The Galician Week of Philosophy opens its 39th edition focused on the arts

About to celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Week of Galician Philosophy, organized by the Aula Castelao in Pontevedra, puts art as a central theme in this year’s edition. The sessions opened on Monday morning at the Teatro Principal in Pontevedra, where Alexandre Cendón, coordinator of Aula Castelao, recalled that the engine that drives the series of conferences year after year has always been bringing philosophy closer to the public. In this 39th edition, the common thread will be art, he insisted: «Art is a symbolic activity by which, in addition to representing internal and external reality, we can transform that same reality through feedback interaction that anthropologically represents us», pointed out Cendón.

with the title It is certainly strange that the Earth is no longer habitable! professor of philosophy at the University of Murcia Francisco Jarauta (Zaragoza, 1941) gave the inaugural speech of the Galician Week of Philosophy, in which he warned that he would focus his gaze “on questions of philosophy in relation to the modern world”. Jarauta emphasized that “it is impossible to tell the history of the world today without going through art”.

The conference highlighted the importance of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Pontevedra and how it also modulated the connections of the city with art itself and the special connection of Pontevedra throughout history with various representatives of the art world. «Art opens us to a different aesthetic experience” said Cendón, before asking a few questions: “Is art an end in itself or can it become an element of criticism and social transformation?».

The mayor of Pontevedra, Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, and the vice-chancellor of the Pontevedra campus of the University of Vigo, Eva María Lantarón, emphasized the importance of the city continuing to hold cultural events as levers for the revitalization of opinion. For the councilman, “art is a purely human element that defines us as a species“, while the vice-chancellor pointed out that the Pontevedra campus “é o campus da creativity».

Maria Novas and Francesc Torres

The afternoon session was attended by María Novas Ferradás, an architect and PhD candidate in the History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Seville, who focused her presentation on Architecture and gender: on the hierarchy of values ​​in the production of living space. Visual artist Francesc Torres was the protagonist of the evening sessions of the Galician Week of Philosophy with Against nature. When history becomes artistic content or (almost) impossible to explain without embellishment.

Over the next few days, the speakers will include musician and filmmaker Fermín Muguruza and musician and doctor of philosophy Santiago Auserón. It will be addressed, as pointed out by the organization of the Galician Week of Philosophy, «Art as a symbolic activity that accompanies us from or between two times, parallel to thought and language, and other symbolic expressions with which we represent the world and reality».