Indigenous Artisans, Digital Technologies and Precarious Auras. A Reflection on Contemporary Art

Abstract

At a time when contemporary art is increasingly intervened by digital technologies, the purpose of this essay is to make a critique of the monopoly of capital that imposes its mercantilist logic on the creative processes of the new workers who try to resist from artisanal productions. Through a critical analysis, and by means of an abductive methodology, the present essay tries to explain how the aura of the work of art never ceased to be present even in the most peripheral cultural spaces. Although it is true that the aura, as an aesthetic category, has fallen into disuse since Walter Benjamin questioned it, it is important to point out that its use allows us to understand that handcrafted pieces are products that resist being part of the hegemonic narrative of contemporary art. In this context where the work of art became a luxury item, the work of the artisan takes force as an example of rebellion against a system that tends to precarize the creative subject.