this phenomenon, we extend signalling theory to include variation in people’s social prominence or social capital, first with an analytical model and then with an agent-based model. We consider two ways in which social prominence/capital may alter signalling: (i) it impacts observers’ priors, and (ii) it alters the signallers’ pay-offs. These two mechanisms can result in both a ‘reputational shield,’ where low quality individuals are able to ‘pass’ as high quality thanks to their greater social prominence/capital, and a ‘reputational poverty trap,’ where high quality individuals are unable to improve their standing owing to a lack of social prominence/capital. These findings bridge the signalling theory tradition prominent in behavioural ecology, anthropology and economics with the work on status hierarchies in sociology, and shed light on the complex ways in which individuals make inferences about others. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

Art as Atrocity Prevention: The Auschwitz Institute, Artivism, and the 2019 Venice Biennale

Although largely overlooked in genocide and atrocity prevention scholarship, the arts have a critical role to play in mitigating risk factors associated with genocide and atrocity. Grounded in analysis of "Artivism: The Atrocity Prevention Pavilion,” the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities’ 2019 Venice Biennale exhibition and drawing from fieldwork, interviews, and secondary research, this article explores why one of the leading NGOs working to prevent future violent conflict would choose to curate an art exhibit at the Venice Biennale and what might be accomplished through such an exhibit. Ultimately, the Artivism exhibit, in its collection and range, provides a canvasing of multiple and directed creative interventions that allow for deeper understanding of how the arts can be used as a tool for mitigating risk factors associated with the prevention of genocide and atrocity in such a manner that has important ramifications for future prevention efforts.

The Problem of Completeness in Henry James’s The Spoils of Poynton

James’s essays on art and exhibitions written between the 1870s and the end of the century illustrate his attention to the composition of the art exhibition within the space of the gallery or museum. James’s perception of art exhibit design and effect inform his representation of Mrs Gareth’s art collection and its setting in The Spoils of Poynton (1897). As James looked to art and the art exhibit for models to represent ‘the workings of the novel’, The Spoils of Poynton suggests the impossibility of artistic ‘completeness’ within the realistic aesthetic.

DEMENTIA WITHOUT BORDERS: BUILDING COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS TO REDUCE STIGMA AND FOSTER INCLUSION

BACKGROUND: The concept of social citizenship is gaining traction in the field of dementia studies, but as a practical tool to guide development of supports and services, it remains poorly understood. A one year project to promote collaboration between University of Washington in Seattle and University of British Columbia in Vancouver addressed this very question. Activities were undertaken so these communities could know each other better, with researchers, service providers and people with dementia connecting to share knowledge and expertise. PURPOSE: The project culminated with a public festival to put into practice and share some of what was learned over the year. METHODS: People with dementia and care partners helped plan “Dementia Without Borders”, held at an international park straddling the border between Seattle and Vancouver. 150 people came from the US and Canada, including many people with dementia, family members and friends. The day began with a community walk and gift exchange, followed by a meal and creative activities including poetry readings, music, an art exhibit, and quilt making. RESULTS: Evaluation was overwhelmingly positive with people expressing a sense of hope and belonging. For some, it was their first time to speak openly about having dementia, and meeting others in this space was a joy-filled experience. CONCLUSIONS: This project has leveraged the symbolic power of an international border to raise awareness of the importance of social connection for people with dementia. We further explore how the notion of “dementia without borders” extends theoretical and practical understanding of social citizenship.

The Artist Knows Best: The De-Professionalism of a Profession

The traveling art exhibit Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World (2017–2018) demonstrated three powerful art world tendencies: the use of fraud as an artistic register, the assertion of the artist as authority, and the decontextualization of the arts as an object-centered analysis. These three approaches are congruent with capitalism and the private market, while simultaneously negating Indigenous values of community-based knowledges that operate largely outside the commercial sphere. An analysis of these competing art world values reveals the complicity of public museums with private gain and not education, their stated mission. Ethnic fraud demonstrates how art institutions and their staff employ “selective worth” as a means to cloak the arbitrary exertion of power and simultaneous rejection of Indigenous studies as academic discipline built on the value of tribal sovereignty. Serving as a backdrop for these conversations are a discussion of the history of Native approaches to museology from the early tribal museum era forward and an examination of current “reformist” and “radical” approaches to theorizing Native arts.