Dr. Julio Velasco

Assoziierter Forschende

Forschungsschwerpunkt:

Die Kunst der Kritik

E-Mail

juliovelasco@hotmail.fr

Website

http://julio-velasco.eu

VITA

Biografie

– Coorganisation of the „Art and Research“ group at the Marc Bloch Center, with Etienne Jollet, Professor of Art History at the University of Paris 1, and Marion Picker, Associate Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Poitiers. – Research Grant from the Centre Marc Bloch de Berlin, 2018 and 2019. – Research Grant from the DAAD, 2017. – PhD in Art and Arts Sciences, Université de Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2017. – “Artist Researcher” at Art and Sciences laboratory, University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2011-2013. – Member of the Leonardo Electronic Directory (LED).

Zusammenfassung

This work is about the question of art territories, but not for their repercussions on their neighbourhood, but for their contribution to the plastic creation itself. In the first part, the terms of the research are defined: the word „strategy“;

the „art districts“ according to their use;

the „people of art“. The second part presents, in addition to a historical synthesis, six territories of contemporary art: Faubourg Saint-Denis (Paris), which is the backbone of this work, Macarena (Bogota), San Telmo (Buenos Aires), Belleville (Paris), the Red Hook (New York) and the city of Berlin. The third part analyses the individual work of seven contemporary art personalities who lived in Faubourg Saint-Denis since 2000: Nathalie Heinich, Nicolas Bourriaud, Jean-Philippe Antoine, Thomas Hirschhorn, Esther Shalev-Gerz, Pierre Huyghe and Olga Kisseleva. The last part links this research with the work of its author. The conclusion highlights a series of hypotheses emerging from this study: places of art as an instrument of identification of the different groups working in art;

the notion of „debate“ as a form of strategy, with an internal level (who participates and in what capacity) and a global level (the role of art in society);

artists considered not as a socio-professional category, but as „products“ of every social group;

art as a form of participation in a common territory more than as a self space.

Forschung

Forschungsthemen

Velasco's research focuses on:
- uses of AI in Art,
- bio-art, botanical representations, critical ecology,
- post-media approaches to sound practices,
- sensitive geographies of cities and transforming territories.

His artistic practice follows an experimental approach: anchored in analysis, open to instability, and questioning the very conditions of production and circulation of images and ideas. His works often emerge from long processes, documentary materials, or specific contexts — yet always aim to generate a sensory experience and an active reading of the present.

These creations include installations such as Les Voi.es.x de la carte (2023) and Noices of Water (2014), AI projects such as Bogota Hills (2025) or code research such Vices Boxes (2012). These artworks are echoed in publications such as Bio-Art: Varieties of the Living in Artworks from the Pre-modern to the Anthropocene (2024), L'artiste comme stratège. Topographie et création plastique contemporaine (2021) and Art and ecology: a necessary questioning (2018), wich explore themes of representation, ecology, and digital cultures.

Stipendium

DAAD scholarship in the programme Research Grants Centre Marc Bloch de Berlin

Titel der Dissertation:

The artist as a strategist. Topography of contemporay art in Paris at the beginning of the 21st century

Institution der Dissertation:

Laboratoire d'Art et Sciences, Université de Paris 1- Panthéon Sorbonne

Publikationen

Bio Art, Varieties of the Living in Artworks from the Pre-modern to the Anthropocene, Edité par J. Velasco et K. Weber, Transcript verlag, Bielefeld, October 2024. Open Access.

– The Living in Artworks in Sociocultural and Historical Contexts, in Bio Art, Varieties of the Living in Artworks from the Pre-modern to the Anthropocene, Transcript verlag, Bielefeld, October 2024. J. Velasco et K. Weber. Open Access.

– José Celestino Mutis (1732-1808) ou les Lumières de la périphérie, in Périphéries culturelles et scientifiques, CTHS, Paris, August 2024. Open Access.

– Les voi.es.x de la carte / Tonkörper Berlin, in Cahiers des Umifre, 2023-2024, n° 10, Julio Velasco et Marion Picker. Open Access.

– La memoria de las plantas, in 20 Festival Internacional de la Imagen, Inter/Especies, Manizales, 2022.

– L’artiste comme stratège. Topographie de l ’art contemporain à Paris au début du XXIe siècle.

Currently being published at the CTHS editions.

– „L’image des artistes et des acteurs de l’art contemporain à travers leurs quartiers“ in Art collaboratif et territoire,

Editions de la Sorbonne, Paris, 2018.

– „La « Double vie » ou Portrait de l’artiste“ in Du travail collectif à l’oeuvre, sous la dir. Olga Kisseleva,

Nouvelles éditions Place, Paris 2017.

– „El ruido del agua“ in Ecología desde el arte digital, sous la dir. Luis Germán

Rodríguez Leal et Felipe César Londoño López, Publication Fundación

Telefonica, 2015. http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com.ve/publicaciones

– “Art, société et biodiversité”, in {plastik} n° 4, 2014. http://art-science.univparis1.

fr//document.php?id=931

– „Art et « gentrification »“, in Actes du colloque Tours 2012, Paris 2014.

http://cths.fr/ed/edition.php?id=6814

Organisation von Veranstaltungen

– The memory of plants and „La Expedición botánica“ in Colombia (1783-1816). http://julio-velasco.eu/001InProgExpB.html – Berlin, a city that creates artists. Practical function and symbolic function of a territory in contemporary art creation. http://julio-velasco.eu/006ReseBerlin.html – Beauty and Technology. http://julio-velasco.eu/006ReseBeauty.html – Nationalisms in Latin American contemporary art. http://julio-velasco.eu/006ReseLatinAmer.html – Neukölln : „Art Quarter / Immigrant Quarter“. http://julio-velasco.eu/001InProgNeuk.html

Organisation von Veranstaltungen

- "Auralities: Artistic and Scientific Approaches to Sound Studies", Institut Français de Berlin, Allemagne, Encounter about the "sound" co-organized by J. Velasco, 17 – 18 Janvier 2023. - "Bio art before Bio art. The living as culture expression". Workshop, 25th and 26th February 2021. Organized by Julio Velasco, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin ;

Klaus Weber, Pr. European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder and Olga Kisseleva, University of Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne - "Nationalismes dans l’art contemporain latino-américain". Journées d'études à Paris, les 23 et 24 septembre 2018, au Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschiste, co-organisateur avec Laura Karp (chercheur à la Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) - "Configuration du territoire par l'art, approches et méthodes", Workshop in Berlin, Januray 9, 2018 at the Marc Bloch Center of Berlin, and in Paris, May 14, 2018 at the Sorbonne University, co-organiser with Boris Grésillon (Geographer, University Professor, Aix-Marseille University, Associate Researcher at the Marc Bloch Center and Berlin Humboldt University - Chair of Cultural and Social Geography) and Olga Kisseleva (artist-researcher, Senior Lecturer HDR, Université de Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut ACTE, UMR 8218)

Forschungsprojekt

AI and artists‘ working methods

This artistic and theoretical research is part of a broader body of work on art and new technologies. It explores how image-making and the practice of artists are evolving in the age of artificial intelligence. The question arises as to whether AI imposes a change in the way artists work: what changes, why, and how they use or repurpose existing tools. This exploration is driven not by fascination or fear of AI, but by a desire to understand it better. The work focuses on the transition from text to image within the context of AI, connected to a conceptual artistic tradition. It examines the evolution of art, not in isolation, but as an integral part of societal evolution. Art must be continually redefined in each historical period, a collective process involving artists, critics, theorists, galleries, and other stakeholders.

Current AI platforms often generate prefabricated aesthetics. However, this research considers AI not only as a production tool, but also as a potential conceptual vector. It integrates HTML code as an objectifying element that enables dialogue between AI and the artist.

Could AI become the foundation of a new form of conceptual art, where the machine participates in idea generation and imposes a visual ideology? This question, crucial for the future of artistic creation, is at the heart of this research. While it is too early to determine whether AI represents a true revolution, it is not too early to begin exploring and understanding its potential in contemporary art.