Artistic transformation and social development. some changes in the appropriation of aesthetic knowledge

This document presents the partial results of the research work about the cultural transformation of Colombian society in the middle of the 20^th century. During this period is possible to trace important changes that show similar characteristics developed in other Latin-American processes, in the artistic field especially. The comparison is established connecting two parallel lives that took similar resources but followed the same direction toward the promotion of “modern art”. Besides the exposition of the aesthetic transformation process itself, the paper suggests a discussion regarding the relation between biography and history. It´s a debate that cover some problems tackled by history –of ideas, intellectual and cultural-, sociology –the relations in the artistic field-, and psychology –cognitive- related with questions around the human being creation in the knowledge realm. The theoretic support is the Norbert Elias’ process sociology who, with his considerations about the changing balance between involvement and detachment, illustrates the difficulties that bring to think the art without a sequential order as well as happens in the collar theory –which takes each culture as a human manifestation coherent itself thanks its own development. Therefore some methodological matters about the life writing, the monitoring of a chronology, the sources triangulation, the memory’s role and the autobiography are considered. Transversally, theses problems are taken from the trajectory of two lives: Santiago García and Enrique Buenaventura –actors, directors, playwrights and theater theorists- following a socio-historical analyses where the individuals lives don’t appear as an exemplary case, but as the supporting point of that these lives experiences can say in the comprehension on a social phenomenon.