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The theme Beauty in Context was discussed extensively during a two-day conference African Aesthetics: Beauty in Context in Cape Town, South Africa in April 2001. This conference was organized by the University of Stellenbosch, in response to the principal theme Beauty in Context, developed and examined by the Prins Claus Fonds. Five workshops were organised on Style, Ritual, Food, Word and Sound and Body.
The Prins Claus Fonds has been addressing the theme Beauty in Context since 1999. It has already undertaken various activities in this connection. By way of preparation the Fund discussed the theme with a number of artists, art critics and aestheticians in Bombay and Mexico City in 1999. This brought important topics into sharper focus. Essentially the concept beauty had long disappeared from the international agenda. It was regarded as elitist, undemocratic, unjust and socially irrelevant. From an art historical and aesthetic point of view the debate was more concerned with matters such as cultural differentiation, gender issues, political backgrounds and social engagement. The Prins Claus Fonds seeks to subject beauty (and the experience of beauty) to cultural and social revaluation and to analyze it in its present-day and intercultural context.
Beauty in Context: article by Rustom Barucha 1999
Rustom Bharucha, India, theatre critic, member of the Committee on Culture and development