Class Concave-Convex: Dilemmas and Subjectivities

In this optional CU, we assume that no common sense statement has absolute validity, that is, that common expressions can and do have their reverse side, their essential dilemma. But we also assume its opposite: some common sense data seems to have sapiential validity. Where is the key to this apparent dystopia? In the epistemic analysis of popular wisdom (myths, proverbs, legends, taboos...,) and its translation into events, handicrafts, folklore, costumes, etc., we find a wide field of confirmation of these "subjectivities". Its manifestation in the so-called "popular art" has provoked, at all times, contradictory, highly imaginative, diversely creative messages, where even what is obvious can be denied: the concave of the convex. The challenge posed to visual artists is, in this CU, to parallel or dichotomise in the folk phenomenon its moral message (or vice versa), confirming how, in common sense, the whole database is ambivalent.    

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1.Popular wisdom or "the perpetuation of unverified knowledge": what is it? The epistemic basis of human knowledge. Theoretical framework of heritage (family, geographical, gastronomic, political, religious, musical, etc.) as an anthropological reference of Visual Culture. 2.Traditions, myths, legends, taboos, beliefs, mottos, proverbs: what are they? Relations and interference of cultural systems in the visual process of identification and understanding of the world and reality. Identification and analysis of case studies in the area of Anthropological Visual Culture: from mentalities to manualities. The traditional visual: deformity and beauty, perversity and naivety, dogmatism and relativism. The disruptive pairs of the real in popular culture. 3.Traditional culture and its dilemmas: the popular contradiction. Analysis of subjectivities in popular wisdom 4.Application in popular art: how they express themselves? Research and presentation of case studies in Visual Arts

In each session a theme from the programme is taught, presenting a grid of referential concepts, mainly from Visual Culture, Theory of Culture, Anthropology, Philosophy or Psychology. In the same way, in each session, a practical case is discussed with the students using a related aesthetic grid (or Art Theory). The Evaluation presupposes two elements: 1) continuous and active participation of the Student in class (40%) 2) individual presentation of a case study (60%) in front of the teacher and colleagues, with a duration of one hour (and subject to extensive dialogue between all). This case study is born from the student's personal research and their own interests (or critical disinterests) in Popular Culture, Folklore and other crafts.

LIMA. Pires de, F. (1968). Arte Popular em Portugal: Ilhas adjacentes e Ultramar. Volume I. Lisboa: Editorial Verbo. MORRIS, W. (2003). Artes Menores. Lisboa: Antígona. RESTIVO, M.M. (2020). A emergência da autoria na arte popular portuguesa.Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras/DCTP ROUSSEAU, V. (2012). Vers une définition de l¿art populaire: l¿institution problématique d¿une notion polysémyque. L¿axe France-Canada dans une perspective européene et nord-americaine. Montréal: Université du Québec. Tese de Doutoramento. SHELTON, A. A. (2015). Heaven, hell and somewhere in between. Portuguese popular art. Vancouver: MOA/University of British Columbia. SPENCE, Jo Spence (1995). Cultural Sniping / The art of transgression. Londres e Nova Iorque: Routledge