Until January 17 we had the opportunity to visit at Real Academia de España in Rome Hic Et Nunc and Ibi Et Nunc, two special projects curated by Imma Prieto and including artworks by Spanish artists like Daniel G. Andújar, Eugenio Ampudia, María Cañas, Mateo Maté, Chus García-Fraile, Jordi Colomer, PSJM, Avelino Sala, Marta de Gonzalo y Publio Pérez, Núria Güell, Jorge García, Pelayo Varela, Maria José Argenzio and Latin American artists like Gina Arizpe, Pedro Barrail, Monika Bravo, Iván Candeo, Regina José Galindo, Ximena Labra, Adrián Melis, Jorge Méndez Blake, Tomás Ochoa, Patricio Palomeque, Wilfredo Prieto.

The breathtaking spaces of Real Academia de España in Rome, as in other important events there organized, have been enhanced by contemporary issues, in fact with the words of the art curator Imma Prieto "this curatorial project allows us to elucidate how art positions can be a symbolic form of resistance to the affronts of our society." The project includes 3 steps (Hic Et Nunc, Ibi Et Nunc, Beyond the Tropics) and in Rome we had the opportunity to see two of them.

Hic Et Nunc was first presented at the SCREEN Festival during Barcelona’s video art fair, LOOP, in May 2013 under the title Hic Et Nunc (“here and now”) with artworks by twelve Spanish artists. “The conceptual thread of this first part of the project invited viewers to meditate on the financial, political and social crisis that was wreaking havoc on the United States and Europe at the time. After this in partnership with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) the show had an extended tour in Americas (Ecuador, the United States, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Guatemala). “At each venue of Hic Et Nunc, local artists were invited to participate in the project, either by getting involved in the exhibition itself or by contributing to a vibrant dialogue during and after the event. The result is the second installment of the project, with twelve new proposals that analyze the European socio-economic situation from the Latin American point of view.”

Ibi Et Nunc, enlisted the professional vision of Alex Brahim, a Colombian curator and art critic, builds on the initial reflection by tapping into the sensibility of artists who, albeit from different historical and geographical coordinates, offer an interpretation of the European context that raises new questions and allows us to identify new mistakes. “People across the globe are united by a general feeling of discontent that reveals, with increasing clarity, the yawning chasm that separates the political class from ordinary citizens, the distance between politics—perhaps misunderstood—and life, which is unquestionably political. The aim is to share and invite others to examine the situation, from their different coordinates and historical backgrounds, in a whole new light. Everyone is familiar with this situation, but only by combining the individual experiences of each can all be revealed. As in the first part of the project, this exhibition once again aspires to connect with spectators, inviting them to participate by discovering and discussing the themes addressed in these works. This project underscores the need for multiple points of view in order to establish, through dialogue, the common bond that is a prerequisite for any open, honest debate.”

When I wrote my last book I started it with these words “It is undoubted in our contemporary society a supremacy of the economics and more generally of the technicality and computability on the culture and the thought as well as on creativity, fantasy and imagination.” This to say that if we are looking for a way out to the crisis of our Western society we have to rethink our habits, our culture, our way of organization. We cannot use recipes based on the same values that have created the crisis. We have to think differently and for this we need creativity, fantasy and imagination. This is the reason for which Imma Prieto's project is really important and can be a real way to rethink the relation between art and economics.