New Ideas CityHello Museum

The Aesthetics of Participation

Ménage à Trois convenes conversations concerned with the built environment. It brings together architects, professionals, and intellectuals of different disciplinary backgrounds with a heterogeneous audience. In this particular installment, the conversation will focus on the Aesthetics of Participation, featuring editor Joseph Grima, curator Maria Nicanor and architect David Turnbull.

Beyond its initial democratizing ambitions, participation has proven to be a rhetorical and politically correct way of engagement, which has been already embraced, appropriated and commoditized by brands, cultural institutions and governments for their own interest. What is left from the original promise is, in most of the cases, an aesthetic practice. This discussion interrogates the effectivity of this practice, as it renders the conflictual nature of participation visible. More particularly, addressing the topic “untapped capital”—the theme of this year’s IDEAS CITY Festival—the discussion will consider how the aesthetic of participation could be considered productive for the construction of the contemporary city.

Curated by Marina Otero, Ignacio González and Eduardo Rega and supported by Spain Culture New York – Consulate General of Spain: member of the network Spain Arts & Culture.