Festivalization process and new instancies of agency: the case of the Petronio Álvarez Festival in Cali (Colombia)

Authors

  • Manuel Sevilla
  • Paola Andrea Cano Molina

Keywords:

Festivals, festivalization, traditional music, agency, Petronio Álvarez, Cali, marimba

Abstract

This article proposes that the processes of organizing music festivals have the potential to generate instances that widen the margin of agency of some sectors of society, specifically that of the participating musicians and some related communities. Based on a concept of agency that integrates the tenets of Anthony Giddens, Marilyn Strathern and Norman Long, the article analyzes the case of the Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival, an event focusing on traditional Afro-Colombian music that has been held since 1997 in the city of Cali (Colombia). Specifically, it discusses the changes that took place within the process of curating the music during the first years of the festival and the tension between economic and social development that remains to this day. The analysis concludes that the Petronio Álvarez festival has generated spaces in which there is a permanent “give and take” between different social actors, and that it is a junction between a broad community of producers and fans of traditional music of the region. The article gathers more than ten years of the authors’ experiences as festival goers, musicians, jurors and members of the organization.

Author Biographies

Manuel Sevilla

Manuel Sevilla es Doctor y Magíster en Antropología (University of Toronto) y Comunicador Social (Universidad del Valle). Profesor titular de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, investigador del grupo Poiesis, y coordinador del programa Músicas del Río de esa misma universidad. Ha realizado investigación con músicos tradicionales de la costa Caribe, Cauca y Valle. Becario de National Geographic Society, Fundación Latin Grammy, Archivo del New Orleans Jazz Festival y Ministerio de Cultura entre otros. Sus temas de investigación son la producción cultural de la música, el patrimonio cultural y la antropología del arte. Miembro del Comité Conceptual del Festival Petronio Álvarez (presente) y del Consejo Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural de Colombia (2015-2019). En 2015 recibió el premio de la Fundación Alejandro Ángel Escobar (Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales) por su libro colectivo sobre la música de Carlos Vives y La Provincia. En las artes, ha liderado varios proyectos de creación musical y teatral sobre patrimonio cultural colombiano.

Paola Andrea Cano Molina

Paola Andrea Cano Molina es socióloga y Magíster en Historia de la Universidad del Valle, y Doctora en Sociología de la cultura de la Universidad de Alicante, España. Investigadora del grupo Poiesis, en la línea de Arte, cultura y desarrollo, y profesora del Departamento de Arte, Arquitectura y Diseño de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali. Investigadora del Grupo de Trabajo “Sensibilidades, subjetividades y pobreza” del Concejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales CLACSO. Actualmente, es investigadora y parte del equipo de becarios de National Geographic Society, con el proyecto “Along we came: An educational strategy about internal migratory processes of afro-descendant communities in Colombia”. Su trabajo de investigación se ha centrado en el campo de la sociología de la cultura, con temas relacionados con la cultura y la migración afrocolombiana, las prácticas culturales, los rituales religiosos, las músicas tradicionales y populares, y, las emociones.

Downloads

Published

2020-10-15

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 2 (2020): Dossier: The festivalization of music in Latin America (1990-2020)

Section

Dossier

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Asociación Argentina de Musicología

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL 4.0 INTERNATIONAL

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

You are free to:

  1. Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  2. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  3. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  1. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  2. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes .
  3. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .

No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rightsmay limit how you use the material.