Mari Carmen RamĂ­rez is the Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Prior to that, she was curator of Latin American Art at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art and adjunct lecturer in the department of art and art history, both at The University of Texas at Austin. RamĂ­rez also served as director of the Museo de AntropologĂ­a, Historia y Arte de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, RĂ­o Piedras campus. She received a Ph. D. in Art History from the University of Chicago in 1989.

In advance of the Shirley Thompson Memorial Lecture (March 30th, 2016, 6-8 pm Lecture Hall, National Gallery of Canada), FASS recently had the pleasure of chatting with Dr.RamĂ­rez about array of topics and issues.  Enjoy!

The Shirley Thomson Memorial Lecture that you are giving at the National Gallery of Canada is titled “From ‘Identity’ to ‘the Global’: The Contemporary Art Paradigm in Latin America.” I imagine it is difficult to represent Latin America as a totality, yet you’re able to do so in a way that underlines the endless complexities of ‘Latin America.”  How challenging is this and how, tactically, do you take this endeavour on?

Engaging Latin America or Latin American art as a category is a very challenging but necessary task. We have to start by recognizing that Latin America is an invention that each generation or cultural group re-invents according to its historical needs. The term stands for a subcontinent made up of more than twenty countries and a plethora of communities and ethnicities that extend from Tierra del Fuego to the US/Canada border. And if you are surprised to hear me say this, just consider that there are 54 million Latinos in the United States today which make up approximately 17% of the population. This makes the U.S. the largest Spanish-speaking country after Mexico.

From that point of view, there is no such thing as “Latin American” or “Latino art” (in the sense of a readily codified and identifiable artistic style or language). Instead, there is only art produced by individual artists in the countries and communities that make up the region as whole. Those of us who work in this field are fully aware of this paradox. We knowingly and deliberately use the terms “Latin American” and “Latino art” as operative constructs that duly serve us to identify the traits of two broad networks of producers, agents and supporters whose culture shares the common legacies of religion, language and most importantly, a history of colonial domination and utopian aspirations. Our job is to reveal the complexities, contradictions, differences and similarities that both join and separate these complex constituencies in their relation among themselves as well as with the rest of the world.

You have a tendency to use your work, which is grounded in Latin American art, to talk about identity politics and globalizing art history, exhibitions, and museums more generally. Can you tell us how your work forwards this more global approach, and why you think it is important to do so?

For the last thirty years we have been witnessing the “ascent” of Latin American art in global circuits as a result of the combined dynamics of globalization and neo-liberalism. The field has evolved from a marginalized one to with a vibrant, steadily expanding area of visual arts production, collecting, and curatorial practice. More and more artists from Latin America are exhibited and collected all over the world; an increasing number of collectors from the region are joining the ranks of the global elites; old museums are being refurbished and new ones are being constructed; and, more importantly, the markets are booming with Latin American art. In many ways, Latin American art is no longer a marginal or provincial phenomenon. Yet many of the same problems that characterized the field three or four decades ago are still present. Namely, the unequal axis of exchange that separates Latin America from the First World is still there. Latin America produces great art but has no authority to legitimize the art of other countries or regions. Its institutional infrastructure is very weak and riddled with problems. As my friend Gerardo Mosquera has pointed out, our countries have been relegated to the role of supplying artists to the global mall. Despite the success of contemporary art abroad, there is still a tendency to stereotype this art in Europe and the United States. The list goes on…. This situation places a great responsibility on curatorial practices to critically engage with this art and expose the contradictions in which it is operating. Because of the complex networks in which this art is inscribed, we cannot limit our intervention to the interpretation of the art itself; instead we must look at the whole picture that includes markets, museums, agents, exhibitions etc. because all of these factors today are inter-related. Research is fundamental for this task. There are still so many artists and movements in need of visibility and so many issues that need to be tackled.

The 2016 American election is imminent, and the rhetoric of the candidates – one in particular – has breached boundaries that we have not seen in generations (if ever). Sadly, Trump seems to have achieved some success through his transparently dishonest and hateful act of ‘othering.’ He is attacking cultures and people and is threatening to build a wall around the America. What do you make of the 2016 American election campaign, and do you see your work and the art you curate as more important than ever? 

Like many of my friends and colleagues, I find the dynamics of this campaign extremely troubling, if not scary. However, it is important to bear in mind that what is happening now has been in the making for decades and is the result of an ingrained bigotry and racism on the part of certain political parties and groups of this society that has been fueled by economic distress, rising inequality, ideological polarization and a host of other critical issues that self-interested political leaders have chosen to ignore. What scares me the most, however, are certain similarities it presents with Latin America where the rise and fall of authoritarianism has been part of the past and recent history of these nations. In the United States, however, the strength of democratic institutions has served until now to buffer us against this ugly monster. Yet we may now be witnessing the unthinkable: that monster rearing its head.

You are someone who is very sensitive and dynamic when it comes to portrayals of identity.  Your work plays with the audience self-portrait and conception of their own identity.  Often, your teachings and work are meant for an American audience.  Do you change anything when you visit and teach in Canada (or other countries)?  Are there things you must articulate to non-Americans for them to more firmly grasp American social constructs?

Yes, you always have to articulate or “translate” one situation into the other; when I am in the United States, I have to “translate” Latin American values to U.S. audiences and when I am in Latin America it is the other way around. The same applies to Europe, Canada, or wherever my work takes me since every culture is different. That is why, based on my own experience, I have characterized the function of the curator as that of a “broker” or “translator” of cultures. In this position you are not just converting words from one language to the other as part of your job but rather converting values intrinsic to one worldview into another. As a Puerto Rican—i.e. a bicultural colonial subject—I am well equipped for this task since my entire life has been a straddling back and forth between one culture (Puerto Rican) and a radically different “other” culture (U.S.).

What do you hope participants in your March 31^st workshop at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University will walk away with? What do you hope the audience takes away from your March 30th lecture at the National Gallery of Canada?

I hope the audience that attends the lecture will put to rest any stereotypes or misconceptions that they may have about Latin American or Latin American art and are intrigued enough by what I have to say to want to learn more about it. As to the workshop participants, I would like them to walk away with a more complex sense of the relationship between theory and practice as it plays out in curatorial practice. My entire trajectory of 35 years has been about putting big ideas to work in exhibitions, publications and other initiatives such as the International Center for the Arts of Americas (ICAA) and the ICAA Ideas Council, a research center and think-tank that I direct at the MFAH in Houston. For me, theory does not work if it cannot serve to stimulate or give concrete shape to actions.

Any exhibitions, places, people, pieces you’re particularly looking forward to visiting while you’re in Ottawa?

This is my second trip to Canada, a country I always wanted to visit. I lectured in Toronto in 2013 and was fascinated by the people and the city. In a curious way, I find that there are similarities between Canada and Latin America that relate to their peripheral status with regards to Europe and the United States. Issues of identity are also very strong here and on my visit to the National Gallery in Toronto I could see how much Canadian artists have wrestled with this issue since colonial times. So I am here with my husband, the Mexican architect, writer and curator, HĂŠctor Olea, who also shares this interest in Canada. We are here to see as much as we can in terms of museums, galleries and other sites and to absorb everything that can help us understand this country and its culture. Thanks to Ming Tiampo we will also be visiting some artists studios which should be very exciting

Anything you’d like to add, Dr. RamĂ­rez?

Thank you.

Shirley Thomson Memorial Lecture

Dr. Shirley Thomson (1930-2010) was a leading national figure in the promotion of the visual arts in Canada.  For more than 40 years she worked tirelessly in the arts community, establishing a distinguished record of accomplishment.  She served as Secretary-General of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (1985-87), Director of the National Gallery of Canada (1987-97), Director of the Canada Council for the Arts (1998-2002), and Chair of the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board (2003-07). Dr. Thomson was a Companion of the Order of Canada and Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and Officer of Order of Ontario. Her strong and active presence was also felt in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa, where she served as an Adjunct Professor.

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Hosted by CBC’s Adrian Harewood

Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 7:30pm
433 Paterson Hall, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University

Drawing on his award-winning book, Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal as a point of departure, this wide-ranging conversation will touch a number of subjects related to politics, race, security, prisons, incarceration and human freedom. The conversation will be facilitated by CBC’s Adrian Harewood.

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ David Austin:  David Austin is the author Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal, winner of the 2014 Casa de las Americas Prize for literature in English or Creole. He is also the editor of You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James, and has produced radio documentaries on the life and work of Frantz Fanon and C.L.R. James for CBC’s flagship program, Ideas.  He currently teaches in the Humanities, Philosophy and Religion Department at John Abbott College.

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• For more information, please contact Dr. Audra Diptee
• Event Poster

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The School for Studies in Art and Culture Presents

  “Cinema in the Age of Decolonization: Activism and Aesthetics”
An Homage to RenĂŠ Vautier (1928-2015)
with
Dr. Nicole Brenez
Professor of Film Studies, University of Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle and Programmer, CinÊmathèque Française

The School for Studies in Art and Culture invites you to a weeklong (January 18-22, 2016) meditation on the theme “Cinema in the Age of Decolonization: Activism and Aesthetics” to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the passing of René Vautier (January 4, 2015), France’s first and most important anti-colonialist filmmaker who was also arguably one of the most censored film directors in the history of cinema. This series of events will involve the very first Canadian retrospective of the cinema of René Vautier, featuring four of his most important films, Afrique 50 (1950), Le Glas (1969/70), Frontline (1976) and Avoir Vingt Ans dans les Aurès (1972), along with Salut et Fraternité (2015), a recent documentary exploring the significance and resonance of his work. The retrospective will be opened by a public lecture on “The Cinema of René Vautier,” by FASS Visiting Scholar Dr. Nicole Brenez, Professor of Film Studies at Université de Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle and Programmer at the Cinémathèque Française. Dr. Brenez will also introduce the screenings throughout the week.

During her weeklong stay at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, Professor Brenez will also lead an interdisciplinary workshop entitled “Internationalism or Transnationalism? Questions and Directions for Contemporary Political Cinema” and offer two master classes entitled “A Formal Love Story: Henri Langlois and Jean-Luc Godard” and “Avant-Gardes and Documentary Forms.” You are all cordially invited to attend. Please find details below.

Tuesday, January 19, 6:00 pm – River Building 2200
Citizen Vautier! A Retrospective of the Cinema of RenĂŠ Vautier
Public Lecture: The Cinema of RenĂŠ Vautier

Each of René Vautier’s films is a pamphlet, a shield for the oppressed and the victims of history, a little war machine in the service of justice. And like weapons in a resistance movement, they are used, exchanged, lent, discarded, destroyed, lost or hidden away and sometimes long forgotten. In that respect, each of Vautier’s films is an individual case, an episode in what is probably the noblest and most romantic story in the history of cinema. We will consider how René Vautier’s images are arguments in an endless visual debate whose ultimate horizon is a more just state of the world. (Nicole Brenez)

 Afrique 50 (1950) (Documentary, black and white, 17 min)

Afrique 50 is René Vautier’s first masterpiece and is considered by Nicole Brenez as the “most important film in the history of cinema.” It marks one of the first cinematic instantiations of the director’s motto, which he adapted from Paul Eluard (co-founder of the Surrealist movement) and which underpins the entirety of his work: “I film what I see, what I know, what is true.” Shot in colonial French West Africa, Afrique 50 was a film commissioned by the Ligue de l’Enseignement, which hoped it would demonstrate the greatness of colonialism to French students. Instead, Vautier offers a very trenchant critique of French colonialism by revealing the mechanisms through which it maintains its dominance in Africa, that is, through massacres, labour exploitation and resource extraction. A tour de force of montage cinema, the film was censored for over forty years and cost René Vautier a thirteen-count indictment and a one-year prison sentence along with the confiscation of half of his exposed film stock. The story of the making of Afrique 50 is itself a film waiting to be made.

Introduced and discussed by Dr. Nicole Brenez

Wednesday, Jan 20, 7:00 pm – SP435
Le glas (1969) (A documentary poem, black and white, 5 min)

In this five-minute black and white documentary poem made in collaboration with the Zimbabwean African Party for Unity (ZAPU), René Vautier pays homage to three African revolutionaries hanged in Salisbury (contemporary Harare) by the notorious Ian Smith government of Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe). Initially censored in France, the film was later released in the director’s country of origin, following its release in England. In his book entitled Caméra Citoyenne(The Citizen Camera), René Vautier recounts receiving the music he would later use as the film’s soundtrack from the Black Panthers during the 1969 Pan-African Festival of Algiers. The film’s voice-over is that of legendary Senegalese film director Djibril Diop Mambety.

English subtitles by Peter and Françoise Kirkpatrick.

 Frontline (1976) (Documentary, color, 73 min)

Co-directed with Brigitte Criton and Buana Kabue and with assistance from Oliver Tambo, then-President of the African National Congress (ANC), Frontline was shot during the heyday of the anti-apartheid struggle. The film deconstructs the mechanisms of the apartheid system on the eve of the Soweto uprising through a masterful examination of the repressive system’s strategies of confinement, mobility control, and its relentless extractive economy, which frame the lives of the majority Black population. Deconstructing the codes of the travelogue, the film includes a soundtrack from the late Miriam Makeba.

English subtitles by Peter and Françoise Kirkpatrick.

Both films will be introduced and discussed by Dr. Nicole Brenez

Thursday, Jan 21, 7:00 pm – SP 100
Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès (1972) (Fiction, colour, 100 min)

Alongside Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina’s Le Vent des Aurès (1966) and Chronique des années de braise (1975) and Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966), René Vautier’s Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès is among the most important films on the Algerian independence war. Shot on the Tunisian-Algerian border and based on 800 hours of interviews with former French conscripts involved in the war, the film focuses on a group of young pacifist Bretons who are turned into killing machines by the colonial military apparatus. The film marks the culmination of Vautier’s longstanding involvement with the Algerian liberation project, which also included playing a pioneering role in the emergence of Algerian national cinema. French author and film critic Michel Capdenac wrote of this film: “I would trade ten films by Chabrol and ten films by Truffaut for this film by Vautier.”

Introduced and discussed by Dr. Nicole Brenez

Friday, January 22, 7:00 pm – SP 100
Salut et fraternitĂŠ: les images selon RenĂŠ Vautier (2015) by Oriane Brun-Moschetti (HD-Colour and black and white, 67 min, France)

How to bring into existence a cinema that counters power? How can cinema be made by the people for the people? This documentary portrait of René Vautier explores the filmmaker’s impact on society using interviews by Nicole Brenez and Oriane Brun-Moschetti and featuring such major directors as Jean-Luc Godard, Yann Le Masson and Bruno Muel. The film also includes rare images of Vautier, in particular the two opening scenes, the second of which gives the director a quasi-prophetic stature, aptly illustrating both his vanguardist lucidity and his primarily lonesome itinerary which was paradoxically also one of relentless solidarity.

Screened with English subtitles

Introduced and discussed by Dr. Nicole Brenez

On-Campus Workshop
Wednesday, January 20, 3:00 pm-5:00 pm – Dunton Tower 2017
“Internationalism or Transnationalism? Questions and Directions for Contemporary Political Cinema.”

Master Classes
Thursday, January 21, 11:30 am – SP 100
Lecture: “A Formal Love Story: Henri Langlois and Jean-Luc Godard”

The relationship of mutual admiration between Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinémathèque Française, and Jean-Luc Godard was one of the most enduring and creative in the history of cinema. For Henri Langlois, the director of Breathless was a “poetic genius” who marked a caesura in film history: “there was cinema before and cinema after Godard” (“BG” and “AG”). Langlois organized an “Homage to Godard” as early as 1964 at the Cinémathèque, and devoted an episode of his film series Anti Cours (1976) (one of his last projects), to a comparison between Andy Warhol and Jean-Luc Godard.

Conversely, the Godardian “idea/l” of cinema is inscribed in and continuously nourished by the speculative framework elaborated by Langlois, while also drawing inspiration from the latter’s inventive and joyfully illegal practices. We will examine some of the ways in which Godard’s stylistic choices both in his films and his exhibition entitled “Collage(s) de France” are informed by Henri Langlois. (Nicole Brenez).

Friday, January 21, 9:30 am-11:00 am – SP 472
Seminar: “Avant-Gardes and Documentary Forms”

Wherever there is a situation of oppression, there is also a forefront to resist it, to counter-attack, to find ways and paths to fight power. This is the concrete or imaginary model for any avant-garde, struggling against political, economic, ideological and symbolic dominance, developing its own tools, its own codes, its own perspectives. What would be the forefronts for contemporary documentary? In this seminar, we will consider some of the challenges faced by contemporary documentary cinema as well as some of the responses to them via three very practical questions:

1. With whom and for whom (do we make documentaries)? The deontological situation
2. Why and to what ends? The historical situation
3. With what kinds of images? The aesthetical material

Admission is Free              No registration required                All are welcome

*Locations with an asterisk are subject to confirmation by the University’s Scheduling Office. For the latest updates and more details on the events, please see

Organized by:
School for Studies in Art and Culture
Film Studies
World Cinema Forum
Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis

Sponsored by:
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
School for Studies in Arts and Culture
World Cinema Forum
Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis
Institute for Comparative Studies in Art and Culture
Department of History

For further information, please contact Dr. Aboubakar Sanogo, Film Studies

Office: SP 432   Phone (613) 520-2600, ext. 2346     Email: aboubakar.sanogo@carleton.ca

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ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University and the German Embassy Present:
“Evolving understanding of climate change and sea level rise and its perception by policy makers”
by
Wednesday, October 14, 2015, 11:00 am –1:00 pm
5110 Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Building
Snacks will follow the lecture and discussion

is a climate scientist and physics professor from Germany. He was a lead author of the sea-level chapter of the latest UN climate report (IPCC-AR5). His research at the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research focuses on the tipping of systems. Prof Levermann has published scientific articles for example on the Antarctic ice sheet, fracture dynamics, ocean circulation, monsoon rainfall and the future evolution of the global sea level. Since 2012 he also leads the research on global adaptation strategies at the Potsdam Institute, developing a dynamic model of economic damage propagation for the global production- and supply network. Anders Levermann advises government representatives, members of parliament, political parties as well as economic stakeholders and journalists with respect to climate change issues.

Presented by:

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