Art, Memory, and Resistance: Luis Juan Guerrero’s Operative Aesthetics against Contemporary Negationism

Abstract

This article revisits the aesthetic theory of Luis Juan Guerrero to explore art as a process of historical remembrance in response to the rise of denialist discourses in contemporary Argentina. Throughout an analysis of his Operative Aesthetics, particularly the third volume —Promotion and Requirement of the Work of Art— we argue that, far from being a mere individual expression or an autonomous object of contemplation, the work of art constitutes a collective response to a historical demand, in which the cultural identities of a people are activated and transformed. Within this framework, the notion of tradition becomes central to understand how the artwork does not represent a closed past, but rather reactivates and reorients it from the present. Our hypothesis is further complemented by a dialogue between Guerrero, Judith Butler, and Adrián Cangi, whose proposals allow us to conceive of art as a symbolic restitution of what has been denied, as a form of political mourning, and as a reopening of the collective archive. Finally, we contend that art, understood as an operative practice, plays a fundamental role in the active defense of democratic memory.