One of the important cultural contributions made by Europe towards the foundation of Modernity was its conceptualisation of the aesthetic experience and how it is connected to the value of freedom. Throughout this Modernity and the subsequent debate between Modernity and Post-modernity, its contribution was central to thought on the profound changes occurring in the subject concept, to articulating certain utopian projects and to negative criticism of the systems of representation.

At this, the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the current situation of societies in crisis, we propose organising a European discussion forum to review the prevailing notions of the last decades: the politics and micro-politics of the systems of representation, transformations in the aesthetic thought methodologies and visual studies, the structure of the artistic system, and a review of artistic policies in order to construct the bases for possible new horizons.

For this purpose the General Directorate of Fine Arts and Cultural Assets of the Ministry of Culture of Spain, in collaboration with the Department of Aesthetics and Art Theory of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, organize this European Congress of Aesthetics, which will take place on the 10th, 11th and 12th of November 2010 in the Prado Museum of Madrid.