Abstract

Through the construction of an aesthetic-sound device that reproduces in public spaces the first cries of newborns, the work Música (Todo lo que sé lo aprendí el día que nació mi hijo) [Music (Everything I Know I Learned the Day My Son Was Born)] by Alfredo Jaar places audiences and the community before an intimate, institutionally private experience that bursts into shared social and cultural space. We postulate that the analysis of this work allows us to reflect on one of the most debated ethical and political issues today: care as an ethical human disposition. Given that the ethics of care implies an interruption of the traditional idea of value as being based on universal principles, Jaar’s work, especially in its strictly aesthetic dimension, suggests a problematization of this traditional order. Contrary to the approach of some philosophical positions that understand care as an intersubjective ethical disposition that does not necessarily prioritize a structure of obligation, in this article we propose to show that Music offers relevant inputs to problematize and conceptualize “care” as an ethical obligation that has a direct impact on the social, institutional, and political order of human communities.