Conference • November 8 – 9, 2024

AICA 2024: Becoming Machine, Resisting the Artificial. Art in the Present Tense

The International Association of Art Critics (AICA) in partnership with The Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Art (ICMA) within the “George Enescu” National University of Arts from Iași organized on November 8 & 9, 2024, at the International Center of Contemporary Art – Turkish Bath in Iași, the second part of the 56th Annual AICA International Congress: Becoming Machine, Resisting the Artificial. Art in the Present Tense.

Between November 4 and 9, 2024, the Annual Congress of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) took place in Bucharest (first part) and Iași (second part). The AICA Congress is an annual event, organized each year in a different country. The current event was a unique opportunity to welcome the most valuable experts, art critics and curators, to Romania.

The International Association of Art Critics is the most prestigious global organization in the field, founded in 1950 and affiliated to UNESCO, which includes more than 60 countries from all continents. The Romanian office of the organization, AICA-RO, was (re)established in 1993 and currently counts 68 members, specialists of great value from all generations with a remarkable professional activity and a high public profile in Romania and abroad.

The theme of this congress, Becoming Machine, Resisting the Artificial. Art in the Present Tense, fully reflects the current realities of a world increasingly permeated by technology, arousing the enthusiasm of many people active in the cultural field here and abroad. Presentations and debates were given and held by 58 internationally renowned experts from all continents.

Keynote speakers at the congress were recognized specialists with outstanding publications in the field of contemporary art: Joanna Zylinska (King’s College London), Jean-Paul Fourmentraux (Aix-Marseille University, France) and Paul O’Kane (University of the Arts London). The congress program also included a round table entitled Becoming Freedom. Performance Art in the ‘1990s, with the participation of art critics Kata Balázs-Miklós, Ileana Pintilie, Jurij Dobriakov, moderator: Małgorzata Kaźmierczak, president of AICA International.

The Congress was hosted for its first part by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, and for its second part by the International Center of Contemporary Art – Turkish Bath in Iași. The last AICA International Congress organized in Romania took place in 1967, in Târgu Jiu, and was coordinated by Dan Haulică. So, after many years, the attention of the entire cultural world in the field of visual arts – and not only – has refocused on Romania.