YANS & RETO
YANS & RETO-Young And Not Stupid & Radical Even Though Old
Tuesday September 13, 2011
 From 7-9pm. Performances open to the public. Reception to follow from 9 to 10.
Anthology Film Archives 
32 2nd Avenue (F and M to 2nd Avenue), New York
http://fundacionmosis.com/English/yans.htm
ACTION FEST: “7 minutes or less” performances, short films, videos, objects of text, readings,
proclamations, songs etc… by artists and intellectuals over sixty and under thirty.
Registration end in August 30. These are the names of those who have signed in: Keith McDermott, Dionisio Cañas, Terry Williams&Jana Leo, Fred Forest, Gabriela Jaime Eva Davidova Raul Gomez Valverde, Kika espejo Vikki Badd.
Within the frame of two hours and in a theater, the Anthology Film Archive, YANS & RETO is an assembly of people engaged in contemporary culture who, regardless of their disciplines, have in common a taste for radicalism and experimental creation. YANS & RETO is a one-night festival where artists and intellectuals get introduced to each other by giving a taste of what they do, either with short intense pieces or with quiet interventions that last for the whole two hours. YANS & RETO is against ferocious nonsensical competition among artists. The festival is also is a situation to encounter others. Different from regular social events where people converse about what they do, here each person is introduced by doing “an action”. As in a jazz session (or a flamenco party, where people take a seat and eventually stand up and intervene), artists are not acting for the public.
The event give preference to artists over sixty years of age who are RETO (Radical Even Though Old) and under thirty who are YANS (Young And Not Stupid) and to Spanish artists of all ages, but also any artist or intellectual who fits the form and content is welcome. What does this means? Those with preference just by registering will be automatically part of the festival (until the space is half-filled) the other half will be filled either invited individuals or selected from the open call.
In an effort to locate Spanish art within international context this festival takes place in what is reference of quality for not official new york culture: the Anthology Film Archives and not in a institution directly link to Spain such as The Instituto Cervantes. This gesture is also saying that the main problem for art and culture from Spain is the lack of internationalization; to do a show in New York, even it is in an important place doesn’t mean that the work of that artist is international. This festival looks for artist who are international though Spanish. One way to measure if some art is international (significant regardless of your origin or the context in which is produced) is by making an open call with common rules for everybody; the common ground made easy to measure the differences. This is the kind of competition YANS & RETO is trying to promote, the competition of the artist with himself. Not the competition to get stuff and being important.
Often, art is a way to dig deep into to a culture. But also, often in art, stupidity is celebrated (this is my take with the use of the concept “emergent artists” and the pathetic of young artist re-doing performances and work done 30 years in advance and unaware of it.) Youth is defined by stupidity and age by wisdom. If one characterizes stupidity by lack of self-control rather than by a lack of knowledge or ability, one finds that one doesn’t grow intelligent but simply grows older. At the same time, being “progressive” is not related to being young but to being responsible. Although nobody would like to be perceived as stupid, being stupid releases one from being thoughtful and correcting mistakes. In reality, stupidity is a deviation from what is ethical.