
From the History of Art to the Art of History
A Conversation Between Rose Marie Barrientos and Eric Monsinjon on Their Unconventional Methodologies for Constructing Art History
Their unique perspectives on their respective fields and professions allow for a critical examination of art history as a field of knowledge and its potential for evolution.
Rose Marie Barrientos explores the possibility of art as an argument, starting from a perception of art as a form of thought, discourse, and economic knowledge generated by artist organizations (known as « critical enterprises »). The argumentalist historian has developed a methodology based on argumentation, allowing for the writing of art history using tools borrowed from this discipline. Her approach focuses on analyzing the argumentative strategies employed by the artist to give meaning to their work rather than on the production of works, whether visual or invisible. She prioritizes the argumentative elements and the dynamics of the argument over the form and content that convey it. She is a lecturer at the National Art School of Paris (ENDA), the school of the Paris Biennale.
Art historian and philosopher Eric Monsinjon is a specialist in 20th-century artistic avant-gardes and experimental contemporary art. His research particularly focuses on Lettrism and the Situationist International. As a professor, he teaches art history at the Académie de la Comédie-Française, the National Art School of Paris (ENDA), as well as in various art schools in France. He is also the founder of « L’Anti-Esthétique, » a blog on Mediapart dedicated to experimental art research for the general public. Currently, he is working on developing a general theory on the formation and formalization of new arts. His aim is to consciously and methodically transform certain human activities or non-artistic knowledge into autonomous arts through appropriate actions and means. He believes that the act of creation should not be limited to the scale of an artwork but should also extend to the scale of an art form. In 2023, he met José Manrubia, who gave him the opportunity to work on theorizing the foundational concepts of the Corrida Etica.
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