Antonio Muntadas Prim Fabregas | Massachusetts Institute of Technology - United States

• Grant number: 06/04382-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Duration: October 28, 2006 - December 11, 2006
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Plastic Arts
• Principal Investigator: Ana Maria da Silva Araújo Tavares
• Grantee: Ana Maria da Silva Araújo Tavares
• Visiting researcher: Antonio Muntadas Prim Fabregas
• Visiting researcher institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

During his stay at the Fine Arts department/ECA/USP the artist and professor Antonio Muntadas will advise the on going research projects, on both academic levels (professors and students from under graduate and graduate levels) through meetings and collective seminars, which aim at broadening the discussions pertinent to the researches that are focused on the theme of Art in the Public Realm and its relation to Art and Technology and its multimedia unfolds. He will teach a graduate level course, 105 hours program, which will definitely contribute to the discussions and the research already taking place in the Department, nourishing the debate, the exchange and the dissemination of what is produced in the Department related to most relevant issues in contemporary art. Besides these activities there will be workshops and seminars, taking the artistic and intellectual production of Antonio Muntadas and the XXVII São Paulo International Biennial, in which the central theme is ‘How to live together’ (to be opened in São Paulo in October, 2006) as study cases and platforms for strong and deep debates on contemporary art issues. It is under these two topics (the individual production of Antonio Muntadas and the diversity of contemporary production the presented in the Biennial) that the discussion about the most relevant artistic practice, which relates to art in the public realm, will take place: the public space, the community works, the site specificities, time specificities and its crossing borders with the use of media and other fields of knowledge like architecture, anthropology, etc. All the activities developed by Antoni Muntadas intend to develop a line of thought that privileges the knowledge and domain of the national and international contexts. Other important activities to be developed parallel to those mentioned above, are 1) a workshop and debate organized by the Fórum Permanente de Museus and the Centro Cultural de São Paulo/CCSP, also focusing the contemporary practices in the public realm, its political and social implications, taking as reference a more historical perspective of the art production of the sixties and seventies, the relation of art and architecture, urbanism and institutional critique and 2) an exchange dialogue that will be established through special programs presented by professionals from other institutions from USP (FAU/SP and EECS/São Carlos), other universities (UFMG) in order to broaden the discussion related to the topics mentioned above and to nourish future projects. It is worth to mention that due to his long-term relationship with South America intellectuals and academic scenario, Antonio Muntadas already has strong bonding with professionals in Brazil. Muntadas education, artistic developments and production are multidisciplinary and therefore reveal the two most important qualities of his work: 1) the high level of complexity in the use of artist languages and techniques and 2) its conceptual articulation. He is, at the same time, an artist and a thinker of contemporary life and art from which the Department of Fine Arts from The School of Communication and Art have a lot to benefit from. (AU)