Published by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tmaki on the occasion

of the exhibition Space to Dream: Recent Art from South America

at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tmaki
7 May18 September 2016
Director: Rhana Devenport
Curators and com missioning editors:Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel
and Dr Zara Stanhope
Assistant curator: Julia Waite
Curatorial assistants: Maya Errzuriz and Amparo Irarrzaval
Exhibition designers: Scott Everson and Hannah Manning-Scott
Project manager: Jaenine Parkinson
Registrar: Rachel Walmsley
Editor: Clare McIntosh
Spanish language editor: Marcela Fuentealba
Proofreader: Gillian Tewsley
Translator: Karen Crossley
Image management: Rachel Walmsley, John McIver and Jennifer French
Catalogue design: Akin, www.studioakin.com
Digital imaging: Spectra Graphics
Print management: Australian Book Connection
Distribution: Hueders, www.hueders.cl
ISBN: 978-0-86463-307-1
This book is copyright. Except for reasonable purposes of fair
review, no part may be stored or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including recording or storage
in any information retrieval systems, without permission in
writing from the publisher. No reproductions may be made, whether
by photocopying or other means, unless a licence has been obtained
from the publisher or their agent.
2016 Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tmaki, the artists, and
contributing writers: Guilherme Bueno, Gustavo Buntinx, Stephen
Cleland, Maya Errzuriz, Ticio Escobar, Marcela Fuentealba,
Marisol Garca, Rosa Gubay, Amparo Irarrzaval, Emma Jameson,
John Mutambu, Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel, Sergio Rojas, Daniela
Schroder, Zara Stanhope, Luca Vodanovic, Julia Waite
Cover image: Luis Camnitzer / The Discovery of Geometry 1978, 2008 /
Courtesy the artist and Alexander Gray Associates, New York

Space to Dream:
Recent Art from
South America

Espacio para soar.

Arte reciente de
Amrica del Sur

Contents

Directors Foreword

Curators Introduction

Una invitacin a perdese 13

An Invitation to Lose Yourself
BEATRIZ BUSTOS OYANEDEL

El espacio de la conversacin
The Space of Conversation

27

DR ZARA STANHOPE

The Exhibition

45

Gente triste en una tierra radiante

Sad People in a Radiant Land

77

GUILHERME BUENO, INTERVIEW WITH

BEATRIZ BUSTOS OYANEDEL

El sentido de lo contemporneo 85
en la era de la globalizacin
The Sense of the Contemporary
in the Era of Globalisation
SERGIO ROJAS

Colectivo Sociedad Civil, Historia larga

Civic Society Collective, History for Long

101

GUSTAVO BUNTINX

La fuerza de la diferencia 123

Strength Lies in the Difference
TICIO ESCOBAR, INTERVIEW WITH
BEATRIZ BUSTOS OYANEDEL

The Artists

135

The Artist Biographies

221

Curators Biographies

244

List of Works

246

The project Space to Dream: Recent Art from South

America exemplifies the purpose of Auckland Art Gallery
Toi o Tmaki to be a generative platform for art and
ideas that strengthens and enriches our communities. In
their potential to activate a shared space of encounter,
the exhibition, this publication and the programme of
participatory events realises the Gallerys ambition
of being a powerful contributor to the cultural life of
Auckland and Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Gallery is conscious of its place in
the Pacific and of the expanding interest around the
world in the art of the Global South. Space to Dream is
notable as the first exhibition of art from South America
in New Zealand to survey the field in depth from the late
1960s until the present day. The recent art, culture and
history of eight countries Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay is foregrounded in this interrogative and speculative project.
Initiated by the Gallery and founded
in research and conversations, Space to Dream is the
culmination of creative collaborations between artists,
curators, foundations, art schools, museums and the
projects supporters in New Zealand and South America,
all of whom are concerned to realise extraordinary art
experiences that engage, challenge and inspire. Led
by co-curators Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel and Dr Zara
Stanhope, the curatorial inquiry undertaken by the team
has formed a project that, in the extent and breadth
of its critical focus, is unprecedented for the Gallery.
Space to Dream includes work by formative figures
who have challenged the creative practices, society
and institutions of the day as well as younger artists
who are responding to their contemporary situations
with urgency and poeticism.
The exhibition addresses the work of 43
artists and collectives, and this publication discusses
each artists work and presents a suite of essays by the
two co-curators as well as from philosopher Sergio Rojas
and critic/historian Gustavo Buntinx. Also included are
two interviews by Bustos Oyanedel with art historian/
curator Guilherme Bueno and educator/curator Ticio
Escobar. These texts offer compelling insights into
recent art of the South American continent.
As Uruguayan modernist artist Joaqun
Torres Garca evoked in his drawing of an inverted South

Directors
Foreword
Rhana Devenport

SPACE TO DREAM

American continent, it is time to take a fresh look at our

place in the world, and at our continental neighbours. A
spirited programme for audiences offers engagements
with culture across filmic, musical and literary realms,
while a symposium will provide a forum for further
discussion about how art shapes understanding of
cultures in the South. Our art school partners have
shared our intentions of negotiating deep connections
by helping to facilitate New Zealand residences for
artists Juan Fernando Herrn, Bernardo Oyarzn and
Martn Sastre.
The exhibition was made possible by the
establishment of relationships with major art museums
in South America who generously provided loans.
These include the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de
Buenos Aires, Museu de Arte Moderna de So Paulo,
Museo Nacional Bellas Artes, Santiago, Museo de Artes
Visuales, Santiago and the Museu de Arte Moderna do
Rio de Janeiro.
Sincere thanks and acknowledgment
goes to our Principal Exhibition Partners, EY (Ernst &
Young) and AUT University; and our Exhibition Sponsor,
Air New Zealand. I also thank New Zealands Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Auckland Art Gallerys
Contemporary Benefactors and Sue Fisher Trust. Artist
residencies have been generously provided by Elam
School of Fine Arts at The University of Auckland,
Whiti o Rehua School of Art at Massey University and
Wellington City Council, and Whitecliffe College of Arts
and Design. In addition, the Embassies of Argentina,
Brazil and Chile have been actively engaged with this
project throughout its development. I thank those
private individuals who have given in-kind support.
Special thanks goes to the Auckland Art
Gallery Foundation who made this publication possible.
The Foundation is the Gallerys philanthropic platform,
dedicated to the Gallerys growth and development
encompassing new research, new publishing, collection
building and cultural leadership.
In manifold ways, Space to Dream offers
audiences rare opportunities to engage with artists,
artworks and ideas for the first time and, in the spirit
of Hlio Oiticicas Parangol work, to promote sudden
agitation, liveliness, joy and unexpected situations
amongst people.
DIRECTORS FOREWORD

The territories in the southern part of the world that are

united by the Pacific Ocean share many historical and
natural characteristics: the colonisation of indigenous
people by Europeans, whose customs and cultural values
differed from those of the native communities; the
influence of North American and European neo-liberal
economics; and geographies rich in natural beauty.
Nevertheless, South American history and society
contrast significantly with Aotearoa New Zealand
and its neighbouring countries.
Through art it is possible, closely and
deeply, to bring forth aspects of life experiences,
cultures and historical processes. In 2013, we began
to research and share views on the importance of
fostering a spirit of connection in the South and how
this could unfold in New Zealand through the visual
arts, where audiences have had little exposure to the art
from South America. This exercise required constant
interchange, first to identify the underlying drives in
the production of visual arts in South America, and
second to understand how they might be perceived in
a context foreign to their place of production.
We defined the curatorial scope as
focusing on the art production of eight countries in
South America Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay and sought
to enhance understanding of this part of the continent
as an immeasurable region well beyond any concept of
nation. This large area comprises a conglomeration
of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, each
with its distinct history, peoples, and political, cultural
and social conditions. A hybrid, mestizo territory that
despite its established borders and strong cultural ties
remains in a continuous state of change and movement,
a flux of contexts and uncontained situations.
We have identified in the recent art
from this region the presence of a certain sensibility
the ability to create a poetic space that operates
in different ways across the work of artists, places
and times, and which offers ways to deflect hierarchies, chronologies, sequences and assumptions. We
are aware that exhibitions are constructs, spaces in
which public experience is organised according to the
curatorial intent and the context in which each work of
art is placed. However, we hope the exhibition offers

Curators
Introduction
Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel
Dr Zara Stanhope

SPACE TO DREAM

a space where possible narratives are articulated in a

manner that enables new ways of thinking; allowing
the viewer to experience what is found in the everyday
life and culture of South America. The artists works
can be understood, within the multiplicity of South
American culture, to be forces of memory, resistance
and introspection that convey dreams, renewal and
the ability to visualise new horizons.
Within this hybrid we thought it was
important to include and juxtapose the production
of two generations, with the former being significant
for their influence. The viewer can, then, experience
in a non-hierarchical manner influential artists from
the 1970s and 1980s, such as Hlio Oiticica, Lygia
Clark, Len Ferrari, Virginia Errzuriz and Paulo
Bruscky, alongside a younger generation of artists
including Demian Schopf, Lenora de Barros, Carlos
Castro, Jonathas de Andrade and Joaqun Snchez.
Other thinkers, poets, musicians or film directors also
appear brother and sister Nicanor and Violeta Parra
are two examples.
While art is based on the artists personal
strategies and modes of production, the local is also
mediated by communication networks, systems of
circulation and the connectivity brought about by
globalisation, which makes the local inseparable from
the global. Travel is also a means and a necessity for
bridging difference and fostering opportunity. In the
interests of cross-cultural conversations we included
artistic residencies in our curatorial method. This
has allowed Bernardo Oyarzn, Martn Sastre, Juan
Fernando Herrn and Eduardo Navarro to make connections, investigate and develop their thinking in a very
different context to their places of origin.
An extensive visitor programme offers
an expanded experience of art through artist and
panel discussions, a lecture by Alfredo Jaar, a film
programme chosen in relation to the selected works,
music and performance. Overall, the exhibition and
events are opportunities to explore the recent art of
the diverse cultures in South America, to gain a sense
of peoples histories, traditions and memories, and to
be immersed in the distinct stories, dreams and spaces
created by artists from South America and those who
have inspired them.
CURATORS INTRODUCTION

Joaqun Torres Garca

Amrica invertida
(Inverted America) 1943

Una invitacin
a perderse

An Invitation to
Lose Yourself

Beatriz Bustos
Oyanedel

Espacio y sueo son las palabras abstractas y ambiguas elegidas para nombrar el
recorrido que propone esta exposicin. Ellas abren la posibilidad de desplegar un
campo fecundo para la experiencia: evocamos la temporalidad de los sueos para
percibir otros atisbos de lo real. Pero en los sueos somos nosotros mismos los que
ejercemos un rol relevante para que la realidad sea descifrada. Todo sueo es la
inmovilidad de un movimiento, escribi la filsofa espaola Mara Zambrano. Pues
no existe estado alguno, situacin ninguna en la vida humana, de completa inmovilidad.
La vida en su estrato ms elemental, en su lmite con la no vida, es tensin, conato
con movimiento, predisposicin a un movimiento reprimido, apresurado. Y los sueos
nacen de esa imposibilidad, de esa absoluta inquietud en el necesario reposo. Vida
primitiva por ello, primaria, vida rebelde y en rebelin que reitera el mpetu primero
de atravesar lo que se opone. Por eso todo sueo tiene carcter, por quieto y apacible
que sea su contenido, por lo que la vida tiene su origen primero de oscura lucha, casi
de delito, de perturbacin del orden establecido.1
El derribamiento de jerarquas, cronologas, secuencias y reglas del mundo
soado abre, entonces, el paso a pulsiones diversas y multiformes que reclaman nuestros
sentidos para volver a ver y comprender. Si los conceptos y juicios son derribados, se
puede ingresar a la interpelacin y a las nuevas relaciones de tensin y significacin
entre las diferentes obras. En este espacio para soar se conocen las narraciones posibles,
que incitan a reaccionar y activar los flujos que permiten nuevas vas de pensamiento.
El espectador puede observar los diferentes modos en que se habita el
sur del continente americano. Es un espacio poroso, en constante redefinicin, con

mltiples dinmicas subyacentes: cuando creemos que hemos encontrado el constructo

necesario para comprender y articular la narracin que nos permita encontrar aquella
historia comprensible y comunicable, sucede que los desvos y accidentes nos devuelven
al campo donde podemos narrar otra vez lo indecible, es decir, a la potica del arte.
Esta potica se inscribe en el vaco de la temporalidad del sueo, un espacio/posibilidad
en el cual descubrimos que no existe esa narracin nica sino mltiples posibilidades
subjetivas que constituyen narraciones diversas y construyen utopas como la define
Hal Foster, los no-lugares de posibilidad que generan la energa revolucionaria condensada en deseo por un futuro diferente, un deseo de volver lo pospuesto en porvenir.2
Para el ejercicio de esta curadura consideramos necesario omitir desde
el ttulo aquellas palabras que podran remitir a la geopoltica, ya que de ese modo
asociaramos significados predeterminados, tanto desde lo universal como desde el
lugar donde se despliega esta exposicin Auckland, Nueva Zelanda, asunto que
limitara la libertad de exploracin.
Uno de los mecanismos utilizados para esta inmersin es la forma en
que se han dispuesto las obras en las diferentes galeras y en los programas complementarios. Las obras se ubican, como decamos, para establecer dilogos y tensiones
entre ellas, indistintamente del perodo histrico en que han sido producidas, la
relevancia u omisin que le han otorgado los crculos del as llamado mainstream
artstico, o la adscripcin que se puedan hacer de ellas a trminos como poltica,
arte popular, objeto relacional o documental. As, en relacin unas con otras, pueden
entenderse como un todo.

1. Mara Zambrano, Los sueos

y el tiempo (Dreams and Time),
Siruela, Madrid, 1999, p 76.

Space and dream are the abstract and ambiguous words chosen to name the journey that
this exhibition proposes. These words open up the possibility of unfolding a rich field
of experiences, evoking the temporality of dreams and the perception of other traces
of reality. In dreams, we are the ones who carry out an important role to decode reality.
Every dream is the immobility of a movement, wrote Spanish philosopher Mara
Zambrano. She elaborates: For there exists no state, or situation in human life, of
complete immobility. Life at its most basic level, at the boundary with no-life, is tension,
an attempted movement, predisposed to a repressed, hurried movement. And dreams
are born from this impossibility, from that absolute restlessness in this necessary rest.
Therefore a primitive life, primary, a rebellious life and in rebellion that reiterates the
impetus to cross all that opposes it. Hence all dreams have character. However quiet and
calm its contents may be, so life originates first from a dark struggle, almost of crime,
of disruption of the established order. 1
The overthrow of hierarchies, chronologies, sequences and rules by
the dream world opens, then, a path towards diverse and multifarious drives that
reclaim our senses to see anew and to understand. If concepts and judgements are
brought down, one is able to enter into interpellations and into new relationships of
tension and significance between the different works of art. In this space to dream,
the viewer becomes aware of the possible narrations that incite one to react and to
activate new ways of thinking.
The viewer can observe the different ways in which the South American
continent is inhabited. It is a porous space, in constant redefinition, with multiple

underlying dynamics: when we believe that we have found the right construct to
understand and articulate the narrative that allows us to find the understandable
and communicable history, we find ourselves facing detours and accidents that take
us back to that place where it is possible to narrate the unspeakable that is, the
poetics of art. This poetic inscribes itself within the empty temporality of dreams,
a space/possibility in which we discover that there is not only one narration, but
multiple subjective possibilities that constitute various narrations and build utopias
as defined by Hal Foster, the non-places for utopian possibility that generate
revolutionary energy condensed in the desire for a different future, the desire to
turn the postponements into future.2
For this curatorial project we considered it necessary to omit from the
title words that would create a geopolitical connotation. This decision was taken
to avoid the association of pre-established meanings, both from a universal and
from a local standpoint Auckland, New Zealand, where this exhibition is taking
place to provide freedom in exploration.
One of the mechanisms used to create the exhibitions immersion is
the way in which the works have been arranged within the galleries and in the design
of complementary programmes. The works are located to establish dialogue and
tension between one another, regardless of the historical period in which they were
produced, their relevance or omission awarded by the so-called artistic mainstream,
or their adscription to terms such as political, relational, popular or documentary
art. Thus, in relationship to one another, they can be understood as a whole.

14

SPACE TO DREAM

1. Mara Zambrano, Los sueos

y el tiempo. Siruela, Madrid,
1999, p. 76.

AN INVITATION TO LOSE YOURSELF

2. Hal Foster, II Simposio de

Teora de Arte Contemporneo.
Mxico D.F., enero de 2004.

2. Hal Foster, Third

Symposium on Contemporary
Art Theory, Mexico City,
January 2004.

15

16

Las permeabilidades, las posibilidades e imposibilidades, las incomprensiones y lo ilgico, y sobre todo la exploracin y divagacin, son el espacio en
el cual constantemente transitamos y habitamos en este sur. Para la seleccin de
obras no consideramos que dieran cuenta de lo que podra llamarse el estado de la
produccin de arte contemporneo en Amrica del Sur durante los ltimos aos, en el
sentido de una ilustracin turstica de lo que en esta zona sucede, sino ms bien son
obras que encarnan el preciso sueo del arte. Superamos las opresiones del orden a
travs de la posibilidad de llegar a ese instante de vaco del sueo en que realizamos
lo deseado. Para descifrar la realidad de otra manera y ser sujetos de un sueo que
nos moviliza hacia la accin, debemos perdernos y entrar a un pequeo caos en orden.
A pesar de que la creencia en el progreso, en el mejoramiento material
y cultural, ha formado en Amrica Latina un discurso slido sobre la estabilidad y la
autodeterminacin como un estadio conquistado o siempre deseado, las constantes
irrupciones sociales y polticas, as como las amenazas de la naturaleza, nos recuerdan
peridicamente que estamos en un territorio que se mantiene en proceso de redefi
nicin. Esto ms que una fatalidad prefiero considerarlo como una posibilidad, ya
que permite la participacin de un proceso de construccin de sociedad. Este es un
espacio para soar donde el desastre convive con la exploracin de vas para articular
sociedad, y esos procesos exploratorios constituyen una de las caractersticas de
las dinmicas de nuestros pases del sur.
El espacio que queremos delimitar y abrir, al mismo tiempo, es un campo
frtil para crear nuevas formas de convivencia, un espacio en el cual lo establecido

es constantemente puesto en crisis o en duda por las dinmicas polticas y sociales

que continuamente entran en juego. El derribamiento de jerarquas y supuestos
abre, por lo tanto, la exposicin. La cita de Logo for America de Alfredo Jaar, que
presenta el mapa de Estados Unidos bajo la frase This is not America (1987), es
una demarcacin precisa que anula el lugar comn, como lo es tambin la figura de la
Amrica invertida (1943) de Joaqun Torres Garca, la otra imagen que presenta esta
exposicin. Torres Garca seal en su manifiesto de 1937: He dicho Escuela del
sur; porque en realidad, nuestro norte es el sur. No debe haber norte, para nosotros,
sino por oposicin a nuestro sur. Por eso ahora ponemos el mapa al revs, y entonces
ya tenemos justa idea de nuestra posicin, y no como quieren en el resto del mundo.
La punta de Amrica, desde ahora, prolongndose, seala insistentemente el sur,
nuestro norte. 3
El mapa invertido es la descontextualizacin del llamado arte latinoamericano. Esta imagen es el primer gesto que establece nuevos parmetros espaciales
y, adems, abre la posibilidad de que un mapa ya no sea solamente la demarcacin de un
territorio, sino construcciones mentales portadoras de atributos conducentes a cambios.
Jorge Luis Borges, el gran escritor argentino, define la poesa y plantea
tambin esa bsqueda imparable: Si pensamos en la expresin de algo, desembocamos en el viejo problema de la forma y el contenido; y si no pensamos en la
expresin de nada en particular, entonces no llegamos a nada en absoluto. As que
respetuosamente admitimos esa definicin, y buscamos algo ms. Buscamos la poesa;
buscamos la vida. Y la vida est, estoy seguro, hecha de poesa. La poesa no es algo

Permeability, possibility and impossibility; incomprehension and that

which is illogical; and above all, exploration and rambling, are the spaces in which we
constantly move and inhabit in this South. When selecting the works we did not consider
that they should give an account of what could be called the state of the production of
contemporary art in South America during the last few years in the sense of a tourist
illustration of what is being done in this area; but, rather, they are works that embody
the very dream of art. We overcame the oppression of order through the possibility of
reaching that moment of emptiness in sleep in which we are able to realise what we
desire. In order to decipher reality in a different way and be subjects of a dream that
mobilises us into action, we must lose ourselves and enter into a small ordered chaos.
Although the belief in progress, in material and cultural improvement,
has formed in Latin America a solid perspective on stability and self-determination
as a conquered stage or a continuous desire of conquest, the constant political and
social eruptions, as well as threats from nature, regularly remind us that we are in a
territory that remains in a process of redefinition. I would prefer to consider this as a
possibility, more than a fatality, since it allows participation in a process of building
society. This is a space to dream, where disaster coexists with the exploration of
ways to articulate society, and these exploratory processes are one of the features
of the dynamics found in our countries of the South.
The space we want to delimit and open, at the same time, is a fertile field
to create new forms of coexistence; a space in which the established is constantly
put in crisis or in doubt by social and political dynamics that continually come into

play. The overthrow of hierarchies and assumptions, therefore, opens the exhibition.
The quote in Alfredo Jaars A Logo for America, 1997, in which he presents a map of
the United States under the phrase This is not America, is a precise demarcation
that cancels out the commonplace, as is the figure of Amrica invertida (Inverted
America), 1943 by Joaqun Torres Garca, the image that opens this exhibition.
Torres Garca said in his 1937 manifesto: I have called this School of the South,
because in reality, our North is the South. There must not be North for us, except
in opposition to our South. Therefore, we now turn the map upside down, and then
we have a true idea of our position, and not as the rest of the world wishes. The
point of America, from now on, forever, insistently points to the South, our North. 3
The inverted map is the de-contextualisation of the so-called Latin
American art. This image is the first gesture that sets new spatial parameters and
also opens up the possibility that a map is no longer only the demarcation of territory,
but more so something representative of mental constructs that carry attributes
that lead to change.
Jorge Luis Borges, the great Argentine author, defines poetry and lays
out the idea of an unstoppable search: If we think of an expression of something,
then weve landed back into the old problem of form and matter; and if we think about
the expression of nothing in particular, that gives us really nothing. So, we receive
respectfully that definition and then we go on to something else. We go on to poetry,
we go on to life. And life is, I am sure, made of poetry. Poetry is not alien: poetry is,
as we shall see, lurking around the corner. It will spring on us at any given moment.4

SPACE TO DREAM

AN INVITATION TO LOSE YOURSELF

3. Joaqun Torres Garca,

Universalismo Constructivo.
Poseidn, Buenos Aires, 1941.

3. Joaqun Torres Garca,

Universalimo constructivo
(Constructive Universalism),
Poseidn, Buenos Aires, 1941.
4. Jorge Luis Borges, El
enigma de la poesa (The
Enigma of Poetry) in Arte
potica: Seis conferenecias
(Poetic Art: Six Conferences), Critica, Barcelona,
2001, pp 1617.

17

4. Jorge Luis Borges, El

enigma de la poesa en Arte
potica. Seis conferencias.
Crtica, Barcelona, 2001, pp.
1617.

extrao: est acechando, como veremos, a la vuelta de la esquina. Puede surgir ante
nosotros en cualquier momento. 4
La poesa acecha en Latinoamrica, y sus formas mltiples son orgnicas,
sociales y de lenguaje. Son diferentes poticas que reformulan lo real: la lucha, la
tragedia, la celebracin, el origen, lo desconocido. Estos conceptos, para m, forman
una red fuera de las jerarquizaciones y los ordenamientos cronolgicos, una red de
trminos y ejes que nos guan para internarnos en el campo de posibilidades del arte.
LA POTICA DE LA LUCHA
Las obras de artistas y colectivos que han recogido los asuntos polticos y sociales
para denunciar situaciones urgentes de sus respectivos contextos, han constituido
acciones con la intencin de generar verdaderos movimientos ciudadanos. Eso ha
ocurrido en diferentes periodos histricos y en diversos pases, y enriquecen el campo
de posibilidades que entrega el arte en cuanto a la activacin de dinmicas sociales.
La apropiacin por parte de la ciudadana del smbolo de la accin NO+ del grupo
C.A.D.A (Colectivo de Acciones de Arte), realizada en Chile durante el periodo de
la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet (19731990), y la accin Lava la bandera, impulsada por el Colectivo Sociedad Civil en Per bajo la dictadura de Alberto Fujimori
(1990-2000) que se relata en extenso en el texto de Gustavo Buntinx al final de
este libro, sealan las complejidades de este tipo de intervenciones.
La accin Fogo Cruzado (2002) de Ronald Duarte, en tanto, realizada
en medio de levantamientos en Ro de Janeiro, en el barrio de Santa Teresa, con la
Poetry lurks in Latin America, and its multiple forms are organic,
social and made by language. There are different poetics that reformulate the real:
struggle, tragedy, celebration, origins and the unknown. These concepts, for me,
form a network that excludes hierarchies and chronological order, a network of
terms and core ideas that guide us into the field of possibilities of art.
THE POETICS OF STRUGGLE
The works of artists and art collectives who have chosen political and social issues
to denounce urgent situations of their respective contexts, have set up actions
with the intention of generating real citizen movements. This has happened
in different historical periods and in different countries, and has enriched the
possibilities that art can grant in terms of the activation of these social dynamics.
The appropriation by citizens of C.A.D.A.s (Colectivo de Acciones de Arte, Collective
of Art Actions) symbol NO+ in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet
(19731990), and the action Lava la bandera (Wash the Flag) developed by the
Colectivo Sociedad Civil (Civil Society Collective) in Peru under the dictatorship
of Alberto Fujimori (19902000) referred to extensively in Gustavo Buntinxs
essay point to the complexities and possibilities of such interventions.
On the other hand, the action Fogo Cruzado (Crossfire), 2002 by
Ronald Duarte, which took place in the midst of the uprisings in Rio de Janeiro in
the streets of the neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, with the participation of several
artists constituted as a collective, portrays these streets as a space of insurrection.

18

SPACE TO DREAM

participacin de varios artistas constituidos como colectivo, sealan esas calles como
un espacio de insurreccin. Y, desde su publicidad y la participacin de la ciudadana,
generan una reflexin poltica y filosfica.
A la vez, hoy cobran relevancia gestos que en este contexto podran
considerarse mnimos o silenciosos. Si ampliamos la mirada los podemos definir
como inclaudicables, adems de dar cuenta de un cruce entre arte y vida, un arte de
resistencia llevada a cabo durante periodos de opresin, como es el trabajo de Virginia
Errzuriz en Chile en los aos 1970, y de Paulo Bruscky y Antonio Manuel en Brasil
entre los aos 1960 y 1970.
Podramos suponer que este tipo de dinmicas se encuentran an vivas
y se activan a travs de estos poros permeables entre la ciudadana y el artista o el
colectivo, y viceversa. Ambos trnsitos, facilitados por una causa comn, encuentran
tambin hoy en la potica del arte un espacio para manifestar demandas. La potica
de la lucha entrega entonces la posibilidad de lograr cambios en el modo en que
vivimos a travs del arte, asociando obras a un espacio para la accin de las utopas.
LA POTICA DE LA TRAGEDIA
La metfora ha sido un recurso para decir lo indecible en momentos histricos silenciados, cuando se suprime la libre expresin. En cambio, cuando se tornan los hechos
indecibles a causa de acontecimientos que irrumpen en nuestra biografa como traumas,
o situaciones que nos vulneran, se transforman en una potica de la tragedia.
Mximo Corvaln, en su obra ADN (2012), conecta con las pulsiones
And, from its publicity and citizen participation, the action generates political and
philosophical reflection.
At the same time, today certain gestures that in this context could
be considered minimal or silent become relevant. If we extend our view, we can
define them as unyielding; as a relationship between art and life, an art of resistance carried out during periods of oppression as is the work of Virginia Errzuriz
in Chile in the 1970s, and Paulo Bruscky and Antonio Manuel in Brazil between
1960 and 1970.
We are, then, able to suppose that these dynamics are still alive
and are seen activated through these existing permeable membranes between the
people and the artist or collective, or vice versa. Both of these ways, provided by
a common cause, find in the poetics of art today a space to express demands. The
poetics of struggle deliver the possibility to create changes in how we live through
art, associating works with a space for the action of utopias.
THE POETICS OF TRAGEDY
Metaphor is a common device used to express the unspeakable at historic moments
of silence, when freedom of speech has been suppressed. Yet when these untold
facts become a trauma because of events that burst into our biography or because
of situations that make us vulnerable, they are transformed into a poetic of tragedy.
In Proyecto ADN (DNA Project), 2012 Mximo Corvaln connects with
the most intimate aspects of pain through his own biography (the execution of his
AN INVITATION TO LOSE YOURSELF

19

20

ms ntimas de su dolor a travs de una vinculacin con su biografa (el fusilamiento

de su padre en 1973, la bsqueda de sus restos y la posibilidad de identificarlos
gracias a los avances cientficos despus del atentado del 11 de septiembre de 2001
en Nueva York). Corvaln, desde su experiencia, universaliza su trauma y logra
establecer una conexin con nuestro propio duelo, indistintamente de la forma en
que cada acontecimiento histrico haya marcado la vida de cada observador; logra
transportarnos hacia ese espacio vaco del sueo donde la realidad es disuelta.
La tragedia se vuelve colectiva tambin en el trabajo de Jonathas de
Andrade, 40 Nego Bom 1 Real (2013). Nego Bom es el nombre de un dulce popular
en el Noreste de Brasil y en portugus el trmino significa literalmente buen negro,
una manera coloquial de decirse entre uno y otro pero que mantiene connotaciones
coloniales y raciales. En los mercados locales de Brasil hay un eslogan popular
que dice 40 nego bom por R$1,00 algo as como 40 dulces negros por R$1,00.
Al apropiarse de este eslogan, el proyecto de Andrade visibiliza la discriminacin an
presente en nuestras sociedades y tambin la tragedia de la inequidad.
Juan Manuel Echavarra, en tanto, con su serie Silencios (2010), fotografas
de escuelas abandonadas en zonas arrasadas por la guerrilla colombiana, da cuenta de
los efectos de la violencia extrema en las pequeas comunidades, generaciones afectadas
para quienes el derecho a la educacin es vulnerado junto a todos los derechos bsicos.
La tragedia, entonces, abre una conexin radical con el espectador, al
conectar con su duelo y establecer una relacin. Con pequeos gestos estos artistas
logran expresar lo que se silencia lenta y constantemente en la sociedad.

LA POTICA DE LA CELEBRACIN
Guilherme Bueno, en la entrevista incluida en este libro, expone con mayor detalle
sobre la celebracin y el carnaval, especficamente en Brasil, y sus reflexiones pueden
asociarse a otras celebraciones de los pases del sur. Se trata de una potica sobre la
transformacin, de un viaje a lo desconocido, a una disrupcin del sentido, presente
en las antiguas culturas y que an se mantiene viva. El gran ejemplo es Hlio Oiticica
con su obra Parangols (19631969), que en esta muestra se expone de tal modo que
los visitantes puedan participar de una experiencia nueva al vestir los trajes que se
disponen en la sala. Los cuerpos son el soporte para extender as el color y la forma.
Esas capas, utilizadas en la danza de la samba, vibran con la extensin del cuerpo
hacia el arte; en palabras de Oiticica son una bsqueda de la dimensin infinita de
colores en su relacin con la estructura, el espacio y el tiempo.5
Demian Schopf, desde otra manera, presenta con sus fotografas
performticas la ambigedad inquietante de los momentos de fiesta y celebracin,
cuando nos escindimos de lo cotidiano en un rito de opulencia e intensidad, nos
trasvestimos para participar en un acto colectivo y sumergirnos as en una condicin
alegrica, neobarroca, sincrtica y andina en un escenario indescifrable. Esta misma
hibridez y ambigedad se refleja en la obra fotogrfica de Marcos Lpez, quien
presenta escenografas en las cuales se instalan personajes junto a un mestizaje que
multiplica y cuestiona el simbolismo de lo que podra llamarse una cultura neo-popular.
Pulsin de vida y pulsin de muerte se entrecruzan en la potica de
la celebracin. La atemporalidad del sueo nos permite preceder el delirio de estas

father in 1973; the search for his remains; and the possibility of identifying them
due to scientific advances following September 11 in New York, 2001). Corvaln,
from experience, is able to universalise his trauma and establish a connection with
our own grief, regardless of the way in which specific historical events marked the
life of each observer. He manages to transport us towards that empty space found
in dreams, where reality is seen dissolved.
Tragedy also becomes a collective experience in the work of Jonathas
de Andrade, 40 Nego Bom e 1 Real (40 black candies for R$1), 2013. Nego bom is
the name of a popular candy in the northeast of Brazil and in Portuguese the term
literally means good black, a colloquialism which has colonial and racial connotations. In the local markets of Brazil there is a popular slogan that says 40 nego
bom for R$1, something like 40 black candies for R$1. Through the appropriation
of this slogan, de Andrades project makes visible the discrimination that is still
present in our societies and the tragedy of inequality.
Juan Manuel Echavarra, meanwhile, in the series Silencios (Silences),
2010, photographs abandoned schools in areas affected by the Colombian guerrillas,
portraying the effects of extreme violence in small communities, which affect
generations for whom the right to education has been violated, as have other basic
human rights.
Tragedy, then, creates a radical connection with the viewer, relating
to their grief and establishing a bond with them. With small gestures, these artists
manage to express what in society has been slowly and constantly silenced.

THE POETICS OF CELEBRATION

In his interview Guilherme Bueno refers in great detail to celebration and Carnival,
specifically in Brazil, and his reflections can be associated with other celebrations
practised in the countries of the South. These celebrations are about the poetic
transformation of a journey into the unknown, into a disruption of consciousness,
present in ancient cultures and still alive today. The great example is Hlio Oiticicas
work Parangols (Capes), 196369, and in this exhibition they are displayed in a
manner that allows visitors to participate in a new experience by wearing the robes.
Bodies become the supports that provide for the extension of colour and form. These
layered capes, used in samba dances, vibrate as an extension of the body towards
art. In the words of Oiticica, [they] are a search for that infinite dimension of colour
as it relates to structure, space and time.5
Demian Schopfs performative photographs, on the other hand,
present the disturbing ambiguity found in moments of festivity and celebration
when we are torn away from everyday life into a rite of opulence and intensity, we
transform ourselves to participate in a collective act and immerse ourselves in an
allegorical, Neo-Baroque, syncretic and Andean condition within an indecipherable
scenario. This same hybridity and ambiguity is seen reflected in the photographic
work of Marcos Lpez, who portrays scenes with characters installed alongside a
crossbreeding of objects and images that multiply and question the symbolism of
what can be called a neo-popular culture.
Life and death intersect in the poetics of celebration. Timelessness

SPACE TO DREAM

AN INVITATION TO LOSE YOURSELF

5. Hlio Oiticica,
The Supreme Order of Colour,
1961. En Hlio Oiticica,
The Body of Colour, Tate
Publishing, Londres, 2007, p.64.

5. Hlio Oiticica, The

Supreme Order of Colour,
1960, in Hlio Oiticica,
The Body of Colour, Tate
Publishing, London, 2007, p 64.

21

vivencias carnavalescas y anticipar el silencio y la austeridad forzada herencia de

la cuaresma impuesta en la poca colonial por el catolicismo, en paralelo a una
bsqueda del tiempo ancestral, originario, de la prdida de los dioses y el deseo de
encontrarse con ellos, como indican los rituales de los pueblos antiguos de Amrica,
desde los maya hasta los guaran.
LA POTICA DEL ORIGEN
Los sistemas de valoracin imperantes, con las lgicas de polticas neoliberales de
mercado, tienden a dominar de modo violento las formas de vida de los pueblos
originarios, que entre otras prcticas an ejercen el trueque, conviven en comunidad
y tienen una relacin con el trabajo no acumulativo ni personal. Como explica Ticio
Escobar en la entrevista incluida en este libro, los pueblos originarios se expresan
en formas que errneamente han sido relegadas fuera de la discusin de lo que
entendemos como contemporneo. Algunos de los artistas presentados rescatan las
tipologas y riquezas iconogrficas de sus expresiones arcaicas, de un eterno presente,
y despliegan junto a ellas la perspectiva contempornea para resignificarlas y dar
cuenta de la inclusin o exclusin de sus prcticas.
La manualidad, y con ella su temporalidad diversa, es la que marca
obras que indistintamente encuentran mayor o menor posibilidad de inscripcin en
trminos de arte contemporneo, popular o indgena. Maria Nepomuceno, Joaqun
Snchez, Bernardo Oyarzn, Catalina Bauer y Violeta Parra, entre otros, derriban
las separaciones y las nociones temporales, las diferencias entre lo tradicional y lo
in dreams allows us to precede the delirium of these carnivalesque experiences
and anticipates the silence and forced austerity an inheritance of Lent imposed
by Catholicism during the colonial era along with a search for ancient, original
time of the loss of the gods and the desire to reencounter them, as indicated by the
rituals of the ancient peoples of America from the Maya to the Guaran.
THE POETICS OF THE ORIGIN
The prevailing systems, with the logic of neo-liberal market policies, tend to
dominate, in a violent way, the lifestyles of indigenous people, who, among other
practices, still barter, live in communities and have a relation with work that is
neither cumulative nor personal. As Ticio Escobar explains in his interview, indigenous people express themselves in ways that have been erroneously relegated
out of the discussion of what we understand as being contemporary. Some of the
artists in this exhibition rescue typologies and iconographic values from their
archaic expressions, in an eternal present, and display them from a contemporary
perspective, re-signifying them and taking account of the inclusion or exclusion
of such practices.
Manual art, with its different temporality, is what defines whether
the work has either a greater or a lesser possibility of ascribing to terms such as
contemporary, popular and indigenous art. Maria Nepomuceno, Joaqun Snchez,
Bernardo Oyarzn, Catalina Bauer and Violeta Parra, among others, tear down
compartments and temporal notions, as well as differences between what we may
22

SPACE TO DREAM

actual. Como dice Escobar, esa operacin es el sueo del arte contemporneo, de
toda forma de arte: conciliar la densidad de los contenidos con la fuerza de la imagen.
Otro ejemplo es la msica brasilea, en la cual no hay lmites rgidos
entre lo culto y lo popular (la obra de Heitor Villa-Lobos es un ejemplo de este rasgo),
como tampoco los hay entre la produccin de arte y las fiestas populares. En Brasil,
los artistas realizan diferentes acciones de arte en el contexto del carnaval. El mismo
sincretismo, la hibridez, la potencia del ruego, del deseo, es enorme en La Fiesta de
Jess del Gran Poder en Bolivia, por ejemplo, que puede observarse como una gran
performance. Si la potica del origen disloca el tiempo histrico, desde ese origen,
y desde otros lugares, aparece entonces la fuerza de lo desconocido.
LA POTICA DE LO DESCONOCIDO
Lygia Clark y Hlio Oiticica son los grandes exploradores que borran los lmites del
sueo en un deslizarse del vivir del sujeto sin gua, un extravo total de la percepcin
hacia lo nuevo. Ernesto Neto contina con su herencia: crea formas que remiten a
estados diferentes de ensoaciones e invita a una especie de rito inicitico muy propio
de los viajes sensoriales practicados en la Amazona, una experiencia holstica que
incluye la sensualidad. Neto crea un espacio para conquistar con cada uno de los
sentidos, con cada parte del cuerpo. Son formas orgnicas que al fin subvierten la
mirada hacia el horizonte por la mirada hacia lo alto.
Esta invocacin de lo desconocido puede tambin ser una reformulacin
material que, a pesar de su pragmatismo, es una bsqueda organizada de la utopa.
consider to be traditional or modern. As Escobar says, this exercise is the dream
of art, of all forms of art: reconciling the density of the contents with the strength
of the image.
Brazilian music is another example of this: in it there are no rigid
boundaries between high culture and popular culture (the work of Heitor VillaLobos illustrates this point), just as between art production and popular festivities.
In Brazil, artists perform different art actions in the context of the Carnival.
This same syncretism, hybridity, power of prayer, of desire, is grandiosely expressed
in the Fiesta de Jess del Gran Poder in Bolivia (The Festival of the Lord Jesus of
Great Power), which can be seen as a great performance. If the poetics of the origin
dislocate historical time, from that origin and from other places, the force of the
unknown appears.
THE POETICS OF THE UNKNOWN
Lygia Clark and Hlio Oiticica are the great explorers who erased the boundaries of
dreams in a way in which the subject lives without guidance, experiencing a total
loss of perception towards that which is new. Ernesto Neto continues this legacy,
creating forms that refer to different states of dreaming which invite participation in
a kind of initiation ritual typical of sensory trips practised in the Amazon, a holistic
experience that includes sensuality. Neto creates a space to conquer with each of
the senses, with each part of the body. They are organic forms that subvert gazing
at the horizon in order to look upwards.
AN INVITATION TO LOSE YOURSELF

23

24

Ignacio Gumucio usa la prctica pictrica del muralismo, recurso propio de las utopas
de transformacin social y de los habitantes de espacios urbanos que se expresan
a travs del grafiti. Gumucio interviene los muros de las salas con una pintura que
desafa la perspectiva, borronea la memoria y crea tensiones entre imgenes de lo
conocido y lo por conocer. Sus gestos hacen que el retorno de la memoria aparezca
fraccionado, discontinuo, y retrata la extraeza debido a la imposibilidad de asociar
y la necesidad de formular una nueva realidad. La memoria se disuelve y todo es
novedad para el desarrollo de otra arquitectura, como una revolucin persistente.
Los relatos del no saber, de la exploracin total, de nuevos comienzos,
se multiplican en el trabajo de Juan Fernando Herrn. Sus fotografas de escaleras,
inconducentes algunas, con bifurcaciones otras, sealan la importancia de dar
nfasis a la bsqueda por sobre la finalidad o el objetivo. Son esas mismas acciones
las que emprenden los habitantes que viven en los cerros que rodean la ciudad
de Medelln, Colombia, quienes creativamente han tenido que buscar modos de
subsistencia, desafiando la geografa para lograr construir una utopa de desarrollo
e inclusin social.
Kevin Mancera, en tanto, construye un relato al identificar aquellos
pueblos desperdigados por el continente llamados Felicidad. Sus bitcoras de viaje
revisan estos espacios de utopa, valoran las distintas formas de vida, y construyen
un mapa social con un parmetro diferente, por sobre indicadores materiales, para
derribar as lo que podramos llamar progreso. La incorporacin del trabajo de
Mancera en esta exposicin, categorizado como ilustracin, desacraliza tambin

los conceptos de las disciplinas y definiciones y su posibilidad de ser incluidas en

un espacio museal.
Todas estas obras, estos recorridos, apelan a la pulsin creativa para
asomarse a lo desconocido, a lo posible, a lo siempre por descubrir, que es la marca
de una cultura mestiza en continua transformacin. La intencin o la potencia puede
ser movilizar un cambio social, o quizs slo garantizar la existencia de un espacio
para soar que no sucumba a las imposiciones del poder, de la violencia o de lo
imposible. Una invitacin a perderse, a no saber qu podemos encontrar.

This invocation of the unknown can also be a material restatement

that, despite its pragmatism, is an organised search for utopia. Ignacio Gumucio
uses the practice of mural painting, a resource of utopias of social transformation,
just as the inhabitants of urban spaces express their concerns through graffiti.
Gumucio intervenes in the exhibition room walls with a type of mural painting that
defies perspective, rubbing off memory and creating tensions between images of
the known and what is yet to be known. His gestures make the exercise of memory
recall appear as fractional and discontinuous, and they portray strangeness that
alludes to the impossibility of association and the need to formulate a new reality.
Memory is dissolved and everything is new for the development of another architecture, like a persistent revolution.
Stories of not knowing, of total exploration, of new beginnings, are
seen multiplied in the work of Juan Fernando Herrn. His photographs of stairs,
some with no destination, others a bifurcation, point out the importance of emphasising the search over the purpose or objective. It is these same actions which the
inhabitants living in the hills that surround the city of Medelln, Colombia have had
to undertake to creatively seek a livelihood, defying geography to build a utopia of
development and social inclusion.
On the other hand, the work of Kevin Mancera builds a story to identify
villages scattered across the continent that are called Felicidad (Happiness). His
sketchbooks review these spaces of utopia, appreciating different forms of life, and
building a social map with a different parameter, to overthrow the concept of what

we might call progress. The incorporation of Manceras work in this exhibition,

categorised as illustration, demystifies pre-established visions of this discipline
and its possibility of inclusion within a museum space.
All of these works of art, these journeys, appeal to the creative impulse
to lean in to the unknown, to what is possible, to what can be discovered, which is
the mark of a mestizo (mixed race) culture in constant transformation. The intent
or force may be to mobilise social change, or perhaps only to ensure the existence
of a space to dream that does not succumb to the impositions of power, violence or
the impossible. The artworks are an invitation to lose yourself, not knowing what
you will find.

SPACE TO DREAM

AN INVITATION TO LOSE YOURSELF

25

El espacio de
la conversacin

The Space of
Conversation

Dr Zara Stanhope

1. El trmino sur global

(Global South) se refiere
a aquellos territorios del
hemisferio sur cuyos gobiernos
y economas histricamente
se han desarrollado como
alternativa a tradiciones
democrticas, imperio legal
y estabilidad econmica
presentes en el hemisferio
norte. Sin embargo, varios
pases sudamericanos se han
desarrollado rpidamente y
algunos, como Chile, han hecho
importantes avances en la
reduccin de la desigualdad
social, la mayora de ellos
enfocados en reformas estructurales en educacin y empleo.

Y t me lo preguntas?
Antipoesa eres t.
NICANOR PARRA, 1997

Reunir a la gente en torno al arte genera consecuencias. Propongo la idea curatorial

segn la cual cuando diferentes prcticas artsticas y de pensamiento chocan o se
comparten, tienen el poder de reconfigurar un futuro cultural por venir. El arte se
enraza localmente y en contextos especficos, pero tambin opera en forma regional,
global, personal, colectiva y a travs del tiempo.
Amrica del Sur y Nueva Zelanda se conectan por la posicin geogrfica
en el hemisferio sur del planeta y por la presencia viva de las historias coloniales. Ms
all de esto, podemos decir que las culturas que conforman Amrica del Sur, y hasta
cierto punto Nueva Zelanda, se definen por su oposicin ante el hemisferio norte.
El concepto segn el cual existe una zona importante del sur que rechaza el estigma
histrico del Tercer Mundo, o del nuevo mundo, de lo colonial y de estar en vas
de desarrollo, que niega cualquier imposicin de relaciones centro-periferia, se
conoce en forma amplia como sur global,1 una regin yuxtapuesta a Estados Unidos,
Canad, Europa Occidental y las zonas desarrolladas de Asia. Visto de esta manera,
existe un potencial para crear relaciones sur-sur innovadoras. Estas conexiones
alientan la profundizacin de la comprensin cultural y son una oportunidad para
que los artistas y el arte perturben el pensamiento establecido y reorganicen los
cnones aceptados.
And you ask me? Antipoetry is you.
NICANOR PARRA, 1997

1.The
TheGlobal
GlobalSouth
Southis
is under1.
stood as those
areasareas
in or in or
understood
as those
hemiaround the southern hemisphere
spheregovernments
whose governments
and
whose
and
economies have historically
lenghty
been in contrast to the lengthy
traditions,rule
rule
democratic traditions,
stability
of law and economic stability
oberseverd
the
northern
observed
inin
the
northern
hemisphere. However,
However,South
South
hemisphere.
American countries are rapidly
some,such
suchas
as
developing and some,
Chile,have
havemade
madesubstantial
substantial
Chile,
inroads in reducing social
inequality,and
andmost
mostare
are
inequality,
focused on structural reforms
employment.
in education and employment.

Bringing people together over art has consequences. Let me advocate for the curatorial idea that a collision or sharing of distinct practices of art and thought has
the potential to reconfigure a cultural future. Art is rooted locally and in specific
contexts, but also speaks regionally, globally, personally, collectively and across time.
South America and Aotearoa New Zealand are connected by the
living presence of colonial histories and their geographical positions at the south
of the globe. Beyond this, it can be argued that the cultures that comprise South
America and to some degree New Zealand are defined against those of the northern
hemisphere. The related concept of a significant southern region that avoids the
historical stigma of the third, underdeveloped, colonial or new world and denies any
sense of centreperiphery relations is known loosely as the Global South,1 a zone
juxtaposed against the United States, Canada, Western Europe and developed parts
of East Asia. Seen this way, the potential exists for innovative southsouth relations.
Such connections encourage a depth of cultural understanding and are opportunties
for artists and art to unsettle thinking and reorganise established canons.
Seen from the North, the countries and cultures in the South have been
only partially visible in the canons of Western knowledge. In the English-speaking
world, the story of art and its history has been told from the perspective of Europe
and the United States. This position, however, is increasingly contentious. Since

28

SPACE TO DREAM

Desde la perspectiva del norte, los pases y culturas del sur solo han
sido parcialmente visibles segn los cnones del conocimiento occidental. Para el
mundo angloparlante, el arte y su historia han formado un relato contado desde la
perspectiva de Europa y Estados Unidos. Esta visin, sin embargo, ha sido puesta
en cuestin. A partir de la dcada de 1970, crticos como Ticio Escobar, Nelly
Richard y Gerardo Mosquera, adems del curador Adrin Pedrosa y el artista Luis
Camnitzer, entre muchos otros, se han dedicado a rearticular la percepcin del arte
de Amrica Central y del Sur como algo diferente y menos relevante en comparacin
al pensamiento y las prcticas occidentales.2 Un enfoque ms contemporneo sita
y relaciona el arte creado desde diferentes visiones de mundo bajo el concepto de
arte mundial,3 a su vez un constructo occidental. La literatura latinoamericana se
volvi literatura mundial, por ejemplo, con el boom latinoamericano en los 60,
cuando aparecieron novelas sobre temas sociales, tnicos, de gnero y relativos
a otras tensiones reconocibles en las esferas capitalista, comunista o colonial, y
llamaron la atencin internacional, como la obra maestra del realismo mgico,
Cien aos de soledad, del colombiano Gabriel Garca Mrquez. La historia del arte
observada desde el propio terreno sudamericano sigue escribindose, la mayor de
las veces fuera del sistema de las instituciones pblicas. Pases como Argentina han
confiado esencialmente en colecciones e instituciones privadas para presentar las
obras y construir conocimiento sobre el arte nacional reciente. En Brasil, las galeras
comerciales han obtenido un poder prodigioso por sobre la impronta de la Bienal
de So Paulo y de varios museos. Hoy en el sur global tenemos la oportunidad de

2. El curador Adrin Pedrosa

invirti la idea de antropofagia
al aplicarla al arte,sealando
que los artistas y arquitectos
contemporneos extranjeros
han reconocido la importancia cultural de Brasil
y la han canibalizado. Ver
Adrin Pedrosa, Mamyguara
op mam pup, 31 Panorama da
Arte Brasileira, Museu de Arte
Moderna de So Paulo, So Paulo,
2009, p. 29, en Michael Ashbury,
The Uroborus Effect: Brazilian
Contemporary Art as Self-Consuming, Third Text, vol 26, n.1,
enero de 2012, p. 143. Pedrosa y
Gerardo Mosquera, en las exhibiciones Panorama de 2009 y 2003,
y Pedrosa en la Bienal de So
Paulo de 1998, apuntaron a establecer un foro de contaminacin
mutua entre los pases vecinos
de Latinoamrica, los centros
culturales en el Norte y los
artistas brasileos. Mosquera
posteriormente ha sealado
que los artistas han ayudado a
modificar la estrecha relacin

the 1970s, for example, critics including Ticio Escobar, Nelly Richard, Gerardo
Mosquera, curator Adrian Pedrosa, artist Luis Camnitzer and many others have
worked to reposition the perception of art from Central and South America as
distinct yet equally important in comparison to Western thought and practice.2
A more contemporary approach that situates art from different worldviews in
relativity is the concept of world art,3 itself a Western construct. Latin American
literature became world literature, for example, before the Latin American boom
in the 1960s when novels written about social, ethnic, gender and other tensions
arising in situations existing between capitalist, communist and ex-colonial worlds,
such as the magical realist masterpiece Cien aos de soledad (One Hundred Years of
Solitude, 1967) by Colombian Gabriel Garca Mrquez, drew international attention.
The history of art comprehended from positions on the ground in South America
continues to be written, often outside a system of public institutions. Countries
such as Argentina have relied substantially on private collections and institutions to
present art and build knowledge of recent national art. In Brazil, commercial galleries
have gained prodigious power despite the presence of the So Paulo Biennial and a
number of museums. In the Global South today we have the opportunity to experience
and understand some of the social and cultural complexity of this expansive space
with its distinct flows of people, capital and communications.
The term South America, which is a generalisation referring to a
continent of 12 countries and three overseas territories lying between the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans, requires a brief explanatory note. I use the term South America

2. Curator Adrian Pedrosa

reversed the idea of antropofagia as it applied to art,
arguing that contemporary
foreign artists and architects had now recognised the
importance of and cannibalised
the culture of Brazil. See
Adrian Pedrosa, Mamyguara
op mam pup, 31 Panorama
da Arte Brasileira, Museu de
Arte Moderna de So Paulo, So
Paulo, 2009, p 29 in Michael
Ashbury, The Uroborus Effect:
Brazilian Contemporary Art as
Self-Consuming, Third Text,
vol 26, iss 1, January 2012,
p 143. Pedrosa and Gerardo
Mosquera in the 2009 and 2003
Panorama exhibitions and
Pedrosa in the 1998 So Paulo
Biennial aimed to establish
a forum of mutual contamination between Latin American
neighbours, cultural centres
in the North and Brazilian
artists. Mosquera has also
subsequently argued that
artists have helped to shift

THE SPACE OF CONVERSATION

29

entre arte e identidad

nacional o regional que era
generalizada en Latinoamrica. Gerardo Mosquera,
Against Latin American Art,
en Phoebe Adler, Tom Howells
y Nikolaos Kotsopoulos (eds),
Contemporary Art in Latin
America, Black Dog, Londres,
2010, p. 22. Mosquera produjo
controversia al decir que una
distincin nacional o latinoamericana se mantena en las
formas de hacer el arte ms
que en la proyeccin de los
contextos. La crtica chilena
Nelly Richard fue influyente
al dar atencin internacional
a la Escena de Avanzada de
Chile. Ver nota 17.
3. El estudio multidisciplinario de mtodos y perspectivas en las historias del
arte global. John Onians,
World Art Studies and the
Need for a New Natural History
of Art, en Art Bulletin, n. 78,
1996, pp. 206209.

the marriage between art and

national or regional identity
that was pervasive in Latin
America. Gerardo Mosquera,
Against Latin American Art,
in Phoebe Adler, Tom Howells,
and Nikolaos Kotsopoulos
(eds) Contemporary Art in
Latin America, Black Dog,
London, 2010, p 22. He courted
controversy by arguing that
a national or Latin American
distinction remained in the
ways of making art rather than
projecting contexts. Chilean
critic Nelly Richard was
influential in bringing the
Chilean Escena de Avanzada to
international attention, see
note 17.
3. The multidisciplinary
study of methods and
approaches in global art
histories. John Onians,
World Art Studies and the
Need for a New Natural History
of Art in Art Bulletin, no 78,
1996, pp 20609.

30

experimentar y comprender algo de la complejidad social y cultural de este expansivo

grupo de comunidades con sus distintos flujos de poblacin, capital y comunicaciones.
El trmino Amrica del Sur es una generalizacin para referirse a un
continente formado por doce pases y tres territorios insulares situados entre los
ocanos Atlntico y Pacfico, y requiere una breve nota explicativa. No uso este trmino
para sugerir una descripcin totalizante de mltiples pases, sino como un espacio
o tema con mltiples contradicciones (de cultura, clase, riqueza y poltica). Amrica
del Sur es un continente que necesita ser comprendido segn todas sus particular
idades y diversidad, incluidas diferentes historias sobre los indgenas, la colonizacin
y el mestizaje. Consecuentemente, no intento de ninguna manera definir el arte de
Amrica del Sur, pues consistira en encasillarlo. En vez, se trata de introducir al
arte y los artistas de esta regin segn sus singularidades, de modo de alentar una
comprensin ms compleja de la historia del arte reciente, de otras culturas y de las
formas en que la cultura visual resuena ms all de sus puntos de origen.
Me referir al arte y a artistas de Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile,
Colombia, Per, Paraguay y Uruguay que han tenido relevancia cultural y, por lo tanto,
ofrecen el potencial de desarmar y rearticular las relaciones materiales, histricas y
creativas en el sur global. Al observar el arte desde fines de la dcada de 1960 y de
1970, hay que tener en cuenta la cosificacin de prcticas efmeras o performticas
que originalmente fueron realizadas para ser vistas por el pblico fuera de los museos
y como espacios para la accin. Adems, la documentacin de momentos clave y la
presencia de arte ms reciente de Sudamrica permiten penetrar en la posibilidades
not to suggest a totalising description of multiple countries but as a place or subject
of multiple contradictions (of culture, class, wealth, politics). South America is a
continent that needs to be understood in all its particularity and diversity, including
distinct histories of indigeneity, colonisation and hybridity. Consequently, I am not
making any attempt to define art from South America, which would be essentialising
it. Rather, the aim is to introduce art and artists from this neighbouring region in their
singularity, in the interests of encouraging a more complex understanding of recent art
history, of other cultures and of how visual culture resonates beyond its points of origin.
Below, I discuss artists and art from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay that have contemporary relevance for spaces
of culture and so have the potential to unmake and reshape our material and historical
relations in the Global South. Looking back at art of the late 1960s and 70s is not
without issue of the reification of ephemeral and performative practices that were
originally produced for public reception outside the museum and as spaces of agency.
Yet, documentation of key moments and the presence of more recent art from South
America gives us insight into the possibilities and power of the politics of aesthetics,
the continuity of indigenous practices and ideas of universal experience amongst
others, and at the same time allows us to experience people, place and diverse and
colliding cultures that can inform our space and time.
SPACES OF COLLECTIVITY, CONTESTATION AND TRANSFORMATION
Artists from South America work across a breadth of interests and histories and
SPACE TO DREAM

y el poder de las polticas estticas, la continuidad de las prcticas indgenas y las

nociones sobre la experiencia universal, al mismo tiempo de ensear la experiencia
de personas, lugares y culturas en colisin que dan forma a nuestro espacio y tiempo.
ESPACIOS DE COLECTIVIDAD, INSUBORDINACIN Y TRANSFORMACIN
Adems de estar imbuidos de una actitud filosfica, los artistas de Amrica del Sur
trabajan sobre diferentes intereses e historias, y su arte est constituido tambin
por sus historias particulares. Luego de la revolucin cubana de 1959, las polticas
de Estado en la mayora de los pases sudamericanos tendieron a inmiscuirse en
cada aspecto de la vida. Sucedi con el terrorismo estatal contra la oposicin desde
fines de los 60 y el gobierno de la junta militar en Argentina (19761981); el fin de la
veloz modernizacin y democratizacin en Brasil desde la dcada de 1950 y hasta
mediados de los 60 bajo el mandato de Juscelino Kubitschek y la formacin de un
rgimen militar en 1968; la dictadura militar del general Augusto Pinochet en Chile
(19731990); el caos poltico en Colombia durante las dcadas de los 80 y 90 provocado
por el trfico de drogas y el asedio a las guerrillas; la crisis bajo el gobierno militar en
Per en los 70 y el posterior autogolpe y corrupcin del presidente Fujimori hasta el
2000; el ambiente poltico inestable en Bolivia, incluso con elecciones democrticas,
desde 1982. Las situaciones polticas caticas generaron problemas persistentes y
endmicos de desigualdad social y econmica, violencia y corrupcin. La literatura
que ingres a la escena internacional a partir de la dcada de 1960, con escritores
como los argentinos Julio Cortzar y Jorge Luis Borges, el colombiano Garca Mrquez
their art is informed by its discrete histories and often by a philosophical attitude.
Following the Cuban communist revolution that ended in 1959, state politics in
most South American countries intruded on every aspect of life, including: the
state terrorism operating since the late 1960s and the rule of the military junta in
Argentina (197681); the end of rapid modernisation and democratisation in Brazil
(1950s to mid-60s) under President Juscelino Kubitschek and the implementation of
a military regime in 1968; the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in
Chile (197390); turmoil in Colombia during the 1980s and 90s caused by the drug
trade and a state of siege against guerrillas; the crisis under military government
in Peru in the 1970s and the subsequent autocoup and corrupt rule of President
Fujimori until 2000; and a volatile political environment and social unrest in
Bolivia, even with democratic elections since 1982. Chaotic political situations
brought enduring and endemic issues of social and economic inequity, violence and
corruption. In the literature that entered the international scene since the 1960s,
writers including Argentinians Julio Cortzar and Jorge Luis Borges, Colombian
Gabriel Garca Mrquez and Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa evoked a South America
defined by inequality, political dishonesty, transculturation and exotic landscapes,
with poetry and fiction often written in the style of everyday speech. Art in Latin
America since the 1950s and 60s has borne the legacies of searches for modernity,
including a historical, social and political consciousness and a sense of the precariousness of human existence, as well as the vastness of nature.4 Latin American critics
have documented the distinct notions of Conceptual art in the 1970s that stood in
THE SPACE OF CONVERSATION

4. Guy Brett, Un salto radical

(A Radical Leap), in Arte en
iberoamrica 18201980 (Art
in Latin America 18201980),
Ministry of Culture, Madrid,
1990, p 256.

31

4. Guy Brett,Un salto radical,

en Arte en Iberoamrica 1820
1980, Ministerio de Cultura,
Madrid, 1990, p. 256.
5. Ver Iris Dressler,
Subversive Practices, Art
Under Conditions of Political
Repression 6080s/South
America/Europe, en Subversive,
Prakitiken, Practices, Hans D.
Christ and Iris Dressler (eds),
Wrttembergischer Kunstverein
Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2010,
pp. 3856.

y el peruano Mario Vargas Llosa, mostr un continente definido por la injustica, la

deshonestidad poltica, la transculturacin y los ambientes exticos; la poesa y la
ficcin solan escribirse con el estilo del lenguaje cotidiano. Desde las dcadas de
1950 y 1960, el arte de Amrica del Sur ha transmitido la herencia de la bsqueda
de la modernidad que incluye la conciencia histrica, social y poltica, y el sentido
de la precariedad de la existencia humana junto a la vastedad de la naturaleza.4 Los
crticos latinoamericanos han documentado las diferentes nociones del arte conceptual en la dcada de 1970 que se definieron en contra del arte conceptual apoltico
de Estados Unidos.5 Las vanguardias que surgieron a fines de los 60 y comienzos de
los 70, bajo condiciones de gran contraste entre un pas y otro, y tambin con los
hechos mundiales, ofrecen un contrapunto a Occidente.
Tanto los artistas como los escritores enfrentaron el dilema de realizar
obras polticamente comprometidas, si deban escribir poesa para o poesa pura,
vaciada de todo significado social o poltico. Una importante corriente artstica ha
incluido contenidos poticos y de cruce de disciplinas, siguiendo el inters de los
artistas por conectar el sentido personal con lo colectivo. Estas prcticas de transformacin caracterizan el trabajo de artistas como la familia Parra en Chile, el educador
y artista uruguayo Joaqun Torres Garca, y el artista, crtico y curador brasileo
Ferreira Gullar. Con el optimismo promovido por el Estado brasileo a fines de los 50,
Gullar logr generar un momento radical e identificar la naturaleza fenomenolgica
del arte con el espacio fsico ocupado por la obra. Con su Manifesto Neoconcreto
(1959) y el ensayo Teora del No-Objeto publicado en el peridico Jornal do Brasil,

fue capaz de definir el movimiento brasileo de vanguardia como neoconcretismo

(una postura constructivista practicada por los artistas Lygia Clark y Hlio Oiticica),
separndolo del constructivismo europeo. La obra de Gullar, como el Poema Objeto
de 1960 un cubo azul que muestra la palabra lembra (recuerda) en su base cuando
el espectador lo levanta, se bas en la poesa experimental con la que rompi la
sintaxis tradicional (las relaciones entre palabras, frases y locuciones que forman las
oraciones) y estructur como si fueran ideogramas. Aunque las ideas de Gullar solo
se volvieron influyentes para las generaciones de artistas brasileos en los 80 y los
90, ellas dieron forma a los elementos ambientales y participativos del arte brasileo
posterior, y se anticiparon a la teora occidental del arte en los 90.6
Otros artistas de Amrica del Sur han tenido similar relevancia desde
fines de la dcada de 1960, producto de su experimentacin a travs de los medios y
la conjuncin de los roles del artista y el espectador, que cuestiona las definiciones
convencionales del arte como objeto y su relacin con las jerarquas sociopolticas.
La brasilea Lygia Clark, por ejemplo, hoy es internacionalmente reconocida por
disolver los lmites entre el arte y la experiencia cotidiana. Sus Bichos sealan el
esfuerzo definitivo por instalar la obra de arte dentro del medio ambiente y del
espacio pblico compartido, la polis. Al describir la experiencia de una de sus esculturas con partes mviles, seal: Me transforma Por dentro y por fuera: un
ser vivo abierto a todos los cambios posibles. Su espacio interno es un espacio
afectivo.7 Los posteriores Objectos sensoriais (19661968), Mscaras sensoriais (1967)
y Objectos relacionais (fines de los 60 a mediados de los 70), son precedentes de un

5. See Iris Dressler,

Subversive Practices,
Art Under Conditions of
Political Repression 6080s/
South America/Europe, in
Subversive, Prakitiken,
Practices, Hans D Christ
and Iris Dressler (eds),
Wrttembergischer Kunstverein
Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2010,
pp 3856.
6. Sara Castro-Klaren (ed)
Latin American Literature
and Culture, Blackwell, Malden,
MA, 2013, p 435.
7. Gullar was editor of the arts
section of the papers weekly
insert. Others associated
with Neo-Concretism were
artists Hrcules Barsotti,
Alusio Carvo, Amlcar de
Castro, Willys de Castro,
Lygia Clark, Hlio Oiticica,
Lygia Pape, Dcio Vieira and
Franz Wessmann, poets Reynaldo
Jardim and Theon Spandis
amongst others. For Gullar,
whereas surrounding objects
are defined by their names and

contrast to an apolitical Conceptual art from the United States.5 The avant-garde
art that arose in the late 1960s and 70s, under conditions of great contrast within
countries and to other world events, offers a counterpoint to the West.
Artists and writers alike faced the dilemma of whether to make
politically committed art or not, to write poesia para (poetry for) or poesia pura
(pure poetry), which was devoid of social or political significance.6 A significant
stream of art has been poetic and cross-disciplinary, following the artists interests
to connect personal and collective meaning. Such transformative practices
characterise the work of artists such as the Parra family in Chile, Uruguayan teacher
and artist Joaquin Torres Garca and artist, critic and curator Ferreira Gullar in
Brazil. In the state-driven optimism of late 1950s Brazil, Gullar succeeded in
generating a radical moment, identifying the phenomenological nature of art and
relations with the physical space occupied by the artwork. He did this through his
Neo-Concrete Manifesto (1959) and the essay Theory of the Non-Object in the So
Paulo broadsheet Jornal do Brasil, intending to define the Brazilian avant-garde
movement Neo-Concretism (a constructivist attitude in art practised by artists Lygia
Clark and Hlio Oiticica) from European Constructive art.7 Gullars own art, such
as the Poem Object, 1960, a blue cube that revealed the Portuguese word lembra
(remember) on its base when lifted by the viewer, was based on his experimental
poetry and broke with traditional syntax (the relationships between words, phrases
and clauses forming sentences) and structure to resemble ideograms. Although
Gullars ideas only came to influence subsequent generations of Brazilian artists

in the 1980s and 90s, his thinking informed the environmental and participatory
elements within Brazilian art, and anticipated Western art theory in the 1990s.8
Other artists from South America have similarly been important since
the late 1960s for their individual experimentation across media and the converging
of the roles of artist and participant that challenged conventional definitions of the
art object and the intersection of art with other sociopolitical hierarchies. Lygia
Clark is now internationally recognised for dissolving the boundaries between art
and daily existence. The Brazilian artists bichos or creatures signalled her ultimate
aim of art becoming part of the environment or the shared public space the polis.
Describing the experience of one of her sculptures with movable parts she says, It
changes me . . . Inside and out: a living being open to all possible transformations.
Its internal space is an affective space.9 The subsequent Objectos sensoriais (Sensory
Objects), 196668, Mscaras sensoriais (Sensory Masks), 1967 and Objectos relacionais (Relational Objects) of the late 1960s to mid-1970s are precedents for a
dialogic art and possibly emancipatory experiences, or, as Brett suggests, vehicles in
which spectators can let their own poetics flower.10 Turning to therapeutic practice
at a time in the late 1960s when art and psychiatry were joined in critical debates
about cultural production and therapy in Brazil and elsewhere, Clark established
an ethical position that dissolved the biographical and the collective.
Certain South American artists and projects are formative precedents for the ways art can be mobilised in times of intense political transformation.
Civil Society Collective in Peru or Edgardo Antonio Vigo with his manifestos for

32

SPACE TO DREAM

THE SPACE OF CONVERSATION

6. El pensamiento de Gullar
contribuy a la discusin
sobre la naturaleza del arte
de vanguardia y la industria
cultural, as como tambin a
la esttica relacional. Ver
Michael Ashbury, Neoconcretism and Minimalism: On
Ferreira Gullars Theory of
the Non-object, Cosmopolitan Modernisms, InIVA y MIT,
Londres, pp. 168189.
7. Lygia Clark, 1965: About
the Act, October 69, verano de
1994, p. 104.

purposes, the Neo-Concrete

artist creates the non-object,
which rejects conceptual
understanding and function
ality, is autonomous in
referring only to itself,
and offers a synthesis of
phenomenological or sensory
and mental experiences.The
rise of discussion around
Neo-Concrete art in Brazil in
1959 and 60 has been described
as shifting discourse in Brazil
from medium specificity to
multidisciplinary and social
parameters.
8. Gullars thinking informed
discussion concerning the
nature of avant-garde art and
the culture industry, as well
as relational aesthetics.
See Michael Ashbury, Neoconcretism and Minimalism: On
Ferreira Gullars Theory of
the Non-object, Cosmopolitan
Modernisms, London, InIVA and
MIT, 2005, pp 16889.

33

8. Brett, p. 264.
9. Frases como NO+ miedo, NO+
violencia, NO+ dictadura, NO+
desaparecidos, NO+ hambre,
NO+ Pinochet, se volvieron
formas de resistencia social
que al fin contribuyeron a
vencer la dictadura en el
plebiscito de 1988. De igual
manera, las primeras acciones
del C.A.D.A., Para no morir de
hambre en el arte, de 1979,
condensaban la preocupacin
familiar y pblica por el
acceso a las polticas de
bienestar social iniciadas
por el gobierno de Salvador
Allende (la distribucin
diaria de leche para menores
de 15 aos) y su fin bajo la
dictadura, con el recuerdo de
restricciones alimenticias
ocurridas desde fines de los 60.

arte dialgico y de experiencias posiblemente liberadoras, o vehculos gracias a los

cuales los espectadores pueden hacer florecer su propia potica, como sugiere
Brett.8 A fines de los 60, Clark se acerc a la prctica teraputica, en un momento en
que arte y psiquiatra se unan en la discusin crtica sobre la produccin cultural y
la terapia, en Brasil y otros lugares, y logr establecer una postura tica que disolva
lo biogrfico y lo colectivo.
Algunos artistas y proyectos son precedentes formativos para los
modos en que el arte puede activarse en pocas de transformacin poltica intensa.
El Colectivo Sociedad Civil en Per, o los manifiestos para las acciones callejeras de
Edgardo Antonio Vigo en Argentina a fines de los 60, tuvieron un rol importante en
la recuperacin de la democracia, as como la obra de Lotty Rosenfeld y el Colectivo
de Acciones de Arte (C.A.D.A.) enfrentaron la violencia y el miedo bajo el rgimen
de Pinochet en Chile en los 80. Rosenfeld realiz una subversin simblica ante la
autoridad al formar cruces con pedazos de tela blanca en las lneas que sealan la
separacin de la calle Manquehue, en Santiago en 1979, en la muy conocida intervencin Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento. Al pintar el eslogan NO+, o No ms,
en los muros de diferentes ciudades, las acciones del C.A.D.A. a mediados de los 80
transgredieron la autoridad nacional y la cultura patriarcal de ese periodo.9
De diferentes maneras, el arte reciente tambin llama la atencin
sobre las regulaciones del comportamiento, sus efectos civiles y la repeticin a lo
largo de la historia. La obra de Rosngela Renn, Srie Vermelha (Militares), del 2000,
consiste en fotografas de soldados fantasmales que recuerdan cmo la historia se
street actions in Argentina in the late 1960s played major roles in recovering
democracy, as did Lotty Rosenfeld and the Colectivo de Acciones de Arte (C.A.D.A.)
collective in the face of violence and fear under the Pinochet regime in Chile in the
1970s and 80s. Rosenfelds symbolic subverting of authority by taping long white
strips of cloth at right angles to the dividing line on Santiagos Avenida Manquehue
in interventions titled Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento (A Mile of Crosses on
the Pavement), 1979 is well known. By painting the slogan NO+ or No ms (no more)
on walls in different cities, C.A.D.A.s actions through the mid-1980s transgressed
the national authorities and the patriarchal culture of the period.11 In different ways,
recent art similarly calls attention to regulatory behaviour, its civil effects and the
recurrance of events across time. Rosngela Renns Srie Vermelha (Militares) (Red
Series), 2000 photographs of ghostly soldiers are reminders of the repetition of
history. These artists demonstrate the possibility of creating a pacifist space for
anti-authoritarian action through the reinterpretation of the rhetoric of the official
discourse and co-opting of codes of social protest, thereby occupying spaces from
which to transform conditions of existence.

9. Lygia Clark, 1965: About

the Act, October 69, Summer
1994, p 104.
10. Brett, p 264.
11. Adopted by the public,
sayings such as NO+ miedo (no
more fear), NO+ violence, NO+
dictatorship, NO+ disappeared,
NO+ Pinochet were visible
forms of social resistance
that contributed to the 1988
plebiscite and the downfall of
Pinochets regime. Similarly,
C.A.D.A.s first set of actions
Para no morir de hambre en el
arte (In Order to Not Die of
Hunger in Art), 1979 compressed
familial and public concerns
for access to social welfare
measures initiated by the
Allende government (the
daily distribution of milk to
children aged under 15) and
their withdrawal by Pinochet
with memories of food restrictions in the late 1960s.
12. A term coined by Argentinian artist/sociologist

DISCORDANT SYNTAXES
Yet, art in South America has a relevance that extends beyond the symptoms of its
original context. The aesthetics of disobedience observed spread beyond resistance
to include the mobilisation of critical strategies of challenge of the status quo.12
The art of Brazilian Hlio Oiticica entered the Western art canon on the grounds of

34

SPACE TO DREAM

repite. Estos artistas muestran la posibilidad de crear un espacio pacifista para la

accin antiautoritaria a travs de la reinterpretacin de la retrica del discurso oficial,
y al cooptar los cdigos de la protesta social logran ocupar los espacios desde los
cuales es posible transformar las condiciones de la existencia.
SINTAXIS DISONANTES
El arte en Amrica del Sur tiene una relevancia que se extiende ms all de los sntomas
de su contexto original. Las estticas de desobediencia se extienden por sobre la
resistencia para incluir la movilizacin de estrategias crticas que desafan el status
quo.10 La obra del brasileo Hlio Oiticica entr al canon artstico occidental a causa
de su perturbacin de los significados esperados y la disolucin de la subjetividad y de
la experiencia individual y colectiva. Esa prctica continu evolucionando desde sus
comienzos en la no-objetividad a fines de la dcada de 1950 y su experiencia brasilea,
luego en sus estancias en Estados Unidos y Europa. La obra de Oiticica socava las
ideas convencionales sobre la inmovilidad y la permanencia, como es evidente en
la descripcin de sus proyectos Tropiclia: todo mi trabajo ha consistido en
el desarrollo de la desintegracin de conceptos formales (empezando por el de la
pintura misma) del arte, y en la bsqueda de una forma de contacto no contemplativa;
la participacin del espectador (y participante) al tocar, usar, penetrar las mismas
piezas, se transforma en propuestas propias Algo similar a las prcticas del ser
espontneo, no ritualizado, como una posicin anti-artstica real, la negacin del
artista como un creador de objetos, convertido en alguien que propone prcticas11

10. Trmino acuado por el

artista y socilogo Roberto
Jacoby en referencia a la
resistencia activada por
la festiva colaboracin en
eventos musicales de las
dcadas de los 70 y los 80.
Roberto Jaciby, La galera
como estrategia, en Zona
Ergena, 2000, n. 43, en Daniela
Lucena y Ana Gisela Laboureau,
Art, Body and Politics in the
80s: Disobedient Aesthetics
in the Underground Scene
of Buenos Aires, Seismopolite, www.seismopolite.com/
art-body-and-politics-in-the80s-disobedient-aestheticsin-the-underground-scene-ofbuenos-aires, consultado el 5
de enero de 2016.
11. Hlio Oiticica, Subte
rranean Tropiclia Project,
en Hlio Oiticica, Witte
de With, Rotterdam, 2002, p.
143. Ver tambin Mari Carmen
Ramrez, Hlios Double-edged
Challenge, en Mari Carmen
Ramrez (ed), Hlio Oiticica:

the artists disruption of expected meaning and the dissolution of individual and
collective experience and subjectivity. In a practice that has continuously evolved
from its beginnings in non-objecthood in the late 1950s and the influence of his
Brazilian background as well as his time spent in the United States and Europe,
Oiticicas work undermined conventional ideas of stasis and permanence as is
evident in his description of his Tropicalia projects: . . . all my work . . . has been a
development of the disintegration of formal concepts (starting with that of painting
itself) of art, and looking for a form of non-contemplative contact; the participation of the spectator (and participator) touching, wearing, penetrating the actual
pieces, developed toward actual propositions . . . something similar to practices of
the spontaneous self, non-ritualistic, as an actual anti-art permanent position, the
denial of the artist as a creator of objects, but turned into the proposer of practices . . .13
Part of Oiticicas thinking is evident in his prolific writing, from manifestos to increasingly autonomous and poetic works after 1970 when he moved to
New York City.14 Concerned to avoid the absorption of art into systematic ways of
life Oiticica identified his writing and his articulation of the concepts of Tropicalia
and works such as the Parangol with a return to myth and the consciousness of not
being conditioned by established structures, hence revolutionary in its entirety.15
With his Parangol (Cape), of the 1960s Oiticica embraced culture from the streets
the artist alleging the word itself came from a sign on a piece of sackcloth on a
beggars dwelling. The meaning of the slang term as sudden agitation, liveliness,
joy and unexpected situations amongst people16 evokes Oiticicas intentions for his

Roberto Jacoby in reference

to the resistance activated
by festive collaborative
music events in the 1970s
and 80s. Roberto Jacoby, La
aglera como estrategia,
in Zona Ergena, 2000, no 43
in Daniela Lucena and Ana
Gisela Laboureau, Art, Body
and Politics in the 80s:
Disobedient Aesthetics in
the Underground Scene of
Buenos Aires, Seismopolite, www.seismopolite.com/
art-body-and-politics-inthe-80s-disobedient-aesthetics-in-the-undergroundscene-of-buenos-aires,
accessed 5 Jan 2016.
13. Hlio Oiticica, Subterranean Tropiclia Projects,
in Hlio Oiticica, Witte
de With, Rotterdam , 2002,
p 143. See also Mari Carmen
Ramrez, Hlios Double-edged
Challenge, in Mari Carmen
Ramrez (ed), Hlio Oiticica:
The Body of Colour, Tate
London, 2007, pp 1724.

THE SPACE OF CONVERSATION

35

The Body of Colour, Tate,

Londres, 2007, pp. 1724.
12. Srgio Martins seala que
en 1970 Oiticica comenz a
titular sus obras contra
los gneros literarios.
Srgio Martins, Constructing
an Avant-Garde: Passages in
Brazilian Art, 19491979,
tesis sin publicar, University
College, Londres, 2011, p. 200.
13. Hlio Oiticica,
Tropiclia (1968), en Hlio
Oiticica, Witte de With,
op.cit, p. 126. Tropiclia
fue tambin un movimiento
contracultural ms amplio, en
So Paulo y Ro de Janeiro, que
inclua msica, performance,
teatro y estilos de vida, y
cruzaba la crtica poltica
con lo kitsch, el carnaval,
la samba, el intelectualismo,
el deseo y la liberacin de
la cultura de los valores y el
gusto burgueses y europeos.
Constantemente Oiticica
desarrollaba nuevos conceptos
de acuerdo a su pensamiento,

Parte del pensamiento de Oiticica se encuentra en sus prolficos escritos,

desde manifiestos hasta obras poticas cada vez ms autnomas despus de 1970,
cuando se fue a vivir a Nueva York.12 Preocupado de evitar la absorcin del arte por
parte de formas de vida sistemticas, Oiticica identific sus textos y articulaciones
de los conceptos de Tropiclia y de obras como Parangol con un retorno al mito y a
la conciencia de no existir condicionado por las estructuras establecidas, por lo tanto
completamente revolucionaria.13 Con su Parangol (19631969), Oiticica incluy la
cultura de las calles: afirmaba que el mundo entero se poda encontrar en la marca
sobre las telas que forman la morada de un vagabundo. El significado de parangol,
una palabra de la jerga de Ro de Janeiro, es agitacin sbita, animacin, alegra y
situaciones inesperadas entre la gente,14 y evoca la intencin de Oiticica de hacer de su
Parangol un evento colectivo annimo, impredecible y duradero, de color y movimiento,
que busca desmantelar los lmites entre el arte y la cultura en su sentido amplio.
El arte, la escritura y el cuerpo han sido en Amrica del Sur espacios
para romper y subvertir los significados impuestos por lo poltico y otros aparatos,
y tambin ha incluido el placer y las alternativas poticas. Clark, Oiticica y el grupo
de la Escena de Avanzada en Chile15 estn entre los artistas que pusieron en prctica
diferentes modos de experimentar la cultura e instalaron al cuerpo y la subjetividad
en el mbito de los procesos revolucionarios. El artista contemporneo brasileo
Ernesto Neto, quien reconoce el legado de Clark y Oiticica en su trabajo, es otro
autor cuya obra es significativa para otros artistas alrededor del mundo. Sus espacios
orgnicos, que sumergen al espectador, ofrecen una exploracin sensorial y espacial

singular, que libera los deseos libidinales, la intimidad, la sociabilidad y la experiencia

del tiempo.16
El arte y la literatura en Amrica del Sur ofrecen exploraciones muy
particulares sobre la condicin humana local, de formas que apelan a la necesidad
de emanciparse polticamente de Europa y Estados Unidos, e incluyen tratamientos
de la historia colonial que resultan familiares en los pases del sur global. 17 Como
parte de la heterogeneidad y pluralidad de culturas, el arte juega un rol al mediar las
realidades de las diferentes historias de fusin y mezcla cultural, y comprende a las
poblaciones indgenas, la dominacin de colonizadores espaoles y portugueses, la
esclavitud africana en Brasil y las generaciones de inmigrantes. Las teoras culturales y
la literatura se han esforzado por describir la hibridez o transculturacin del continente,
usando trminos como mestizo para referirse a la unin de la ascendencia racial o
tnica amerindia y europea y el resultante mestizaje fsico, social, religioso, poltico
y cultural.18 Las videografas de Juan Downey, como Video Trans America (19731976)
y The Laughing Alligator (El caimn que re, 1979), documentan la coexistencia de
lo indgena y lo mestizo, y la coexistencia de una sociedad pre-moderna con otra
contempornea que es relevante ms all de lo especficamente local. El trabajo
del artista paraguayo contemporneo Joaqun Snchez, en tanto, activa diversos
cruces culturales y sociales en Bolivia, pas habitado en su mayor parte por indgenas.
Snchez tiene origen indgena, vive entre Paraguay y Bolivia, y suele involucrar a las
comunidades locales o a participantes que habitan lugares donde se experimenta la
violencia de vivir en la frontera.

tal como creleisure, una alternativa al mito.

14. Hlio Oiticica, Programa
Ambiental en Hlio Oiticica,
Centro de Arte Hlio Oiticica,
Ro de Janeiro, 1996, p. 103, en
Tania Rivera, Ethics, Psychoanalysis and Postmodern Art in
Brazil, Third Text, vol 26, n.
1,2012, p. 60.
15. La terica del arte Nelly
Richard acu el trmino
Escena de avanzada; su libro
Mrgenes e instituciones.
Arte en Chile desde 1973 fue
la referencia principal sobre
los artistas anti institucio
nales que operaron en Chile
entre 1973 y 1982. Los artistas
incluidos en este grupo son
Carlos Altamirano, Juan
Castillo, Eugenio Dittborn,
Diamela Eltit, Carlos
Gallardo, Carlos Leppe, Gonzalo
Mezza, Ximena Prieto, Lotty
Rosenfeld, Francisco Smythe y
el poeta Ral Zurita.
16. Conversacin con el autor,
abril de 2014.

14. Srgio Martins argues that

in 1970 Oiticica began to title
his works against literary
genres. Srgio Martins,
Constructing an Avant-Garde:
Passages in Brazilian Art,
19491979, unpublished PhD
thesis, University College
London, 2011, p 200.
15. Hlio Oiticica, Tropicilia (1968) in Hlio
Oiticica, as above, p 126.
Tropicalia was also a wider
countermovement in So Paulo
and Rio that embraced music,
performance, theatre and
lifestyle and crossed critical
politics with kitsch, Carnival,
samba, intellectualism,
desire and freedom from
bourgeois and European
culture, values and taste.
Oiticica constantly brought
forth new concepts in the
development of his thinking,
such as creleisure as an alternative to myth.
16. Hlio Oiticica, Programa
Ambiental in Hlio Oiticica,

Parangol series as an anonymous, unpredictable and durational collective event of

colour and movement that aimed to dismantle the borders of art and broaden culture.
Art, text and the body in South America have been spaces in which
to fracture and subvert the meanings imposed by political and other apparatuses,
including by evoking joy and poetic alternatives. Clark, Oiticica or the Chilean
group Escena de Avanzada17 are among other artists who practised different ways
of experiencing culture and placed the body and subjectivisation within the scope
of revolutionary processes. Contemporary Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, who
acknowledges the legacies of Clark and Oiticica in his practice, is another whose
work is significant for other artists working around the globe. Netos immersive,
organic spaces offer unique sensual and spatial explorations that liberate libidinal
desires, intimacy, sociality and temporal experience.18
Art and literature in South America are often unique in exploring the
local human condition in ways that address the need for political emancipation from
Europe and the United States, including responses to the histories of colonisation
that are familiar in the Global South.19 Reflecting the heterogeneity and plurality of
cultures, art plays a role in mediating the realities of the distinct histories of cultural
mixing that include the dominant Spanish and Portuguese colonisers, African slaves
in Brazil and generations of immigrants. Cultural theory and literature have struggled
to describe the hybridity or transculturalism of the continent, employing terms such
as mestizo to refer to combined European and Amerindian racial or ethnic descent
and the resulting physical, social, religious, political and cultural miscegenation.20

Juan Downeys videographies, such as Video Trans America, 1979 and The Laughing
Alligator, 197779 document the concurrance of the indigenous and mestizo, and the
co-existence of pre-modern and contemporary society that have a relevance beyond
the specificities of locale. The practice of contemporary Paraguayan artist Joaqun
Snchez activates different cultural and social crossings relating to the largely indigenous nation of Bolivia. An artist with an indigenous and Paraguayan background living
between his home country and Bolivia, Snchez often involves indigenous communities or participants whose societies experience the violence of border conditions.
Contemporary art can also offer a lens onto the existences in which
hundreds of years of ethnic, linguistic and cultural changes cohere in ways that are
poetic rather than emancipatory. The work of Jonathas de Andrade, for example,
often considers aspects of the complex histories, situations and attitudes toward
non-urban Brazilians. His recent projects have suggested how the lives of workers,
often African Brazilians, are subject to the economic and political power base of the
country. Perspectives on the Andean syncretism that is also a historical condition in
South America can be discerned in the works of Argentinian Marcos Lpez and Chilean
Demian Schopf.21 Lpez and Schopf offer their own unique blends of documentary and
socio-poetic image making which fuse the truth and fictions of the colonial baroque
influence of Catholicism, indigenous myth and rapidly evolving popular culture and
media. The images of Lpez often also present the raw life and sexualised body that
is prevalent in popular culture globally today, encouraged by a commercialism that
we recognise has no regard for moral values, life or the environment.

Centro de Arte Hlio Oiticica,

Rio de Janerio, 1996, p 103 in
Tania Rivera, Ethics, Psychoanalysis and Postmodern Art
in Brazil, Third Text, vol 26,
no 1, 2012, p 60.
17. Artist theorist Nelly
Richard coined the term
Advanced Scene and her book
Margins and Institutions;
Art in Chile since 1973 was
a principal reference on
anti-institutional artists
operating from 1973 to 1982.
The artists to whom this term
referred included Carlos
Altamirano, Juan Castillo,
Eugenio Dittborn, Diamela
Eltit, Carlos Gallardo,
Carlos Leppe, Gonzalo Mezza,
Ximena Prieto, Lotty
Rosenfeld, Francisco Smythe
and poet Ral Zurita.
18. Conversation with the
author, April 2014.
19. Writers such as Pablo
Neruda, Csar Vallejo, Ernesto
Sbato, Juan Carlos Onetti,
Jorge Luis Borges, Felisberto

36

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THE SPACE OF CONVERSATION

37

17. Escritores como Pablo

Neruda, Csar Vallejo,
Ernesto Sbato, Juan Carlos
Onetti, Jorge Luis Borges,
Felisberto Hernndez, Julio
Cortzar, Horacio Quiroga,
Gabriel Garca Mrquez y Joo
Guimares Rosa.
18. Vase, por ejemplo, los
ensayos de Jos Vascaoncelos.

El arte contemporneo tambin puede servir como un lente para

observar las existencias en las cuales cientos de aos de cambios tnicos, lingsticos
y culturales se adhieren de formas que son ms poticas que liberadoras. El trabajo de
Jonathas de Andrade, por ejemplo, suele contener aspectos de las complejas historias,
situaciones y actitudes de los brasileos rurales. Sus proyectos recientes sugieren que
las vidas de los trabajadores, en general de origen africano, dependen de la base del
poder poltico y econmico del pas. Las perspectivas del sincretismo andino, que es
tambin una condicin histrica en Amrica del Sur, pueden descifrarse en las obras
del argentino Marcos Lpez y del chileno Demian Schopf. Lpez y Schopf despliegan
una singular mezcla de documental e imagen socio-potica que funde las verdades y
ficciones de la influencia del catolicismo en el barroco colonial, la mitografa indgena
y la veloz y cambiante cultura popular y meditica. Las imgenes de Lpez suelen
mostrar la vida en su crudeza y los cuerpos sexualizados que prevalecen globalmente
en la cultura popular actual, alentados por una comercializacin la cual, sabemos,
no tiene consideracin alguna de valores morales, vitales o ambientales.
Estos artistas dejan ver claramente ciertas contradicciones internas de
las grandes narrativas histricas que son reconocibles ms all de Amrica del Sur.
De manera similar, las imgenes en movimiento de Cristbal Len y Joaqun Cocia
muestran la fusin imaginaria del mito con la memoria infantil que sugieren lo poco
que se puede confiar tanto en la verdad como en la ficcin. Sus obras combinan
el genio de un poeta como Nicanor Parra, el creador de la antipoesa, y el exceso
fantstico del realismo mgico, para subvertir los significados y las estructuras estable-

cidas. Otros artistas despliegan y mezclan diferentes metodologas para mostrar

las diversas sinergias culturales del conocimiento, las prcticas y las formas. Tras
estudiar las tradiciones del bordado en Brasil, su pas natal, Maria Nepomuceno
funde el pasado y el presente en intrincados montajes de cuerdas, cuentas, bordados,
barro y otros objetos. Las instalaciones de Nepomuceno recuerdan la sociabilidad y
la colonizacin en los diversos alcances, combinaciones, ingestas, permeabilidades,
fusiones e intersecciones de sus componentes. Estas tcticas para recuperar y transformar las tradiciones y lenguajes tambin pueden encontrarse en los trabajos de la
chilena Catalina Bauer y en el arte multisensorial de la brasilea Lenora de Barros.
Ambas exploran prcticas de gnero en el cuerpo y en el lenguaje como formas de
conocimiento social y cultural dentro de culturas dominadas por los hombres, en las
cuales lo masculino representa el poder absoluto. De Barros es conocida por performances y objetos que cuestionan el significado de las semiticas como dominios al
mismo tiempo personales y culturales.

Such artists make clear certain inner contradictions of grand historical narratives that resonate well beyond South America. Similarly, in the moving
image works of Cristbal Len and Joaqun Cocia the imaginative fusion of myth
and childlike memory suggest the unreliability of both truth and fiction. Their works
combine the wit of a poet such as Nicanor Parra, the originator of anti-poetry, and
the fantastical excess of magical realism that subverts meaning and established
structure. Other artists deploy and blend different methodologies drawing on culturally diverse synergies of knowledge, practices and forms. Having studied weaving
traditions in her own Brazil, Maria Nepomuceno fuses past and present in intricate
assemblages of beads, ropes, weaving, clay and other objects. Nepomucenos installations suggest sociality and colonisation in their spanning, combining, ingesting,
permeating, fusing and intersecting components. These tactics of reclaiming and
converting traditions and languages can be observed in different ways in the works
of Catalina Bauer from Chile and Brazilian Lenora de Barross multisensory art. Both
explore gendered practices of the body and language as forms of social and cultural
knowledge in male-dominated cultures in which the masculine is the absolute power.
De Barros is known for works that contest the meaning of semiotics as both personal
and cultural symbolic domains through performance and objects.

when we can perceive many histories of recent art from the Global South in their
co-existence? This synchronicity, I suggest, underlines the heterogeneity and
divergence of cultures and artistic practices yet indicates a desire for recognition
of collective social realities. Learning about alternative creative strategies, such as
the dematerialisation of art into actions,22 offers ideas that can infect and redefine
art elsewhere. In the way that Gullar readapted syntax for the purposes of his avantgarde research, I propose that recent art in the Global South has the potential to
change traditions as it comes into contact with other cultures.
As we have seen, art from South America is significant for actively
creating spaces of freedom in complex economic, political and cultural conditions.
Notably, Rosenfelds crosses and C.A.D.A.s actions are today more potent and
transgressive internationally than at home. Artists have also been catalysts for the
reconsideration of hegemonic perceptions in Europe and America. Alfredo Jaars
1987 electronic billboard A Logo for America, screened in New Yorks Times Square,
intended to provoke recognition of stereotypical assumptions about the designation of the America between the United States and Central and South America. 23
Artists exiled from South America during the 1970s, 80s and 90s are reminders
of the price some are willing to pay for a critical art. Argentinian Len Ferraris
strategies of caustic poetic and visual commentary on the behaviour of state and
church remain aide-mmoires of the value of freedom and the ability of artists to
avoid instrumentalisation as well as the canonisation of art. Luis Camnitzer also
pursues art as a force to resist subordination to hegemonic order, and as the only

Hernndez, Julio Cortzar

Horacio Quiroga, Gabriel
Garca Mrquez and Joo
Guimares Rosa.
20. See for example the essays
of Jos Vasconcelos.
21. The term syncretism refers
to combining different and
often contradictory belief
systems and schools of thought.

PERMISSION TO UPSET ESTABLISHED ORDERS

Accepting that art and literature are Western forms of hegemony and the simplification created by discussing South America as a generalisation, what happens

38

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PERMISO PARA PERTURBAR EL ORDEN ESTABLECIDO

Si aceptamos que el arte y la literatura son formas de la hegemona occidental, y la
simplificacin que surge al hablar de Amrica del Sur en general, podemos preguntar
qu sucede cuando logramos percibir la coexistencia de muchas historias del arte
reciente en el sur global. La sincrona de visiones de mundo subraya la heterogeneidad y divergencia de las prcticas culturales y artsticas, y tambin indica un deseo
de reconocer las realidades sociales colectivas. Acercarse a estrategias creativas

THE SPACE OF CONVERSATION

22. For example the develop

ment of mail art by exponents
Chilean Eugenio Dittborn,
Brazilian Paulo Brusky,
Uruguayan Clemente Padn and
Argentinean Edgardo Antonio
Vigo in South America.
23. Ironically, historically
the term America derived from
the Florentine navigator and
explorer Amerigo Vespucci
and originally referred to
the region of the Caribbean,
Central and South America. The
term was expanded to include
the northern continent and
became synonymous with
the United States in many
European languages.

39

18. Por ejemplo, el desarrollo

del arte postal en Sudamrica
a cargo del chileno Eugenio
Dittborn, el uruguayo Clemente
Padn y el argentino Edgardo
Antonio Vigo.
19. Irnicamente, la palabra
Amrica deriva del navegante y
explorador florentino Amrico
Vespucio, y originalmente
designaba a la zona del Caribe,
Amrica Central y del Sur.
El trmino se expandi hasta
incluir el norte del continente y se volvi un sinnimo
de Estados Unidos en muchos
idiomas europeos.

alternativas, tal como la desmaterizalicin del arte hacia la accin,18 genera ideas
que pueden contaminar y redefinir el arte en cualquier lugar. De la misma manera
en que Gullar readapt la sintaxis a propsito de su investigacin vanguardista, el
arte reciente en el sur global tiene el potencial de cambiar las tradiciones al entrar
en contacto con otras culturas.
Hemos visto que el arte de Amrica del Sur es relevante en su creacin
activa de espacios de libertad dentro de condiciones econmicas, polticas y culturales
complejas. Las cruces de Rosenfeld y las acciones del C.A.D.A. resultan hoy ms
potentes y trasgresoras en el mbito internacional que en Chile. Los artistas tambin
han sido catalizadores para cuestionar las percepciones hegemnicas de Europa y
Estados Unidos. A logo for America, el panel electrnico de Alfredo Jaar proyectado
en Times Square de Nueva York, pretendi provocar la suposicin estereotipada
respecto del uso del nombre Amrica entre Estados Unidos, y Amrica Central y del
Sur.19 Artistas exiliados de Sudamrica en las dcadas de los 70, 80 y 90 recuerdan
el precio que algunos estn dispuestos a pagar por ejercer el arte crtico. Las estrategias del argentino Len Ferrari, custicos comentarios poticos y visuales sobre el
comportamiento del Estado y la Iglesia, se mantienen como recordatorios del valor
de la libertad y la habilidad de los artistas para evitar la instrumentalizacin tanto
como la canonizacin en el arte. Luis Camnitzer tambin persigue formas de arte
como fuerzas de resistencia a la subordinacin bajo el orden hegemnico, y como el
nico medio para una pedagoga creativa.20 Nacido en Alemania y criado en Uruguay
antes de vivir en Estados Unidos, Camnitzer, como muchos artistas de Amrica del

Sur, ha sido influyente a nivel internacional por su obra y pensamiento conceptual,

desplegado en manifiestos poticos y estridentes que abogan por el poder sociopoltico del arte.21 Al escribir sus manifiestos Camnitzer descansa en la modalidad
del humor, que en sus muchas formas, pero especialmente en la irona, la stira y el
juego, es fundamental en las artes de Amrica del Sur y es capaz de crear espacios
a los cuales entrar libremente.
El arte tambin ha demostrado ser una contraparte de las versiones
particulares del pasado y la identidad social o cultural. Alejandro Thornton, por
ejemplo, en el video Eva Rebelde (2012), revisa alegremente el smbolo de Evita
Pern, la gran figura popular que encarn el peronismo en Argentina. Eva Pern es
inmortalizada como una alegora en Sudamrica y en Occidente (en el musical Evita,
en 1978, de Andrew Lloyd Weber) por su relacin con la habilidad para triunfar de
las clases bajas, las mujeres y la nacin. Por contraste, el arte puede deshilvanar
las costuras de los sueos que encubren la realidad. La revisin de la abstraccin
geomtrica de Patrick Hamilton, en esculturas como Intersecciones (2014), se vuelve
simblica al reflejar los puntos dbiles del boom de la minera del cobre en Chile, una
industria histricamente asociada con el bienestar econmico del pas y que tambin
produjo efectos devastadores, como la acentuacin de las divisiones socioeconmicas.
Al mismo tiempo expresa un comentario irnico respecto de los sistemas de valor,
desde lo econmico a la industria del arte. Las fotografas de Juan Fernando Herrn
de asentamientos construidos por los habitantes en ciudades colombianas, por un
lado retratan la dura realidad de sociedades abandonadas a depender de su propia

24. As in Luis Camnitzer,ALPHABETIZATION Part II: Hegemonic

language and Arbitrary order
the e-flux journal redux,
http://conversations.e-flux.
com/t/e-flux-journal-redux-luis-camnitzer-alphabetization-part-ii-hegemonic-language-and-arbitrary-order/3023, accessed
5 Jan 2016.
25. In his book Conceptualism in
Latin America Camnitzer traces
Conceptual art in Latin America
through origins in education,
politics of resistance and
poetry. Luis Camnitzer, Conceptualism in Latin American Art:
Didactics of Liberation, University of Texas Press, Austin TX,
2007, pp 115.

means for a creative pedagogy.24 Born in Germany and raised in Uruguay before
living in the United States, Camnitzer, like many South American artists, has been
internationally influential for his Conceptual art and thinking that is reflected in
poetic yet strident manifestos which argue for the sociopolitical power of art.25 Yet
even in writing a manifesto Camnitzer relies on the modality of humour which, in
its many forms but especially irony, satire and play, is important across art forms
in South America for creating spaces that all feel equally able to enter.
Art has also been shown to be a foil to singular versions of the past and
cultural or social identity. Alejandro Thornton in the video Eva Rebelde (Rebel Eva),
2012, for example, playfully revisits the symbol of Evita Pern, a popular figure who
embodied Peronist Argentina as it entered the era of neo-liberalism. Evita Pern is
immortalised as an allegory in South America and the West (in Andrew Lloyd Webbers
musical Evita, 1978) for her association with the ability of the lower classes, women
and the nation to triumph. By contrast, art can also unpick the seams of dreams that
conceal reality. Patrick Hamiltons revisiting of geometric abstraction in sculptures
such as Intersecciones (Intersections), 2014 is symbolic in reflecting the underbelly
of the copper-mining boom in Chile, an industry associated with the countrys
economy that also produced other devastating effects, including accentuating
socioeconomic divides. The work also conveys a humorous aside at value systems.
Juan Fernando Herrans photographs of self-made settlements in Colombia on the
one hand depict the harsh realities of societies that have been abandoned to rely on
their own autonomy. However, such environments are also understood to comprise

a poetic state of flux, a never-ending state of construction and destruction, caught

in a loop of incompleteness, hanging from the threads of necessity, possibility
and imagination.26
Seen in a different context, art can mobilise questions or agencies or
signify a change in formal conditions. For example, even in their English translation,
Nicanor Parras poems offer a universal reflection on the trials and tribulations of
life. In his anti-poetry and ironic verses Parra created innovative alternatives to
traditional forms and syntaxes. His Chilean siblings Violeta and Roberto reimagined
poetry, music and theatre through the absorption of popular and folk forms. With a
similarly holistic sensibility, Maria Nepomuceno considers her work as a search for
personal roots that embodies history and origins, especially the painting and the
craftsmanship of indigenous Brazilian culture, but which expands these concepts
further beyond the personal, into the world, and towards the cosmos.27 The work
of the artists mentioned conceives art as a fundamental lived experience with the
potential to imagine existences that are chaotic, unresolved, multivalent and social
but human. Seeing their art in situations beyond its own context offers the potential
for creative thinking to cross multiple cultures, temporalities and epistemologies
while also shaping those other contexts.
Art in South America offers counterpoints and relations to art of
resistance, of poetic and conceptual strategies from all across the Global South.
What can occur if we place these recent practices from different sides of the South
in conjunction? The possibility of cross-fertilisation of ideas and artforms taking

40

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20. En Luis Camnitzer,

ALPHABETIZATION Part II:
Hegemonic language and
Arbitrary order, the e-flux
journal redux, http://
conversations.e-flux.com/t/
e-flux-journal-redux-luiscamnitzer-alphabetizationpart-ii-hegemonic-languageand-arbitrary-order/3023,
consultado el 5 de enero
de 2016.
21. En su libro Conceptualism
in Latin America, Camnitzer
rastrea el arte conceptual
en Latinoamrica a travs de
sus orgenes en la educacin,
las polticas de resistencia
y la poesa. Luis Camnitzer,
Conceptualism in Latin
American Art: Didactics of
Liberation, University of
Texas Press, Austin, 2007,
pp. 115.

26. Claudia Arozqueta,

Affective Constructions:
Notes on Housing and Art,
Seismopolite, www.seismopolite.com/affective-constructions-notes-on-housingand-art, accessed 5
Jan 2016.
27. Maria Nepomuceno statement,
for the exhibition TRANS
at Victoria Miro, London, 13
March27 April 2014.

41

22. Claudia Arozqueta,

Affective Constructions:
Notes on Housing and
Art, Seismopolite, www.
seismopolite.com/affectiveconstructions-notes-onhousing-and-art, consultado
el 5 de enero de 2016.
23. Decalarcin de Maria
Nepomuceno en la exposicin
TRANS, en la galera Victoria
Miro, Londres, 13 de marzo al
27 de abril de 2014.

autonoma, y al mismo tiempo comprenden tales ambientes como contenedores de

un estado potico de flujo, un interminable estado de construccin y destruccin,
atrapado en un crculo de incompletud, colgando de los hilos de la necesidad, la
posibilidad y la imaginacin.22
Visto desde otro contexto, el arte puede activar preguntas o acciones, o
indicar un cambio en sus condiciones formales. Por ejemplo, incluso al ser traducidos
al ingls, los poemas de Nicanor Parra ofrecen una reflexin universal sobre las
pruebas y tribulaciones de la vida. En su antipoesa y sus versos irnicos, Parra
ha imaginado alternativas innovadoras de las formas y sintaxis tradicionales. Sus
hermanos, Violeta y Roberto, rearticularon la poesa, la msica y el teatro al absorber
las formas tradicionales y populares. Con una sensibilidad holstica similar, Maria
Nepomuceno considera su trabajo como una bsqueda de las races personales que
encarnan la historia y los orgenes, especialmente la pintura y la artesana de la
cultura indgena brasilea, las cuales expanden estos conceptos mucho ms all de lo
personal, hacia el mundo y hacia el cosmos.23 El trabajo de los artistas mencionados
seala una concepcin del arte como una experiencia fundamental y vivida, con el
potencial de imaginar existencias que son caticas, inconclusas, multivalentes y
colectivas. Observar estas obras en situaciones lejanas a su contexto permite acceder
a la potencia del pensamiento creativo para atravesar mltiples culturas, temporalidades y epistemologas, al mismo tiempo de darles una forma nueva.
El arte en Amrica del Sur se mantiene como un contrapunto y se
relaciona con el arte de resistencia, de estrategias poticas y conceptuales producidas

a lo ancho de todo el sur global. Qu sucedera si situramos estas prcticas recientes

en conjunto? Me parece que la posibilidad de una fecundacin cruzada de las ideas
y las formas que tienen lugar en el movimiento artstico del sur puede abrir una va
para desarrollar una historia alternativa o una produccin de conocimiento opuesta
a los modelos de absorcin centro-periferia. El arte de Amrica del Sur, con su
carcter especulativo, multivocal, la mayor de las veces producto de las relaciones
de desigualdad y precariedad, y en resistencia contra la ideologa y las formas, puede
comprenderse segn como opera bajo una sintaxis diferente. Sin embargo, como
las novelas del escritor chileno Roberto Bolao, el arte puede cruzar las fronteras y
trascender lo local, el Norte y Occidente. Reformular una visin del mundo esencialmente colonialista, con espacios mltiples, contrastantes y fluidos, en el sur y desde
el sur, abre las ideas, ticas y estticas existentes hacia la posibilidad de la conta
minacin mutua y el nuevo pensamiento. El arte forma parte del lenguaje a travs
del cual vemos y comprendemos el mundo que nos rodea. Sumergirse en diferentes
espacios de libertad, de posibilidad, de una indeterminacin positiva, que reconocen
su conexin con nuestras propias condiciones, son la prueba del dilogo a travs de
la voltil y dinmica situacin del sur global.

place in the movement of art in the South, I suggest, might offer a way of developing
an alternative history or production of knowledge in opposition to centreperiphery
models of absorption. Speculative, multi-vocal, a product often of inequality and
precarious relations and resistance to ideology or form, art in South America can
be understood as functioning with a different syntax. However, like the novels of
Chilean writer Roberto Bolao, art can cross borders and transcend the local, the
North, the West. Repositioning an essentially colonial worldview with multiple,
contrasting and fluid spaces from and in the South opens existing ideas, ethics
and aesthetics to a mutual contamination or rethinking. Art is part of the language
through which we see and understand the world around us. To immerse oneself in
different spaces of freedom, of possibility and of a positive indeterminacy, spaces
recognised as connecting with our own conditions, is to enter into conversations
across the volatile and dynamic situation of the Global South.

42

SPACE TO DREAM

THE SPACE OF CONVERSATION

43

La exhibicin

The Exhibition

Artist Name, Work Title,

Materials, Institution,2000

Previous page:
Alfredo Jaar
A Logo for America 19872014
public intervention
digital animation commissioned
by The Public Art Fund for
Spectacolor sign, Times Square,
New York, April 1987
Courtesy Times Square Alliance,
New York and the artist, New York

48

Lotty Rosenfeld
Registro de cruces (Register
of Crosses) 1987

SPACE TO DREAM

Juan Manuel Echavarra

Serie Silencios (Silence Series)
201015

Eugenio Dittborn
Restos (Remains) 1998

THE EXHIBITION

49

Carlos Castro
El que no sufre no vive (That
Which Does Not Suffer Does Not
Live) (video still) 2009

Len Ferrari
LOsservatore Romano 2007

50

SPACE TO DREAM

Antonio Manuel
Guerra do consumo/Vampiro
insacivel (War of Consumption/
Insatiable Vampire) 1975

THE EXHIBITION

51

Juan Downey
The Laughing Alligator
(video still) 197779
Estate of Juan Downey,
courtesy of Marilys B Downey

52

Rosngela Renn
Boots 19962000

SPACE TO DREAM

THE EXHIBITION

53

Lenora de Barros
Pregao (Nail Action)
(performance documentation)2014

54

Juan Castillo
Huacheras (video still)
201516

SPACE TO DREAM

Lenora de Barros, Walter Silveira

(Director), Cid Campos (Sound)
Homenagem a George Segal (Homage to
George Segal) (video still) 1984

Mira Schendel
Ondas paradas de probabilidade
(Still Waves of Probability)
(installation view, 2014) 1969
Photo: Max Schendel

THE EXHIBITION

55

C.A.D.A.
Documentation of an intervention on
the north bank of the Mapocho River,
Santiago, 23 September 1983, 14:30 hrs
Photo: Jorge Brantmayer

56

SPACE TO DREAM

Fernando Arias
Se busca donante de cenizas
(Donor of Ashes Wanted) 2009

Juan Fernando Herrn

Trnsitos (Transits) 2008

THE EXHIBITION

57

Jonathas de Andrade
40 nego bom 1 real (40 black
candies is R$1) (detail) 2013

58

Alejandro Thornton, Paula Pellejero

Eva Rebelde (Rebel Eva) (poster) 2013

SPACE TO DREAM

Liliana Porter
Man Drawing 2015

Ignacio Gumucio
Salvar la Navidad. Murales sin
Moraleja (To Save Christmas. Murals
without a Moral) (in progress) 2014

THE EXHIBITION

59

Luis Camnitzer
The Discovery of Geometry 1978, 2008
Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates,
New York 2015 Luis Camnitzer /
Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

60

SPACE TO DREAM

Joaqun Snchez
Chaco 2012

THE EXHIBITION

61

Marcos Lpez
Reina. Iquitos, Per (Iquitos
Queen, Peru) 2012

62

Bernardo Oyarzn
Ekeko (detail) 2014

SPACE TO DREAM

Mara Nepomuceno
Grande Boca (Big Mouth) (detail) 2013
Image courtesy of the artist and Victoria
Miro, London Maria Nepomuceno

THE EXHIBITION

63

Mximo Corvaln
Proyecto ADN (DNA Project)
(detail) 2012

64

Kevin Mancera
La Felicidad (Happiness)
(photograph) 2012

SPACE TO DREAM

Cinthia Marcelle
Cruzada (Crusade)
(video still) 2010

Patrick Hamilton
Traba Volante #1
(Wheel Lock #1) 2014

THE EXHIBITION

65

Virginia Errzuriz
Serie seales (Signal Series)
(detail) 1993
Photo: Maya Errzuriz

66

Paulo Bruscky
Atitude do artista/Atitude do
museu (Attitude of the Artist/
Attitude of the Museum) 1978

SPACE TO DREAM

Lygia Clark
O Eu e o Tu (The I and the You)
1967, 2016

THE EXHIBITION

67

Hlio Oiticica
Documentary photo of a person
wearing a Parangol (Cape) c196369

68

SPACE TO DREAM

Lygia Clark
Mascara Sensorial (Sensorial Mask)
1967, 2016

Demian Schopf
La Nave (Chuta Mariachi) (The Nave
(Chuta Mariachi)) 2015

THE EXHIBITION

69

Joaqun Snchez
Lnea de agua (Line of Water)
(video stills) 2010

70

Miguel ngel Ros

Crudo (video stills) 2007

SPACE TO DREAM

Fernando Arias
Cantos de viaje (Chants of a
Journey) (video still) 2014

THE EXHIBITION

71

Ronald Duarte
Fogo Cruzado (Crossfire)
(video still) 2002

72

Ernesto Neto
Just like drops in time, nothing
(installation view, Art Gallery of
New South Wales) 2002

SPACE TO DREAM

Catalina Bauer (in collaboration

with Amelia Ibez)
Primeras palabras (First Words)
(video still) 2014

THE EXHIBITION

73

Martn Sastre
U from Uruguay (video still)
2012

Eduardo Navarro
Monuments (detail) 2016

74

SPACE TO DREAM

Cristbal Len, Joaqun Cocia

Los Andes (The Andes) (video still)
2012

THE EXHIBITION

75

Guilherme Bueno,
Entrevista con
Beatriz Bustos
Oyanedel
Gente triste en una
tierra radiante

Guilherme Bueno,
Interview with
Beatriz Bustos
Oyandel
Sad People in a
Radiant Land

Guilherme Bueno (Ro de Janeiro, 1975) es crtico,

curador, doctor en Historia del Arte y profesor en la
Universidad del Estado de Ro de Janeiro. Fue director
del Museo de Arte Contemporneo de Niteri, Ro de
Janeiro, entre 2009 y 2012, y editor de la revista DasArtes
del 2009 al 2013. Entre las exhibiciones curadas por
l destacan Europalia-Brasil, Section Brazilian Contemporary Art, 19601980 (Centrale lectrique, Bruselas,
2011); Alternative Orders: A Glimpse on Brazilian Art
(Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrom, Noruega, 2012);
Gustavo Speridiao: Gometrie. Montage. quilibrage
(Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Pars, 2013,
en conjunto con Jean-Luc Montessoro); Mapa do Agora
(Instituto Tomie Ohtake, So Paulo, 2002). Escribe
regularmente en revistas, peridicos, libros y catlogos,
sobre arte moderno y contemporneo.

Guilherme Bueno (born Rio de Janeiro, 1975) is an art

historian, critic and curator. He has PhD in Art History
and is a professor at Rio de Janeiro State University.
Bueno was director of Niteri Contemporary Art
Museum, Rio de Janeiro (200912) and chief editor of
the Brazilian art journal DasArtes (200913). Important
exhibitions he has curated include Europalia-Brasil,
Section Brazilian Contemporary Art, 196080 (Centrale
lectrique, Brussels, 2011); Alternative Orders: A
Glimpse of Brazilian Art (Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrom, 2012); Gustavo Speridiao: Gometrie. Montage.
quilibrage (Maison Europenne de la Photographie,
Paris, 2013, co-curated with Jean-Luc Montessoro);
Mapa do Agora (Instituto Tomie Ohtake, So Paulo,
2002). He writes regularly for periodicals, books and
catalogues, mainly on modern and contemporary art.

La celebracin es un concepto que se puede asociar

con las formas en que la gente responde a diferentes
hechos en nuestro continente. Te podras referir a las
maneras como se expresa la celebracin en Brasil?

Celebration is a concept that we can associate with

the ways people respond to different events in our
continent. Can you please comment on the influence
that celebrations have on Brazilian art?

La sociedad brasilea se funda histricamente, como

en todos los pases latinoamericanos, en un proyecto
poltico y religioso controlado por la monarqua espaola
y la iglesia catlica. Al menos en Brasil, esto significa
que durante el periodo colonial, las principales experiencias de sociabilidad sino las nicas, o ms bien de
colectividad, estaban estrechamente ligadas a las celebraciones religiosas: misas, procesiones devotas, teatro
didctico. Recordemos que las primeras ocupaciones de
Brasil suceden bajo la Contrarreforma, por lo tanto ambos
trminos, sociedad y celebracin, estaban completamente
unidos al concepto de lo espectacular en la creacin de
nuestro imaginario.
No estoy diciendo nada nuevo, pero esto
ayuda a poner en contexto las consabidas races del
carnaval en Brasil, que junto a los partidos de ftbol y
las telenovelas son las referencias de la cultura de masas
ms reconocidas en nuestro pas. Esas races son las que
entregan su herencia y ensamblan sus orgenes religiosos
con su contraparte pagana.
Es necesario desarrollar esta idea un poco
ms: si se me permite un punto de vista bastante libre

Brazilian society was historically founded like all

Latin American countries during a political and religious project controlled by Iberian monarchies and the
Catholic Church. At least in Brazil, this means that in
the colonial period the main public experience, if not
the only, of sociability better, of collectivity was
closely related to religious celebrations, from Mass to
devout procession and didactic theatre. Brazils early
occupation occurred during the Counter-Reformation,
so society and celebration joined with another decisive
element in the making of our imaginary: spectacularity.
Im not saying anything new here, but it helps to show
the roots of the Brazilian Carnival, which perhaps
together with football matches and soap operas, is
our most well-known mass phenomenon.
It is necessary, however, to develop the
argument a bit further. If you permit me a very free
approach on the theme (which remains in the colonial
dynamics of Brazilian society or, to be more specific,
as an image for some modernist intellectuals), there
would be another deviant kind of experience of celeb
ration, one based on sexuality. I refer specifically to an

78

SPACE TO DREAM

author like Paulo Prado (18691943), who supported

modernism in Brazil and played an important role
for people like Oswald de Andrade (18901954) and
Gilberto Freyre (19001987), major figures in literature and sociology, respectively. In his book Retrato
do Brasil (Portrait of Brazil, 1928), Prado bitterly
complained about the degraded physical and spiritual
condition of Brazilian people, which resulted from the
excess and depravity of the countrys past. In a way, we
Brazilians were perpetually exhausted (we are born
already exhausted!) due to our ancestral promiscuity.
This is not the place to critique Prados
view nor his problematic conclusions. Ive mentioned
him because the frequently described (and arguably
mythical) modernist image of Brazil as a land of bodily
and sexual liberty is a problem to be faced when
seeking an adequate understanding of our societys
constitution. If we mention Prado here, it is with the
purpose of discussing to what extent the historical
forms of hidden sociability, as opposed to the religious, would be manifest in the Carnival, which is a
symbolic and celebrative intermingling of those experiences that is, a private phantom dissolved into a
collective celebration.
This does not lead us, admittedly, to as
fortunate conclusion as it may seem. Sometimes the
borderline between idealisation and realism is not sharp,
especially when we remember how situations of cele
bration are at once envisioned by artists (for example the
Dinoysian dimension of the Carnival praised by Hlio
Oiticica) and in an opposite way manipulated by the
state (military dictatorship employed both the Carnival
and football as their official devices of propaganda).
When it comes to artists who consider this topic
and produce reflections in artworks dealing with
the concept of celebration, we find that different
approaches have been taken. Can you point out the
roots of the inclusion of celebration in the production
of art by Brazilian artists?
Once again it is important to return to the circumstances involved in the production of local modernism.
Brazilian modernists cherished an interpretation of
popular culture, of mass culture, as an alternative

sobre el tema (aun desde las dinmicas coloniales de la

sociedad brasilea o, ms especficamente, segn lo
proyectan algunos intelectuales modernistas), existe
otro tipo de experiencia pervertida de la celebracin,
basada en la sexualidad. Me refiero especficamente a
un autor como Paulo Prado (18691943), quien apoy el
modernismo en Brasil y fue muy relevante para grandes
figuras como Oswald de Andrade (18901954) y Gilberto
Freyre (19001987), en la literatura y la sociologa, respectivamente. En su libro Retrato do Brasil (1928), Prado
se queja amargamente de la condicin fsica y espiritualmente degradada del pueblo brasileo, resultado de
los excesos y depravaciones vividas en el pasado. De
alguna manera, estbamos perpetuamente agotados
(agotados desde el nacimiento!) debido a nuestra promiscuidad ancestral.
Este no es el lugar para criticar el punto
de vista de Prado y sus improbables conclusiones.
Solo nos permite observar que para un modernista
como l, la imagen frecuente, incluso mtica, de Brasil
como una tierra de libertad corporal y sexual es un
problema que se debe enfrentar para comprender
realmente la constitucin de nuestra sociedad. Si lo
mencionamos aqu es para discutir hasta qu punto
esa forma histrica de sociabilidad oculta se opone
a la religiosa, y se manifiesta en el carnaval como
una mezcla simblica y celebratoria de experiencias simultneas, a saber, el fantasma privado que
se disuelve en la celebracin colectiva.
Ciertamente, esto no nos lleva a una
conclusin tan afortunada como parece. Algunas veces
el lmite entre la idealizacin y el realismo no es tan
ntido, ms cuando recordamos cun abiertamente
esas situaciones de celebracin son al mismo tiempo
concebidas por el artista (por ejemplo, la dimensin
dionisaca del carnaval elogiada por Hlio Oiticica) y de
forma opuesta manipuladas por el Estado (la dictadura
militar us el carnaval y el ftbol como sus aparatos
de propaganda oficiales).
Cuando los artistas se encargan de este tema y
realizan obras reflexivas en torno al concepto de
celebracin, encontramos diferentes acercamientos.
Podras sealar las races de la inclusin de la
celebracin en la produccin de los artistas brasileos?
SAD PEOPLE IN A RADIANT LAND

79

Me parece importante retomar las circunstancias que

rodean el origen del modernismo en Brasil. Los moder
nistas elevaron una interpretacin de la cultura popular
como alternativa al academicismo, de forma similar
a lo ocurrido en otras escenas modernistas. Particularmente en Brasil, incorporar lo popular aunque
reconozcamos que ese encuentro se mantiene ms en el
plano terico que en el real se consider esencialmente
una plataforma cultural para la modernizacin del pas
en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Esta actitud recoge
las expediciones primitivistas a antiguas ciudades
coloniales, el uso de referencias folclricas y de ritmos
populares urbanos, y el inters en manifestaciones como
el carnaval. As el carnaval con su imagen celebratoria
como algo tnicamente autntico se volvi un topos
para pintores, msicos, poetas y novelistas: el cuadro
Carnaval em Madureira de Trasila do Amaral (1924);
el ballet de Heitor Villa-Lobos Carnaval das Crianas
Brasileiras, con pinturas de Cicero Dias y Di Cavalcanti
(1920); el poema Lundu do Escritor Dificil de Mario de
Andrade (1928) lundu es uno de los ritmos que da origen
a la samba. Progresivamente, el carnaval signific algo
importante para muchos artistas, e incluso de maneras
ms discretas y secundarias, que absorben algunas de
sus prcticas. Pienso particularmente en los bailes de
carnaval con mscaras organizados en Sao Paulo y Ro
de Janeiro por las primeras sociedades de arte moderno,
con decoraciones de Lasar Segall (18911957), uno de los
pocos maestros expresionistas de Brasil. Aunque esas
fiestas bsicamente servan para recaudar fondos en
beneficio de sus organizaciones (y en muchos casos no
evitaban un sesgo elitista), el punto es poner el nfasis
en este ejercicio temprano de una celebracin colectiva
que influenci las prcticas artsticas y las dinmicas
estratgicas de la alta cultura.
No existe una conexin directa de estas
acciones con la forma en que los artistas contemporneos
se interesan en el carnaval, aunque se pueden encontrar
algunos puntos de convergencia. Podemos recordar otra
vez el dilogo de Hlio Oiticica con la samba y el carnaval
en la creacin de su Parangols (varias versiones a partir
de la dcada de 1960), una especie de capa para ser usada
al bailar samba que requiere de una actitud festiva de los
participantes (todos deben bailar juntos), a tal punto que
pretenda lograr una suerte de celebracin dionisaca en
80

SPACE TO DREAM

to academicism, which was similar to what was seen

in modernisms elsewhere. Particularly in Brazil, to
merge with popular culture even when we noticed
that such a meeting remained more in the theoretical
than the actual was generally interpreted essentially
as a cultural platform for the modernisation of the
country in the first half of the 20th century. This
attitude embraced primitivist expeditions to ancient
colonial cities, the use of folkloric references, popular
urban rhythms and an interest in manifestations like
the Carnival. So, the Carnival its celebrative image as
something ethnically authentic became a topos for
painters, musicians, poets and novelists (for example,
Tarsila do Amarals painting Carnaval em Madureira
(Carnival in Madureira), 1924; Heitor Villa-Lobos
ballet Carnaval das Crianas Brasileiras (Brazilian
Childrens Carnival, 1920), staged together with the
painters Cicero Dias and Di Cavalcanti; and Mrio de
Andrades poem Lundu do Escritor Difcil (Lundu
[one of the original samba rhythms] of the Complicated Writer), 1928). Increasingly, the Carnival meant
something important for many of them, and even in a
very discreet and secondary way, some of their practices absorbed aspects of the Carnival and were also
absorbed into it. I think particularly in the Carnival
masquerade balls organised both in So Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro by some early societies of modern art, with
decorations by, for example, Lasar Segall (18911957),
one of our few expressionist masters. Although such
parties were created mainly to raise funds for their
organisations (and in many cases did not avoid elitist
flair), the point to emphasise is this early instance of
a collective celebration influencing artistic practices
and the strategic dynamics of high culture.
There is no direct connection between
these actions and the way contemporary artists are
concerned with the Carnival, although some convergences can be seen. One can once again recall Hlio
Oiticicas dialogue with samba and the Carnival in
the creation of his Parangols (a kind of cape made
to be worn while dancing the samba, created from
the 1960s), which required a festive attitude from
the participants (implying everybody should dance
together) to a point that it actually approached a kind
of Nietzschean Dionysian celebration. This is another

instance of contact between art and everyday life under

the sign of celebration. Different approaches, at the
same time, are exemplified by Cacique de Ramos (a
suburb in Rio de Janeiro), 1972 and Antropologia da
Face Gloriosa (The Anthropology of the Glorious Face),
1998 by Carlos Vergara and Arthur Omar, respectively.
Both are photo series produced during the Carnival: the
first documented the parade and the environments of a
very traditional and popular samba society from Cacique
de Ramos. Omar captured the ecstatic expressions of
anonymous people celebrating the Carnival. In a way,
both can be described as contemporary iconologies
of this fleeting but radically cathartic moment when
debauchery becomes the rule in a society usually
controlled by conventions that are at once conservative
and informal.

el sentido nietzscheano. Es uno de los casos ejemplares

de estos contactos entre el arte y la vida diaria bajo el
signo de la celebracin. Cacique de Ramos, de Carlos
Vergara (1972), y Antropologia da Face Gloriosa, de Arthur
Omar (1998), muestran otros puntos de vista del mismo
momento. Se trata de series de fotografas producidas
durante el carnaval: la primera documenta el desfile y
el ambiente de una escuela de samba muy popular y
tradicional de un suburbio de Ro (Cacique de Ramos); la
segunda registra las expresiones extticas de personas
annimas mientras celebran el carnaval. De algn modo,
ambas pueden ser descritas como iconologas contemporneas de este momento catrtico, fugitivo y radical,
cuando la disipacin se vuelve la norma de una sociedad
usualmente controlada por convenciones singulares, al
mismo tiempo conservadoras e informales.

Also, we can find that political issues and the tragedy

that surrounds these are present in the production
of works from different Brazilian and other South
American artists. When it comes to analysing both
celebration and tragedy, perhaps we can say that they
were and are produced simultaneously, and can be
experienced together.

Tambin observamos que los asuntos polticos y la

tragedia que los rodea estn presentes en la produccin de
obras de diferentes artistas brasileos y latinoamericanos.
Al analizar tanto la celebracin como la tragedia,
podemos decir que se producen simultneamente, se
pueden experimentar al mismo tiempo.

Paulo Prado opens his book with an arguable but

intriguing sentence: In a radiant land, there lives a sad
people. It synthesises the ambiguous feeling towards
celebration, whether for its sometimes institutional
aspect or its fugacious evasiveness. Such gorgeous celebrations also conceal a feeling of inconclusiveness, as
you are returned to a moralistic and oppressive daily life.
The Carnivals intensity is proportional to a discourse of
self-repression. But if we scrutinise the question more
closely, in the context of visual arts, some works by
Ronald Duarte and Antonio Manuel stress the paradox
you mentioned. In the early 2000s Duarte proposed
a series of performances in Santa Teresa (a bohemian
and at that time dangerous neighbourhood in Rio de
Janeiro) whose initially collective (and communal) but
violent aspects set off a disruptive discontentment. He,
his friends and the people who spontaneously joined
the performance set fires in tram tracks as a metaphor
of a place that is burning. In another action, he rented a
tanker and sprayed the streets with a red liquid similar

Paulo Prado comienza su libro con una frase tan cuestionable como fascinante: En una tierra radiante, donde
vive gente triste. Sintetiza con ella los sentimientos
ambiguos ante la celebracin, ya sea por su aspecto a
veces institucional o su esquivez fugaz. Estas celebraciones maravillosas tambin ocultan una sensacin de no
conducir a nada, pues llevan a un retorno hacia la vida
corriente, moralista y opresiva. Su intensidad puede ser
proporcional a un discurso posterior de autorepresin.
Pero si escudriamos en esto un poco ms, en el contexto
de las artes visuales, algunas obras de Ronald Duarte y
Antonio Manuel enfatizan la paradoja que mencionas.
Duarte propuso, al comienzo de la dcada del 2000,
una serie de performances en Santa Teresa (un barrio
bohemio de Ro, en ese entonces peligroso) en las cuales
su sentido inicial, colectivo y comunal, gatill perturbadoras manifestaciones contra la violencia: junto a sus
amigos, y la gente que se uni espontneamente, Duarte
puso fuego en lo rieles de los tranvas, como metfora
de un lugar que se est incendiando; en otra accin,
rent un camin aljibe y roci las calles con un lquido
SAD PEOPLE IN A RADIANT LAND

81

rojo parecido a la sangre. Estas obras solo existen por

su capacidad de provocar la adhesin o protesta del
pblico; de hecho parte de l apoy al artista y otra parte
lo cuestion duramente, pero nadie qued indiferente.
Mediante una estrategia celebratoria y espectacular, el
artista pretenda lograr al final una situacin de suspensin, o ms bien un anticlmax festivo.
Con Antonio Manuel, la pregunta por
esa confusin entre la celebracin y la tragedia emerge
agudamente en la pelcula Uma Parada, hecha en 1977. El
artista registr a los veteranos brasileos de la Segunda
Guerra Mundial el 7 de septiembre, el da nacional. Si
una parada militar en los 70 era un evento difcil de
digerir, pues significaba la manifestacin oficial de la
dictadura, el retrato de esos viejos soldados de lo ms
alto a lo ms bajo de la jerarqua se volva tambin el
anticlmax de ese discurso triunfalista, como revela el
estado de olvido al cual estaban relegados muchos de
los veteranos. La celebracin resume al mismo tiempo la
tragedia de la dictadura militar, la tragedia de la guerra
y la tragedia de la miseria infligida contra esos hroes
de guerra casi perdidos.

to blood. These works only existed because they were

capable of raising public participation or protest. So,
part of the public supported him and another part
blamed him bitterly but none remained indifferent.
Through a celebrative and spectacular strategy the artists
intended to create in the end a situation of suspension,
if not sometimes a festive anticlimax.
Concerning Antonio Manuel, the question of blurring between celebration and tragedy
emerges incisively in a film he made in the 1970s
titled Uma Parada (A Parade), 1977. The artist showed
Brazilian WWII veterans parading on 7 September
(Independence Day in Brazil). If a military parade in
the 1970s was an uncomfortable event to watch the
official demonstration of dictatorship the portrait of
those former soldiers (from top to bottom of the hierarchy) became also the anticlimax of this triumphalist
discourse, as it revealed the state of oblivion to which
many of these veterans were relegated. The celebration
summarises at once the tragedy of military dictatorship,
the tragedy of war, and the tragedy of misery inflicted
on those almost forgotten war heroes.

El exceso es una de las caractersticas de algunas

celebraciones, como se observa en el carnaval o en los
partidos de ftbol. Este concepto tambin se puede
encontrar en el arte.

Excess is one of the characteristics of some celebrations, such as is seen at carnivals or football games,
and a sense of excess, as well as precariousness, can
also be found in art.

Algunos enfoques tericos recientes sobre el arte

moderno y contemporneo en Brasil enfatizan o ms
bien exageran una condicin barroca presente en
nuestro imaginario. Quien dice barroco quiere decir
de alguna manera excesivo, a saber, todas las posibili
dades de un patrn y un comportamiento anticlasicista.
Ambas alternativas se manifiestan en el arte brasileo,
y me atrevera a decir que en algn punto se arriesgan a
ser indistinguibles. Hay que tener en cuenta que la idea
del exceso en nuestras artes visuales suele ir de la mano
de lo que aparentemente se le opone: la precariedad. En
resumen, ambos se relacionan con aspectos de una cultura
tercermundista que voluntariamente no logra salirse de
las normas occidentales. Debo confesar que todava no
estoy seguro de cmo esos trminos, aunque resulten
efectivos, son adecuados para el arte brasileo. Quiero
decir que an no encuentro en Brasil un discurso terico

Some recent theoretical approaches on modern and

contemporary Brazilian art emphasise (if not insist on)
a baroque condition being present in our imaginary.
These critics say baroque means in a way excess;
that is, all possibilities of an anti-classical pattern and
behaviour. The classical and the baroque are manifest
in Brazilian art, and at some points I dare say they
cannot be distinguished. It is noteworthy that the idea
of excess in our visual arts often goes hand in hand
with its supposed opposite: precariousness. To sum up,
both are referred to as aspects of a Third World culture
that voluntarily or not would deviate from the Western
norm. I must confess that Im still uncertain of how
those terms although they are effective work in
Brazilian art. I mean in Brazil I do not find a convincing
theoretical discourse on them, regardless of their
omnipresence. They indeed operate in our cultural

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SPACE TO DREAM

production, but most current narratives refrain from

elaborating on their aspects, and in my opinion do
not succeed in deep reflection. The current narratives
merely describe their existence. I suppose both could
be related to this peculiar condition of Brazil (even in
the context of globalisation) in which the country still
remains as a periphery of capitalism, that is a Third
World place doomed to consume the remnants of the
Western metropolis. Brazil is commonly described as a
place of excess, and in a way, it is true: through history,
the local economy was based on exhausting Brazils
resources (sugar cane, coffee, rubber) and conversely
also on importing products and sociocultural forms
from the Western metropolis. There are consequences
to this double negativity (our excess is based in the
paradox of over-consumption and a perpetual state of
want) in the formal basis of our visual arts, as well as
in the cultural imaginary. But it seems to me an open
field that must be discussed (with a special precaution to not fall into the temptation into which the art
market seduces us when it shows its inclusiveness
for precariousness and excess), in order to demand a
more attentive examination of excess and celebration
in our culture.

convincente al respecto, a pesar de su omnipresencia.

De hecho influyen en la produccin artstica, pero la
mayora de las narrativas actuales se limitan a declarar
esos aspectos, y en mi opinin no logran reflexionar ms
all de eso. Solo describen su existencia. Supongo que
ambos pueden relacionarse con la condicin singular
de Brasil (incluso en el contexto de la globalizacin) de
seguir siendo una periferia del capitalismo, por lo tanto
un lugar del Tercer Mundo condenado a consumir los
restos de las metrpolis occidentales. El lugar comn
describe a Brasil como un lugar de excesos, y de alguna
manera es cierto: a lo largo de su historia, la economa
local se ha basado en el agotamiento de los recursos
(caa de azcar, caf, los subproductos del caucho) y la
importacin de bienes, productos y formas socio-culturales
de la metrpolis. Podra haber muchas consecuencias
de esta doble negatividad (nuestro exceso se basa en
la paradoja del sobreconsumo y un perpetuo estado de
necesidad) en la base formal materialista de nuestra
visualidad, as como en su imaginario cultural. Pero este
parece ser un campo abierto a la discusin, con especial
cuidado de no caer en la tentacin con la cual el mercado
del arte nos seduce cuando seala la integracin de la
precariedad y el exceso. Tal discusin exige examinar
ms atentamente su presencia en nuestra cultura.

SAD PEOPLE IN A RADIANT LAND

83

El sentido de lo
contemporneo en la
era de la globalizacin

The Sense of the

Contemporary in the
Era of Globalisation

Sergio Rojas

Sergio Rojas (Antofagasta, Chile, 1960) es filsofo y doctor en Literatura. Actualmente

es director de investigacin de la Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de Chile. Sus
reas de estudio han sido principalmente la filosofa de la subjetividad, la esttica, la
filosofa de la historia y la teora crtica. Ha sido profesor invitado en la Universidad
de Pars VIII (Francia) y en la Texas A&M University (Estados Unidos), adems de
participar en conferencias en diversas universidades de Latinoamrica, Europa y
Estados Unidos. Entre sus libros destacan Materiales para una historia de la subjetividad
(La Blanca Montaa, Santiago, 2002); Imaginar la Materia. Ensayos de Filosofa y
Esttica (Arcis, Santiago, 2003); Las obras y sus relatos (I y II, Universidad de Chile,
Santiago, 2004 y 2009); Escritura neobarroca (Palinodia, Santiago, 2010); El arte
agotado (Sangra, Santiago 2012, Premio a la mejor Obra del Fondo del Libro, Consejo
Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes); Catstrofe y trascendencia en la narrativa de
Diamela Eltit (Sangra, Santiago, 2013). En noviembre del 2015 organiz la primera
versin de CORAL (Congreso Regional de Arte Latinoamericano) en Santiago de Chile.

Por un lado el racismo ya no existe y, por otro, nunca ha habido

tanto racismo como ahora. DIPESH CHAKRABARTY
La globalizacin de la economa y la informatizacin de lo social en las redes digitales
de comunicacin a escala mundial, han producido el efecto de un allanamiento de
las fronteras en el planeta para los flujos del capital transnacional. La moderna
Sergio Rojas (born Antofagasta, 1960) is a philosopher and a Doctor of Literature.
He is currently Director of Research at the Faculty of Arts, University of Chile. His
areas of study are mainly the philosophy of subjectivity, aesthetics, philosophy of
history and critical theory. He has been invited to the University of Paris VIII and
to Texas A & M University, as well as participating in conferences at universities in
Latin America, Europe and the United States. His books include: Materiales para
una historia de la subjetividad (Materials for a History of Subjectivity, 2002);
Imaginar la materia. Ensayos de Filosofa y Esttica (Imagine the Matter: Essays
of Philosophy and Aesthetics, 2003); Las obras y sus relatos I y II (The Works and
Their Narratives, I and II, 2004 & 2009); Escritura neobarroca (Neo-Baroque
Writing, 2010); El arte agotado (Exhausted Art, 2012, Award for Best Work National
Council for Culture and the Arts); and Catstrofe y trascendencia en la narrativa de
Diamela Eltit (Catastrophe and Significance in the Narrative of Diamela Eltit, 2013).
In November 2015 he organised the first version of CORAL (Regional Congress of
Latin American Art) in Chile.

On the one hand racism no longer exists and, on the other hand,
there has never been so much racism as now. DIPESH CHAKRABARTY
The globalisation of the economy and networks of worldwide communication have
had the effect of an invasion on the planets borders, causing a lucrative transnational
86

SPACE TO DREAM

soberana del Estado-nacin parece perder poder en este nuevo orden de cosas. Sin
embargo, dadas estas condiciones, surge la idea de que por primera vez en la historia
los seres humanos seran realmente contemporneos entre s; proliferan por doquier
las fronteras amuralladas para el trnsito de los individuos y se hace manifiesta
la imposibilidad de una sociedad mundial. Esto implica una crisis de los ideales
de la Ilustracin que han orientado durante los dos ltimos siglos al pensamiento
poltico y en buena medida han definido lo que cabe denominar humanismo (tanto en
Occidente como en los territorios cuya historia ha estado dramticamente marcada
por procesos de colonizacin). Enfrentados a la imposibilidad de comprender de
manera no abstracta las condiciones materiales de existencia de los individuos en
perspectiva planetaria, dos preguntas resultan fundamentales: cul es el estatuto
del humanismo en la actualidad? Qu significa contemporneo?
La idea de frontera se ha naturalizado en el imaginario occidental
y se concibe como una especie de lmite infranqueable, asociado a la imagen de
gruesos muros en altura, controles policiales, sistemas de vigilancia y mecanismos de
proteccin contra todo tipo de peligros que acechan sobre el cuerpo y la mente. Por
cierto, sabemos que la representacin de la frontera no necesariamente ha de ser una
lnea, pues aquella es tambin un territorio, un espacio en donde distintos sistemas
de referencia y parmetros identitarios se tocan y superponen. La frontera es, ante
todo, una zona de contacto. Pues bien, dnde podemos reconocer hoy la localidad y
dnde el margen? En un universo que se caracteriza por procesos ininterrumpidos de
produccin y consumo, flujos de capital financiero desterritorializado y circulacin
flow of capital. The nation states modern sovereignty seems to have lost power
in this new networked order of things. However, even given these conditions, the
concept of humans really being contemporaries remains an ideal; walled borders
increasingly bar the transit of individuals, and a global society remains an ideal.
This implies a crisis within Enlightenment ideas which have orientated political
thought over the past two centuries, and which have largely defined what we
call humanism (both in the West and in the territories whose histories have been
dramatically marked by the process of colonisation). Faced with the impossibility
of understanding the existing conditions of individuals from a global perspective,
two essential questions come to mind: What is the actual status of humanism?; and
What is the meaning of contemporary?
The idea of borders has become assimilated into Western imagination
and they are conceived as impassable limits, associated with the image of thick,
high walls, police checks, surveillance systems and mechanisms of protection
from all kinds of dangers those lurking in the mind and body. We know that the
representation of the border does not necessarily have to be a line, because a border
is also a territory, a space where parameters meet and overlap. The border is, above
all, a zone of contact. Therefore, how today can we recognise what is local? And
what is the border itself? In a world characterised by uninterrupted production and
consumption, financial capital has no definite territory; nor does the circulation
of information: we are always in the locality and, at the same time, on the margin
that is, we are always in proximity to some kind of border. Chakrabarty was right
THE SENSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY

87

de informacin, nos encontramos siempre en la localidad y a la vez en el margen,

esto es, en la proximidad de algn tipo de frontera. Tiene razn Chakrabarty cuando
seala que cada vez ms estamos en contacto con personas muy distintas a nosotros,
lo cual debera promover un espritu cosmopolita en todo el mundo.1
Cierto, las inditas posibilidades que trajo internet son una realidad que
confirmara abrumadoramente esa expectativa ilustrada. Sin embargo, qu significa
en la actualidad estar en contacto con personas muy distintas? Pienso que no se trata
del itinerario hacia lo cosmopolita, sino de un caudal de diferencias que ingresan en la
cotidianeidad de las personas. El volumen, velocidad y accesibilidad de las transmisiones
en las redes son tales que resulta imposible procesar y apropiarse de la magnitud de
ese contenido, pues los procesos de subjetivacin (que permiten al individuo orientarse
en un horizonte que comprenda la realidad ms all de sus intereses inmediatos) son
inhibidos por el caudal de informacin disponible, pero tambin por el impacto de
este sobre los parmetros instituidos de representacin de la realidad.
A comienzos de los aos 80, el intelectual italiano Norberto Bobbio
expona lo que denominaba crisis de la democracia (El futuro de la democracia, 1984),
subrayando precisamente que un concepto que se defina con arreglo a nociones de
participacin y representacin desde la Ilustracin, en el siglo XVIII, no daba cuenta
de los desafos que el poder impone a los ciudadanos en el presente. Actualmente,
diferencias del tipo norte/sur, este/oeste, democracia/represin, izquierda/derecha,
centro/periferia, gobierno/oposicin, han devenido inestables, referidas a un contexto
que relativiza sus significados. Vivimos, pues, en un mundo que no entendemos.

El ingreso de magnitudes inditas e irrepresentables de informacin en

el rgimen de la disponibilidad genera un importante coeficiente de inestabilidad en
las formas de comprensin a las que el individuo recurre cotidianamente para orientarse
en el mundo. No se trata de un tipo de inestabilidad que amenace a lo cotidiano,
sino que ms bien lo densifica internamente y, en eso, lo redefine, especialmente si
consideramos que la misma diferencia entre lo excepcional y lo cotidiano tambin se
ha vuelto incierta. La subjetividad comienza a vivir entre su propia fascinacin por el
espectculo de las diferencias y la incertidumbre que experimenta ante un universo en
que han sido desbordadas las dicotomas que venan desde la Ilustracin. Entonces,
despus de todo, acaso no sea tan extrao el hecho de que en un mundo de proliferante
multiculturalidad las fronteras se multipliquen. Como sugiere Wendy Browne: En
esta fase de orden global cada vez ms libre de fronteras y de controles, los muros
representan una contencin que supera la simple proteccin contra invasores peligrosos
y que pertenece ms bien a la incomodidad psquica de vivir en un mundo as.2
Se trata de la necesidad de imaginar (subjetivar) lo real en un tiempo
donde los parmetros de la modernidad se estremecen producto del modo en que la
globalizacin econmica y la informatizacin de lo real inciden en la cotidianeidad.
El economista argentino Aldo Ferrer identific dos esferas de la
globalizacin: la real y la virtual. La primera consiste en el crecimiento del comercio
mundial, que ha venido desarrollndose desde hace cuatro siglos; la segunda, en cambio,
comprende los procesos de transmisin de informacin y la esfera que es propia de
la economa financiera. Esto hace de la economa virtual un fenmeno estrictamente

1. Dipesh Chakrabarty, El
humanismo en la era de la
globalizacin. La descolo
nizacin y las polticas
culturales (Humanism at
the Age of Globalisation:
Decolonisation and Cultural
Policies), Katz, Buenos
Aires, 2009, p 15.

when he stated that increasingly we are in contact with people very different from
ourselves, which should promote a spirit of worldwide cosmopolitanism.1
It is true to say that the new possibilities that the Internet brings are
a reality that overwhelmingly confirms this expectation, the modern ideal of interchange and knowledge. However, what does it actually mean to be in contact with
very different people? I think that the Internet is not the route to cosmopolitanism;
rather it is responsible for generating the flow of differences that enter into peoples
everyday lives. The volume, speed and accessibility of network transmissions are
such that it is impossible to process and understand the magnitude of their content,
because the processes of subjectivity (which allow the individual to understand the
reality beyond their immediate interests) are inhibited by the wealth of information
available, and also by the impact of these transmissions on the parameters which
represent reality.
At the beginning of the 1980s, Italian intellectual Norberto
Bobbio exposed what he called a crisis of democracy (The Future of Democracy, 1984), stressing that the concept which is defined according to the
notion or degree of popular participation and representation since the Enlightenment of the 18th century did not address the challenges that power
imposes on citizens today. Currently, differences of North/South, East/West,
democracy/repression, left/right, centre/periphery, government/opposition
have become unstable within a context which blurs their meaning. We live, therefore, in a world we do not understand.

The excess of information generates in individuals an instability

in the way they see everyday life and orientate themselves in the world. It is not
the type of instability that threatens everyday life, but rather is a deepening of an
internal uncertainty, and in this it is redefined especially if we consider the increased
differences between the ordinary and the exceptional. Subjectivity begins to
live between its own fascination with the spectacle of the differences and the
uncertainty experienced in a universe in which the dichotomies that came from the
Enlightenment have been overwhelmed. So, after all, it may not be so strange that
in a world of proliferating multiculturalism, borders actually multiply. As Wendy
Browne has posited: at this stage of global order where there are increasingly freer
borders and controls, the walls represent a contention beyond simple protection
against dangerous invaders, and belong rather to the uncomfortable living in a
world like this.2
It is about the need to imagine (subjectivism) what is real in a time
where the parameters of modernity shudder because of the ways in which economic
globalisation and computerisation impact on our everyday lives.
The Argentinean economist Aldo Ferrer identified two areas of
globalisation: the real and the virtual. The first consists of the growth of world
trade, which has been developing for four centuries; the second includes the
process of information transmission in the sphere of the financial economy. The
virtual economy is a strictly contemporary phenomenon and in globalisation the
economy has found an appropriate platform in digital communication networks,

88

SPACE TO DREAM

1. Dipesh Chakrabarty, El
humanismo en la era de la
globalizacin. La desco
lonizacin y las polticas
culturales. Katz, Buenos
Aires, 2009, p. 15.

THE SENSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY

2. Wendy Browne, Estados

Amurallados. Soberana en
declive. Herder, Madrid, 2015,
p. 171.

2. Wendy Browne, Estados

Amurallados. Soberana
en declive (Walled States:
Sovereignty in Decline),
Herder, Madrid, 2015, p 171.

89

3. Jorge Volpi, Memorial del

engao. Alfaguara, Mxico,
2013, p. 260.
4. Vicen Navarro y Juan Torres
Lpez, Los amos del mundo.
Las armas del terrorismo
financiero. Espasa, Barcelona,
2012, p. 158.

3. Jorge Volpi, Memorial

del engao (Memorial of
Deception), Alfaguara,
Mexico, 2013, p 260.
4. Vicen Navarro and Juan
Torres Lpez, Los amos
del mundo. Las armas del
terrorismo financiero
(The Masters of the World:
Weapons of Financial
Terrorism), Espasa,
Barcelona, 2012, p 158.
5. Stefano Liberti, Los
nuevos amos de la tierra
(The New Masters of the
Earth), Taurus, Buenos Aires,
2015, p 14.

90

contemporneo. En efecto, la globalizacin de la economa ha encontrado en aquellas

redes digitales de comunicacin un soporte tan adecuado a su naturaleza como tremendo
en sus posibilidades no solo de intervenir la realidad, sino incluso de crearla. Con lo
de tremendo no arriesgo un extravagante juicio negativo sobre la globalizacin de los
mercados, sino que, por el contrario, quiero subrayar el hecho de que las redes del
capital transnacional existen ms all de todo juicio de valor. Para el comn de los
ciudadanos se trata de una realidad extraa al rgimen cotidiano de la representacin,
y cuando llega a imponerse como tema insoslayable en las conversaciones, suele
deberse a una crisis que por lo general el comn de las personas no vio venir.
El cnico personaje de la novela Memorial del engao (2013), del
mexicano Jorge Volpi llamado irnicamente J Volpi reflexiona: As sucede en el
mundo financiero: cuando los signos de la crisis son tan obvios que cualquiera puede
advertirlos es porque ya no hay adnde correr.3
Un punto especialmente complejo es el modo en que la especulacin
financiera ha desnaturalizado el mercado, provocando enormes paradojas: Hay billones
de dlares, de euros y de muchas otras divisas circulando para comprarse entre ellas
o para realizar operaciones solo sobre el papel y, sin embargo, no se puede disponer
de cantidades muchas veces menores para resolver los problemas que producen el
sufrimiento de millones de personas.4
Fenmenos como estos, inditos en la historia econmica de la humanidad,
son los que las personas nombran bajo el rtulo de neoliberalismo. Un tiempo en el
que la abstraccin no se contrapone a la realidad. Incluso el colapso del mercado
creating it and allowing it to intervene in reality. I do not pass an exceedingly
negative judgement on the globalisation of markets; on the contrary, I want to
underline the fact that the networks of transnational capital exist beyond all
value judgements.
The cynical character in Jorge Volpis novel Memorial del engao
(A Memorial of Deception, 2013) who, ironically, is called J. Volpi, reflects: this
happens in the financial world: when the signs of a crisis are so obvious that anyone
can read them, but where there is nowhere to run to.3
A particlarly complex feature of globalisation is the way in which
financial speculation has denaturalised the market, causing enormous paradoxes:
there are trillions of dollars, euros and many other currencies operating between
themselves and performing operations only on paper, however, lesser amounts are
often not available to solve the problems that cause the suffering of millions of people.4
Phenomena such as these, unprecedented in the economic history of mankind, are
part of neo-liberalism in which abstraction is not opposed to reality. Even the collapse
of the speculative stock market has caused the global economy to undertake new
directions: many investors jumped into the refuge of goods, such as basic foodstuff
and land. In this way, food and its production became the business of the future.5
Consequently, between 2007 and 2015 there were in the world 10
million transactions in which arable land became state property. We face again, then,
a magnitude that exceeds the scope of human experience of reality and that we can
only try to understand in an abstract way arithmetic, geometric and statistically.
SPACE TO DREAM

especulativo de acciones ha provocado que la economa global emprenda nuevos

objetivos: Muchos inversores se lanzaron a los bienes refugio, como los productos
alimentarios bsicos y las tierras. De esta forma, los alimentos y su produccin se
convirtieron en el negocio del futuro.5
En consecuencia, entre el 2007 y el 2015 se realizaron en el mundo
diez millones de transacciones en las que tierras cultivables pasaron del Estado a la
propiedad privada. Estamos nuevamente ante una magnitud que excede el mbito
de la experiencia humana de la realidad y que solo de forma abstracta aritmtica,
geomtrica y estadsticamente podemos intentar entender.
La globalizacin del capital no ha significado la supresin de las
fronteras, sino, por el contrario, su multiplicacin, debido precisamente a que las
relaciones posibles con el otro se intensifican y diversifican. Entonces la frontera,
que podra ser un lugar de inters y fascinacin, se ha ido transformando en una
zona de temor y rechazo. Y aunque la idea de humanidad se torna cada vez ms
compleja y rica en su diversidad, el supuesto multiculturalismo que se seguira de
esto tiende simplemente desembocar en la existencia de guetos. As, la emergencia
de las fronteras culturales en las redes de informacin puede ser simultneamente
ocasin para desarrollar un conocimiento objetivante, una curiosidad fetichizante,
establecer una distancia simblica, o producir una edicin esttica de la alteridad
para su consumo cultural y comercial. En cualquier caso, la idea de humanidad a
la que necesitamos recurrir, heredada de un imaginario occidental ilustrado, no
admite fcilmente la magnitud de la diversidad que hoy las redes tecnolgicas hacen

5. Stefano Liberti, Los nuevos

amos de la tierra. Taurus,
Buenos Aires, 2015, p. 14.

The globalisation of capital has not meant the removal of borders;

on the contrary, they have multiplied, intensified and diversified precisely because
of possible relations with one other. The border, then, which could be a place of
interest and fascination, has been transformed into a zone of fear and rejection.
And although the idea of humanity becomes increasingly complex and rich in its
diversity, the so-called multiculturalism that follows from these global relations
tends to simply lead to the existence of ghettoes. Thus, the emergence of cultural
boundaries in information networks can simultaneously be an occasion to develop
an objective, a curious fetish to establish a symbolic distance, or to produce an
aesthetic issue of otherness, for cultural and commercial use.
In any case, the idea of humanity which we need to appeal to and which
is inherited from the Western imaginary, does not easily support the magnitude of
diversity that technological networks manifest today. As Chakrabarty says, the
time of a new statute of humanism has come to the world.6
The problem will not be solved through the idea of irreducible
differences, as in certain forms of multiculturalism in which the Other/subject
is naturalised as a way of being. It is necessary to think about the problem of an
encounter with the Other, taking into consideration that there are concrete conditions (social, political, economic) that make human beings exclude others. This is
the situation we face today with the phenomenon of migration. Today, the conflict
with the Other stems not from an epistemological misunderstanding, but from
the fact that the Other has been determined by nature, according to a requirement

6. Chakrabarty, as above, p 17.

THE SENSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY

91

manifiesta. Como seala Chakrabarty, al mundo le ha llegado el momento de producir

un nuevo estatuto del humanismo.6
El problema no se supera mediante la idea de un respeto a priori de
diferencias irreductibles, como en ciertas formas de multiculturalismo, en que se
naturaliza al otro como un modo de ser. Es necesario pensar el problema a partir de
la facticidad del encuentro con el otro, atendiendo al hecho de que son condiciones
concretas (sociales, polticas, econmicas) las que hacen que seres humanos encierren
a otros en un modo de ser. Esta es la situacin a la que nos enfrentamos hoy con
el fenmeno de las migraciones. Entonces el conflicto con el otro no surge de un
malentendido epistemolgico, sino de que el otro ha sido determinado como naturaleza
de acuerdo a un requerimiento de identificacin inequvoca, necesidad que nace del
carcter conflictivo del encuentro mismo, como una relacin no deseada. En el 2004
Zygmunt Bauman sealaba que la construccin del orden y el progreso econmico
en el planeta producan incesantemente residuos humanos, es decir, personas no
calificadas, que no tienen donde estar. La situacin se torna dramtica en el caso de
los refugiados de guerra: Una vez que se es refugiado, se es refugiado para siempre.
Los caminos de regreso al paraso domstico perdido han quedado casi cortados y
todas las salidas del purgatorio del campamento conducen al infierno.7
Entonces las fronteras del Estado-nacin se cierran pero no contra un
enemigo convencional, sino contra las personas que otros Estados han desechado o
expulsado. De hecho hoy tienen lugar, hacia pases de la Unin Europea, las migraciones
ms grandes desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Los procesos de globalizacin generan una intensa multiplicacin de

relaciones econmicas y polticas entre localidades dismiles. Cmo podemos pensar
lo comn en esa realidad rizomtica cuyos puntos en red proliferan sin solucin de
continuidad? La desorientacin en la poca de la hiperconectividad no se debe al imperativo
de tener que abandonar mentalmente la localidad para comenzar a pensarse en el planeta,
sino a la necesidad de pensar lo local a escala planetaria. No habitamos cotidianamente
el planeta, ms bien habitamos planetariamente nuestra localidad. La globalizacin no
es solo un hecho, sino tambin una idea, una forma subjetiva de concebir el mundo.
A partir de las nuevas tecnologas, lo real se ha transformado en una incgnita, una X
que el usuario de la informacin debe resolver en cada momento, elaborando sus propias
conjeturas. En las redes la realidad misma ha devenido un cuerpo denso de informacin.
Manuel Castells, especialista en tecnologa de la comunicacin, ha elaborado el concepto
de sociedad red para referirse al tipo de comunidad mundial que se habra generado
gracias a la autonoma que posibilita internet en relacin a las instituciones del poder.
En la sociedad red la autonoma comunicativa se construye fundamentalmente en las
redes de internet y en las plataformas de comunicacin inalmbrica.8 Segn Castells, los
movimientos sociales cuyo soporte es internet seran locales y globales a la vez: Manifiestan
un conocimiento de los problemas compartidos por la humanidad en general y muestran
una clara cultura cosmopolita, si bien siguen arraigados en su identidad especfica.9
El optimismo de este autor respecto a la doble relacin local/global
posibilitada por las redes digitales es estimulante, pero cabe preguntarse an por
la ndole de esa cultura cosmopolita.

7. Zygmunt Bauman, Vidas

desperdiciadas. La
modernidad y sus parias
(Wasted Lives: Modernity
and Its Outcasts), Paids,
Barcelona, 2005, p 105.

of unequivocal identification, a necessity born of the conflictive character of the

encounter itself as an unwelcome relationship.
Zygmunt Bauman pointed out in 2004 that the construction of the
economic order and progress in the world produces, incessantly, human waste
unqualified people who have no refuge. The situation becomes dramatic in the
case of war refugees: once you are a refugee, you are a refugee forever. The roads
that lead back to domestic paradise have almost all been closed and all exits from
the purgatory of the camps lead to hell.7 The borders of the nation state close, not
against a conventional enemy, but against people whom other states have discarded
or expelled. Indeed, today the largest migration to European Union countries since
the World War II is taking place.
Globalisation processes generate an intense multiplication of
economic and political relationships between different locations. How can we
think about the concept of what is common in that rooted reality where the
network proliferates with no solution? The disorientation produced in this era
of hyperconnectivity does not mean it is necessary to abandon the sense of what
is local to start thinking what is global, but instead that there is a need to think
about the local on a global scale.
We do not inhabit, on a daily basis, that which is a global planet. What
we really do is inhabit our own local space. Globalisation is not only a fact, but also
an idea, a subjective way of conceiving the world. From new technologies, the real
has become a mystery, an X that the user of the information needs to continuously

resolve. The reality of networks has become a dense body of information. Manuel
Castells, a specialist in communication technology, has developed the concept of
the social network to refer to the kind of global community generated thanks to the
autonomy which allows the Internet to relate to power. In social networks communicative autonomy is fundamentally built on networks of Internet and wireless
communication platforms.8 According to Castells, social movements connected
by the Internet would be local and global at the same time and would manifest a
knowledge of the general problems shared by humanity and [show] a clear cosmopolitan culture, although they remain rooted in their specific cultural identity.9
The optimism of this author with respect to the double local/global relationship
made possible by digital networks is stimulating, but the question to be answered
is, What is the nature of that cosmopolitan culture?
In Spanish, the mode in which economic and technological global
isation generates a supposed cross-cultural global understanding is called
mundializacin a worldwidesation. Globalisation would be a paradoxical
universality whose protagonist would be a hypothetical global society or simply
humanity. We are far from this outcome. Globalisation is part of the imagery that
allows living in that magnitude of unpresentable factuality, which is globalisation.
It results in deviations and translations from the hegemonic cultural sphere. Such
globalised content is processed by people in their own realities and interpreted in
accordance with local or specific codes. The reception at one point of the planet is
active in comprising what comes from another point and is never passively received.

92

SPACE TO DREAM

6. Chakrabarty, op. cit., p. 17.

7. Zygmunt Bauman,
Vidas desperdiciadas.
La modernidad y sus parias.
Paids, Barcelona, 2005, p. 105.

THE SENSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY

8. Manuel Castells, Redes de

indignacin y esperanza.
Los movimientos sociales en
la era de Internet. Alianza,
Madrid, 2013, p. 27.
9. Ibd., p. 213.

8. Manuel Castells, Redes

de indignacin y esperanza.
Los movimientos sociales en
la era de Internet (Networks
of Outrage and Hope: Social
Movements in the Age of the
Internet), Alianza, Madrid,
2013, p 27.
9. As above, p 213.

93

En espaol se denomina mundializacin al modo en que la globalizacin

econmica y tecnolgica genera un tipo de comprensin planetaria supuestamente
transcultural. La mundializacin consistira en una paradjica universalidad cuyo
protagonista sera una hipottica sociedad mundial o simplemente la humanidad.
Nos encontramos lejos de ese desenlace. La mundializacin es ms bien parte del
imaginario que hace habitable esa facticidad de magnitudes irrepresentables que
es la globalizacin. Pero no se trata solo de la constitucin de una esfera cultural
hegemnica sobre el imaginario mundial, pues se dan en todo momento operaciones
de traduccin y desvo. En efecto, esos contenidos mundializados son procesados
por las personas desde sus propias realidades e interpretados conforme a cdigos
locales o particulares. Entonces la recepcin que en un punto del planeta se hace de
aquello que llega desde otro punto no es nunca meramente pasiva.
Es posible explorar las tensiones que se producen entre las
diversidades propias de aquellas localidades y la forma en que son promovidas
por el imaginario de la mundializacin en la industria cultural, esto es, por la
ficcin de que avanzamos hacia una sociedad mundial en la que se reconciliaran las
diferencias que han separado hasta hoy a los seres humanos. Cuando una localidad
emerge culturalmente en el circuito de la globalizacin, es traducida por patrones
de representacin y comprensin externos, y establece con aquellos patrones
relaciones de tensin, incluso de resistencia. Es necesario atender al potencial
crtico de estas tensiones, en lugar de apresurarse en tomarlas por irrelevantes en
un mundo globalizado. El mercado promueve la circulacin desarraigada en las redes

de informacin planetaria, por lo tanto el problema no consiste en que elementos

de colonialismo nieguen la particularidad cultural en la mundializacin, sino ms
bien en el modo en que se le da la palabra. Es en parte la paradoja que seala el
socilogo chileno Jorge Larran respecto a las expectativas que en los aos 70
gener el posmodernismo. En efecto, contraponindose a concepciones totalizantes
de una modernizacin reduccionista, el posmodernismo pareca permitir al otro
cultural una voz propia, el derecho a ser diferente y a no ser subsumido por una
lgica universal que elimina su especificidad.10 Sin embargo, el resultado de esto
fue un esencialismo religioso o indgena, que repliega a Amrica Latina desde la
agonstica contenida en su historia hacia el exotismo de un tiempo congelado y
un modo de ser definido ontolgicamente como no-europeo. Lo occidental opera
aqu como horizonte culturalmente neutro, una mirada de grado cero, un anfitrin
absoluto para toda alteridad que ahora, objetualizada, se conforma en cada caso
a patrones de irreductible identidad.
El concepto de lmite resulta fundamental para entender el carcter
dinmico de la cultura, por cuanto ella no se define a partir de un corpus de contenidos
identitarios, sino que consiste en una poderosa capacidad de relacionarse con elementos
extraos y dotarlos de significacin, una capacidad de asimilacin semitica en
constante ejercicio. En efecto, la cultura de una localidad particular siempre se
relaciona con lo que todava no ha ingresado semiticamente en ella, por lo tanto
incluso los elementos ms estables se ponen a prueba en esa relacin y no permanecen
inmutables en los procesos de asimilacin.

10. Jorge Larran,

Amrica Latina moderna?
globalizacin e identidad
(A Modern Latin American?
Globalisation and Identity),
Lom, Santiago, 2011, p 126.

It is possible to explore the tensions that arise between the diversity

of locations and the way in which they are promoted by the imagery of globalisation
in the cultural industry that is, by the fiction that we are moving towards a global
society in which historic differences will be reconciled. When a location emerges
culturally in the circuit of globalisation, it is translated by external patterns of
representation and comprehension, and establishes relations of tension, even resistance, to those patterns. It is necessary to attend to the critical potential of these
tensions, rather than rush into treating them as irrelevant in a globalised world. The
market promotes the circulation of worldwide information networks, therefore the
problem is not those elements of colonialism which refuse the cultural particularity
in globalisation, but rather in the way they are named.
This is in a way the paradox that the Chilean sociologist, Jorge Larran,
puts forward with respect to the influence of postmodernism in the 1970s. In effect,
by opposing totalitarian conceptions of a reductionist modernisation, postmodernism seemed to allow the Other a voice of its own, the right to be different and
not to be subsumed by universal logic that eliminates its specificity.10 However, in
Latin America the result of this was a religious or indigenous essentialism argued
across history to cultural projections of exoticism frozen in time, and a way of being
defined ontologically as non-European. The West operates here as a culturally neutral
horizon, which conforms in every case to irreducible identity models.
The concept of limit is essential to understanding the dynamic character
of culture, inasmuch as this is not defined based on a corpus of identity contents,

but consists of a powerful ability to interact with foreign elements and give them
meaning, which is a continuous process of semiotic assimilation. Indeed, the culture of
a particular town always relates to that which has not yet been assimilated; therefore,
even the most stable elements are tested in the global relationship and are altered
in this process.
What critical expectations exist towards art today, when operating
in such a dynamic? The Spaniard Iria Candela, who recently assumed the position
of curator of Latin American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,
points out as especially relevant the fact that contemporary Latin American artworks
do not promise any redemption [but] tend to activate the discrepancy in the public
sphere, through mechanisms of disillusion and disenchantment. 11 Art persists in
the relationship between criticism and self-awareness.
Currently two elements characterise artistic production: the circulation of artists and works; and the conceptualisation of thematic fields, set forth in
the perspective of global interest in the theme of the exhibitions. Why is it that the
conceptual dimension of a work operates as a condition of movement of contemporary art? This condition of movement corresponds to a sort of pre-understanding
of reality that takes place in networks of all types (economic, social, academic,
et cetera). It is not about networks that cross or cover reality, but about a kind of
reality that is constituted in such networks, including those which demand time,
making permanent displacement possible. According to this pre-understanding,
it is not that reality is always somewhere else, but that it only exists in the move-

94

SPACE TO DREAM

THE SENSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY

10. Jorge Larran,

Amrica Latina moderna?
Globalizacin e identidad.
Lom, Santiago, 2011, p. 126.

11. Iria Candela,

Contraposiciones.
Arte Contemporneo en
Latinoamrica 1990-2010
(Contrasts: Contemporary
Art in Latin America
19902010), Alianza, Madrid,
2012, p 171.

95

En qu podra consistir hoy una expectativa crtica en las artes, cuando

operar eficientemente en la realidad ya no implica necesariamente comprenderla?
La espaola Iria Candela, quien asumi recientemente el cargo de curadora de arte
latinoamericano en el Metropolitan Museum of Art de Nueva York, seala como
especialmente relevantes en el arte contemporneo latinoamericano las obras que no
prometen redencin alguna; [que] tienden a activar la discrepancia en la esfera pblica
mediante mecanismos de desilusin y desencantamiento.11 Interesante persistencia,
pues, de la relacin entre crtica y autoconciencia.
En la actualidad dos elementos caracterizan la produccin artstica: la
circulacin de artistas y obras, y la conceptualizacin de campos temticos enunciados
en la perspectiva de un inters global como marco de las exposiciones. Cmo es
que la dimensin conceptual de una obra opera como una condicin de circulacin
del arte contemporneo? El sentido de la circulacin corresponde a una suerte de
pre-comprensin de la realidad que toma cuerpo en redes de todo tipo (econmicas,
sociales, acadmicas, etctera). Es decir, no se trata de redes que cruzan o cubren
la realidad, sino que un tipo de realidad se constituye en esas redes, y son estas las
que exigen al tiempo que hacen posible estar en permanente desplazamiento. De
acuerdo a esta pre-comprensin, no es que la realidad est siempre en otra parte,
sino que solo es real aquello que existe desplazndose entre los diferentes puntos del
circuito internacional. Dnde existe lo internacional? Los artistas jvenes escribe
Raymond Moulin se desplazan para realizar su aprendizaje del arte, de los mundos
y del mercado del arte, tratando de obtener de lugar en lugar, y de beca en beca, la

calificacin de artista internacional.12 Lo internacional sera, pues, ante todo, una

realidad mvil cuya ley es el desplazamiento. Un artista no es internacional por estar
a la vez aqu y all, sino por encontrarse en trnsito entre un punto y otro.
La importancia de la articulacin discursivo - conceptual de
las exposiciones constituye un claro signo de lo que significa la exigencia de
contemporaneidad en las artes. El objetivo general es hacer que las exposiciones
sean una ocasin privilegiada para que el gran pblico pueda reflexionar acerca
de los conflictos contenidos en su entorno (relacionados estos con temas como las
migraciones, la sexualidad, la contaminacin, la guerra, las tecnologas, el Estado
policial, etctera). No cabe duda de que los temas acerca de los cuales se espera
que el arte reflexione vienen desde eso que denominamos la realidad. Entonces,
lo que habra que examinar es la realidad de esa plataforma global a la que arriban
las artes que toman la palabra. Los temas mismos son portadores de un potencial
de transversalidad que posibilita su circulacin global. Y qu tema no sera hoy
un convocante planetario para los discursos elaborados desde el arte? Pues bien,
la naturaleza de aquella plataforma es la globalizacin econmica del planeta y las
redes digitales.
As, en la medida en que las artes aspiran a ingresar en la annima
ola de la globalizacin, asumen la necesidad de un discurso. Uno de los agentes
fundamentales de este fenmeno es el curador. Desde hace dos dcadas hasta
ahora escribe Christian Viveros-Faun, el curador internacional se ha situado en
lo ms alto de la pirmide del arte, vigilando el alcance de la globalizacin que el

12. Raymond Moulin, El mercado

del arte. Mundializacin y
nuevas tecnologas (The Art
Market: Globalisation and
New Technologies), La Marca,
Buenos Aires, 2012, p 74.

ment between different points on the international circuit. Where is the concept
of international art production? Young artists, writes Raymond Moulin, move
around the art circuit and the art market, trying to move from place to place, and
scholarship to scholarship, to obtain the qualification of an international artist.12
An international reality would, therefore, first and foremost, be a mobile reality,
in continuous displacement. An artist is not international by being here and there,
but by being in transit from one point to another.
The importance of the conceptual-discourse articulation of exhibitions is a clear sign of contemporaneity in the arts. The general objective
is to make exhibitions privileged occasions so that the general public can reflect
on conflicts contained within them (associated with issues such as migration,
sexuality, pollution, war, technology, police state, et cetera). There is no doubt
that the subjects about which art is expected to reflect come from what we
call the reality. Then, what should be examined is the reality of this global
platform to which art arrives. The same themes are carriers of a potential for
transversality which enables arts global circulation. And what theme would
not today be part of the elaborate speeches of art? Well, the nature of the platform is the economic globalisation of the planet and digital networks. Thus,
insofar as art aspires to enter the anonymous wave of globalisation, the need for
a speech, for a discourse, is assumed. One of the fundamental agents of this
phenomenon is the curator. For two decades, writes Christian Viveros-Faune, the
international curator has been located at the top of the pyramid of art, watching

the scope of globalisation that neo-liberalism spawned, with almost no concern

for the consequences, whether artistic or other.13 According to this critic, a Chilean
curator based in New York, the curator corresponds to an agent of globalisation,
before being an agent of art. But the expression watching the scope of globalisation, which is used to refer to the task of the curator, is a metaphor that fails to
explain the complexity of the problem. In principle, such an assertion would be in
agreement with the thesis of Moulin, according to which the internationalisation
of trade in contemporary art cannot be dissociated from its cultural advancement:
[it relies] on the existing articulation between the international network of galleries
and the international network of cultural institutions. 14 Globalised behaviour as
the only host not only supports art but requires a permanent change of its content,
while the demand for meaning makes networks function. Now, what I propose
against a certain cynicism prevailing in addressing the situation of contemporary art
in the networks era is that putting meaning into circulation is not something that
happens simply without friction. This is because globalisation has progressively
generated the awareness of the scale of what is real, which exceeds the possibilities of experience that each individual performs in their immediate surroundings.
Subjectivity sensed today, at all times, is a mismatch between the unprecedented
quantities of reality and the concepts available for the understanding of these. An
event which concentrates without necessarily synthesising the phenomenon
of globalisation, the market and the fashion of contemporary art (and which is
also its conceptual articulation) is the biennial of art. In a sense, as Spanish critic

96

SPACE TO DREAM

11. Iria Candela,

Contraposiciones.
Arte Contemporneo en
Latinoamrica 19902010.
Alianza, Madrid, 2012, p. 171.

THE SENSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY

12. Raymond Moulin, El mercado

del arte. Mundializacin y
nuevas tecnologas. La Marca,
Buenos Aires, 2012, p. 74.

13. Christian Viveros-Faune,

Greatest Hits. Arte en Nueva
York, 20012011 (Greatest
Hits: Art in New York,
20012011), Metales Pesados,
Santiago, 2012, p 108.
14. Moulin, as above p 39.

97

13. Christian Viveros-Faun:

Greatest Hits. Arte en Nueva
York, 20012011. Metales Pesados,
Santiago, 2012. Surrealismo
curatorial,p. 108
14. Moulin, op. cit., p. 39.

neoliberalismo engendr, con casi ninguna preocupacin por las consecuencias,

ya sean estas artsticas u otras.13 Es decir, segn este crtico y curador chileno
radicado en Brooklyn, la figura del curador correspondera a la de un agente de
la globalizacin antes que del arte. Pero la expresin vigilando el alcance de la
globalizacin utilizada para referirse a la tarea del curador es una metfora que no
alcanza a exponer la complejidad del problema. En principio, tal afirmacin estara
en correspondencia con la tesis de Moulin, segn la cual la internacionalizacin
del comercio del arte contemporneo no puede disociarse de su promocin cultural:
se apoya en la articulacin existente entre la red internacional de galeras y la red
internacional de instituciones culturales.14 Comportndose el orden globalizado como
una especie de anfitrin absoluto, no solo admite sino que requiere permanentemente
de la diferencia discursiva como contenido. La demanda de sentido hace funcionar
las redes. Ahora bien, lo que quiero proponer contra cierto cinismo imperante a
la hora de abordar la situacin del arte contemporneo en la era de las redes es
que la puesta en circulacin del sentido no es algo que acontezca simplemente sin
roce. Porque la globalizacin ha ido generando progresivamente en los individuos
la conciencia de una escala de lo real que excede las posibilidades de la experiencia
que cada sujeto hace en su entorno inmediato. La subjetividad presiente hoy, en todo
momento, un desajuste entre las inditas magnitudes de la realidad y los conceptos
entrecomillados de los que dispone para su inercial comprensin.
Un evento que concentra sin necesariamente sintetizar el fenmeno
de la globalizacin, el mercado y el fashion del arte contemporneo y tambin las

exigencias conceptuales de este, lo constituyen las bienales de arte. En cierto sentido,

como ha sealado el crtico y curador espaol Fernando Castro Flores, las bienales
ejercen en el plano conceptual una hegemona que contribuira a cancelar todo
espacio alterativo o disidente. Sin embargo, tambin podra pensarse que, debido
precisamente a ese efecto de hegemona, se definen y potencian permanentemente
zonas de la diferencia en la produccin artstica. Estas zonas seran ante todo de
carcter discursivo-crtico, al menos este es su sello distintivo, sus credenciales de
contemporaneidad. Contra la irona cnica imperante, me atrevo a conjeturar que
la multiplicacin de zonas de disidencia con densidad conceptual en las artes tiene
el sentido de generar un tipo de pensamiento que nunca abandona la frontera en
la que ha tenido origen. El sentido de lo contemporneo en el presente consiste en
una situacin de fronteras. Solo en la frontera, enfrentado a la contingencia de mis
propias categoras de percepcin y representacin, soy contemporneo.
Acaso el verdadero potencial reflexivo de la condicin circulante del
arte contemporneo consista en su relacin con fronteras de todo tipo: sociales,
econmicas, raciales, sexuales, tecnolgicas. El lugar crtico de las artes correspondera
hoy a esas zonas de intensidad que proliferan en la era de las redes.

and curator Fernando Castro Flores points out, the biennial performs, at a conceptual level, a hegemony that would cancel out all alternative or dissenting spaces.
However, you might also think that, precisely because of the effect of hegemony,
there would be defined and permanently enhanced areas of difference in artistic
production. These areas would be primarily of a discursive-critical character at
least this is the hallmark of their contemporary credentials. Against prevailing
cynical irony, I venture to propose that the multiplication of zones of dissent with
conceptual density in art generates a kind of thought that never leaves the borders
of origin. The sense of the contemporary in the present is a situation of borders.
Only at the border, faced with the contingency of my own categories of perception
and representation, am I contemporary.
Perhaps the true reflective potential of the current status of contemporary art consists in its relationship with borders of all types: social, economic,
racial, sexual and technological. The critical place of the arts would today correspond
to those zones of intensity that proliferate in the era of networks.

98

SPACE TO DREAM

THE SENSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY

99

Colectivo
Sociedad Civil,
Historia larga

Civic Society
Collective,
History for Long

Gustavo Buntinx

Nota: Esta es la versin

reducida y editada de un
texto ms largo publicado
por el autor.

Gustavo Buntinx (Buenos Aires, 1957, vive y trabaja en Per) es un historiador, crtico
y curador destacado por su exploracin en las dimensiones polticas, colectivas y
rituales del arte. En Lima fue miembro del colectivo Sociedad Civil, que en 2000
articul la accin colectiva Lava la bandera, para derrocar culturalmente la dictadura
de Alberto Fujimori y Vladimiro Montecinos.
Adems de dar clases en la Universidad de San Marcos, ha sido profesor
en posgrados de la Universidad de Sao Paulo en Brasil, la UBA de Argentina y la UNAM
en Mxico. Buntinx ha dirigido diversos centros culturales de Per; ha sido curador
en la Bienal de Venecia, la Trienal de Santiago, la Bienal de Fotografa de Lima, entre
otras muchas exposiciones. Ha participado en debates, ctedras, catlogos y revistas
por todo el continente americano. Desde 1998 lidera el proyecto Micromuseo (al fondo
hay sitio) que rescata el arte popular peruano actual y una visin cultural crtica como
alternativa de archivo pequeo, porttil y pblico.

El derrocamiento de una dictadura no suele responder a un solo golpe maestro sino a la

lenta pero determinante construccin de consensos democrticos en cada sector de la
sociedad civil. Hay un derrocamiento cultural de la dictadura tan importante y decisivo
como el derrocamiento econmico o el poltico o el militar. Un trastrocamiento de la
conciencia pblica, que es tambin un despertar de la conciencia individual ms ntima.
Y un viraje perdurable en el sentido comn de los tiempos al que no le es necesariamente
ajena la iniciativa artstica cuando ella es sometida a una socializacin extrema. Y crtica.
Gustavo Buntinx (born in Buenos Aires, 1957) is a historian, critic and curator
noted for his explorations of the ritual, collective and political dimensions of art.
In Lima, he was a member of the Colectivo Sociedad Civil (Civil Society Coll
ective) which, in the year 2000, launched Lava la bandera (Wash the Flag),
collective action to culturally topple the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori and
Vladimiro Montecinos.
He gives classes at the University of San Marcos, and has taught in the
graduate programmes at the University of So Paulo, the University of Buenos Aires,
and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Buntinx has directed various
cultural centres in Peru and has been a curator of the Venice Biennale, Santiago Art
Triennial and the Lima Biennale of Photography, among many other exhibitions.
He has participated in and contributed to discussions, lectures, catalogues and
magazines throughout the American continent. Since 1998, he has led the project
Micromuseo (Al fondo hay sitio) (Micromuseum (Theres Room at the Back)) which
aims to recover current Peruvian popular art and offers an alternative critical cultural
insight in the form of a small, portable and public art archive.

Note: This text is a version,

abridged and translated by
the editors, of a broader
essay written in Spanish by
the author.

The overthrow of a dictatorship is not usually the result of a single master blow,
but the slow decisive creation of democratic consensus in every sector of civil
society. An overthrow by cultural means can take the form of a disruption of public
consciousness, the product of multiple individual minds. It is part of a turn in the

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SPACE TO DREAM

La lucha por el poder simblico en el propio espacio pblico permiti

la reconstruccin de esa autoestima ciudadana que la dictadura pretenda someter
generalizando en la poblacin cierto sndrome de posguerra (civil). A ese proceso
liberador contribuy significativamente el rebalse de una agenda poltica que durante
aos se vena consolidando desde los espacios relativamente protegidos del arte:
ampliar los lmites de lo decible, de lo concebible casi, en un medio donde la represin
poltica se suele interiorizar como represin psquica. (Auto)censuras.
Se trata de combatir no solo al rgimen de facto sino a los hbitos
individuales y las prcticas culturales ms amplias que lo viabilizan y lo sustentan.
El derrocamiento cultural de la dictadura no se agota en el desprestigio y liquidacin
del dspota de turno. Tambin, y de modo principal, implica la lenta pero decisiva
transformacin de nuestras tradiciones autoritarias, caudillistas, demaggicas,
clientelistas Y la ardua construccin de una sociedad civil nueva.
Ciudadana nueva, ciudadana activa, articulada ms all del Estado, ms
ac de los partidos, como participacin viva en el proceso social y sus instituciones
autnomas.
Esta estrategia hizo posible que un ncleo de personas originalmente
surgido de la escena plstica aportara efectivamente al reciente viraje democrtico
en el Per desde una praxis simblica que ofrece un plus diferencial a la lucha por la
ciudadana. Una experiencia artstica que se socializa radicalmente hasta renunciar
a su propia especificidad artstica. Me detendr en tan solo la puntualidad extrema
del ms radical de estos colectivos.
common sense of the times, and not necessarily distant from the artistic initiative
when it is subjected to extreme socialisation and criticism.
The struggle for symbolic power in the public space can lead to the
reconstruction of citizens self-esteem rather than submission to the civil war the
dictatorship wanted in the population. That liberating process, consolidated from
relatively protected spaces of art, significantly contributed to resetting the political
agenda: to expanding the limits of what is unspeakable, of the almost conceivable,
in a medium where political repression is normally interiorised as a psychic repression or (self) censorship.
The task in this situation of dictatorship is not only to combat the
regime, but also the individual habits and broader cultural practices that made that
regime viable and sustainable. The cultural overthrow of the dictatorship does not
only end in the disrepute of the current despot. The downfall also implies that the
slow but decisive transformation of authoritarian traditions and patronage is a
central issue the arduous construction of a new civil society.
New citizenship, active citizenship, articulated beyond the state,
nearer that of the parties, offers a different future such as the live participation in
the social process and its autonomous institutions.
A strategy of change through cultural action led to a group of people
from the visual arts contributing effectively to the democratic shift in Peru, in
a symbolic practice that offers a different struggle for citizenship. An artistic
experience that radically socialises to the point of renouncing its own artistic
CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

103

Incluso en su denominacin asumida, este Colectivo Sociedad Civil

(CSC) formado en Lima en 1999 e integrado por Fernando Bryce, Gustavo Buntinx,
Claudia Coca, Juan Infante, Luis Garca Zapatero, Jorge Salazar, Emilio Santisteban,
Susana Torres, Karin Elmore, Vanessa Robbiano, Mnica Snchez y Abel Valdivia,
adems de decenas de otros miembros y miles de ciudadanos annimos postula un
sentido que va ms all de cualquier vocacin artstica para priorizar en cambio la
reconstitucin, fctica y simblica, de nuestra ciudadana usurpada. Y de su perdida
trama social. En ese horizonte, el CSC postula la edificacin cultural de la democracia
como par dialctico del derrocamiento cultural de la dictadura. Bajo el entendido de que
es el cambio cultural el que torna irreversible cualquier modificacin social o poltica.
Debemos, sin embargo, evitar cualquier tentacin mesinica. La trayectoria
de este grupo es tan solo parte de una muy vasta y diversa escena. Un desborde sin
precedentes de la libido poltico-cultural cuya historia pormenorizada sera una tarea
demasiado extensa. Lo que ac ensayar es apenas una contribucin parcial y temprana
a esa perspectiva ms amplia. Con la esperanza de que la suma y circulacin de sta
y otras historias primeras nos ayude a recuperar el horizonte histrico del que tan
perniciosamente se nos ha querido sustraer.
CAMBIO NO CUMBIA
Hagamos (brevsima) historia. La transformacin y diversificacin continua del Colectivo
Sociedad Civil ha desdibujado sus orgenes en una escena plstica que a fines de
1999 termina de consolidar y rearticular su conciencia ciudadana. Capitalizando
specificity. I will only point out the most radical of these collective groups. Even
under its assumed name, the Civil Society Collective (CSC), formed in Lima in
1999 and initiated by Fernando Bryce, Gustavo Buntinx, Claudia Coca, Juan
Infante, Luis Garca Zapatero, Jorge Salazar, Emilio Santisteban, Susana Torres,
Karin Elmore, Vanessa Robbiano, Mnica Snchez and Abel Valdivia, plus tens
of other members and thousands anonymous citizens, goes beyond any artistic
vocation to prioritise the reconstitution (factual and symbolic) of our usurped
citizenship. And the lost social fabric. The CSC put forward the cultural construction
of democracy as the cultural overthrow of dictatorship.
We must, however, avoid any temptation to be messianic. The history of
this group is part of a vast and diverse scene, an unprecedented overflow of political
and cultural libido whose detailed history would be too extensive to analyse. What
I write here is just a partial and early contribution to this broader perspective, in
the hope that the circulation of this and other early stories helps us to recover the
historical perspective which has perniciously been taken from us.

1. Translator note: cambio

means change, and cumbia is
the name of a tropical music
and dance very popular in all
of Latin America.

CAMBIO NO CUMBIA (CHANGE NOT DANCE) 1

Let us (very briefly) look at history. The CSC transformed from its origins in the arts
scene ending in late 1999 toward the formation of conscious citizens. Capitalising
on the political and cultural experience of its former members, the collective built on
the actions during late 1999 of initiatives such as the Artistic Emergency, a controversial show of critical art shown in parallel to the 2nd Bienal Iberoamericana in

104

SPACE TO DREAM

CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

las experiencias polticas y culturales en el accionar anterior de cada uno de sus

primeros miembros, el Colectivo como tal se construye sobre algunas de las relaciones
y experiencias acumuladas a fines de 1999 durante iniciativas como la de Emergencia
artstica, una polmica muestra autogestionaria de arte crtico expuesta en paralelo
a la II Bienal Iberoamericana de Lima, pero concebida desde una vocacin mayor:
ampliar los lmites de lo decible, de lo concebible casi, en un medio donde la represin
poltica se suele interiorizar como represin psquica. (Auto)censuras.
Era ya el 9 de abril fecha de las elecciones presidenciales y casi la mitad
de los entonces reunidos acarreaba sobre s el compromiso y las frustraciones de una
ardua colaboracin con la ONG Transparencia (incluyendo convocatorias especficas
a la comunidad artstica), cuyas mejores intenciones y esfuerzos no pudieron impedir
el fraude flagrante con que se pretenda imponer la perpetuacin de la dictadura
desde la primera vuelta electoral. La espontnea y repentina cristalizacin del grupo
debe entonces entenderse, al menos parcialmente, como resultado adicional de la
movilizacin generalizada de la ciudadana que durante esa hora suprema se declara
en militante alerta cvica y recupera el espacio pblico para el accionar poltico.
Sublevacin pacfica a la que el Colectivo contribuy con una de las acciones que
supo dar presencia simblica a las tensiones e intensidades de esas jornadas heroicas.
Producto de la urgencia de una coyuntura que a cada instante amenazaba
definirse en los peores trminos, se opt por una estrategia frontal de desprestigio
abierto y sin matices del aberrante escrutinio llevado a cabo por la cantinflesca Oficina
Nacional de Procesos Electorales: un velorio y entierro simblico de la ONPE, cuyas
Lima. The CSC had a greater vocation: expanding the limits, trying to express the
inexpressible, in an environment where political repression is often internalised
as psychic repression.
The sudden and spontaneous crystallisation of the group in April 2000
should be understood, at least partially, as a result of the widespread mobilisation
of citizens, which declared a civic militant alert in the interest of recuperating
the public space for political action. April 2000 was the date of the presidential
elections and almost half of those gathered in Lima had a long association with
the NGO Transparency, whose efforts could not prevent the blatant fraud that was
intended to bring about the perpetuation of the dictatorship from the first election. The collective contributed to a peaceful uprising, giving symbolic presence
to these heroic days.
Due to the urgency of the continuously threatening situation in Peru,
the best option was a strategy of frontal criticism of the abhorrent vote counting
carried out by the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE): a funeral, whose
(melo) dramatic actions symbolised the death of the ONPE. For 28 hours, thousands
of people put up crosses, lit candles and made a parody of guards around a coffin,
which had been purchased by popular collection, and finally accomplished the ritual
of taking over the so-called Palace of Justice, with its neoclassical faade, where the
funeral took place (with the joint collaboration of the Yuyachkani theatre group).2
National and international news media (including Art News) gave an unusual and
creative twist to the social convulsions of those crucial days.
CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

2. Translator note:
Yuyachkani is a radical and
popular theatre company in
Peru, and has been active
for more than 30 years. The
name means I am thinking
in Quechua, Perus main
indigenous language.

105

106

escenogrficas acciones y elementos dieron (melo)dramtica imagen a la muerte moral

de tan lamentable rgano del rgimen. Durante veintiocho horas miles de personas
sembraron cruces, prendieron velas, hicieron guardias de pardico honor en torno al
atad adquirido por colecta popular, y finalmente lograron la toma ritual del llamado
Palacio de Justicia frente a cuyo frontis neoclsico se haban realizado los oficios
fnebres pertinentes (con la colaboracin solidaria del grupo teatral Yuyachkani). Los
registros fotogrficos y en video de todo ello circularon por los principales medios
informativos nacionales e internacionales (incluyendo Art News), dndole un giro
inslito y creativo a la convulsin social de aquellos das decisivos.
Dndole tambin un nuevo aire y un aura renovada a la recuperacin de
esa iniciativa poltico-cultural que la dictadura pretendi reprimir e instrumentalizar
haciendo del Per una pattica sociedad del espectculo gobernada por los imperativos
de la marcializacin y el simulacro, cuando no del reality-show ms rampln y la
televisin-basura, o de la tecnocumbia abiertamente manipulada por el poder, el llamado
Ritmo del Chino, haciendo uso del apodo del dictador. El Ritmo del Chino interpreta
el nuevo modo de hacer poltica en el Per, gritaba roncamente el mandatario entre
las genuflexiones plvicas de sus atolondrados corifeos y coristas cuasi-desnudas
durante los mtines farandulescos del oficialismo. Como si se hubiera inspirado en
Walter Benjamin, el Colectivo Sociedad Civil postula entonces la politizacin radical
del arte en respuesta a la estetizacin fascista de la poltica.
En atenta rplica a esas estrategias de la dictadura, poco despus de
la primera vuelta electoral el Colectivo Sociedad Civil empapel la ciudad de Lima, y

en particular los barrios populares, con miles de afiches del llamado estilo chicha que
desde su estridente formalidad y realizacin tcnica (a cargo de un grfico callejero)
revertan en sus propios trminos el sentido mismo de esa manipulacin. CAMBIO
NO CUMBIA era el lema principal de un cartel cuyos vibrantes colores flor adems
exclamaban: NO AL TECNO-FRAUDE y QUE NO NOS BAILEN MS.
Se trataba, obviamente, de responder a la bastardizacin y cooptacin
de aspectos emblemticos de una modernidad popular que el rgimen pretenda
convertir en sustento cultural de la dictadura. Pero el inters en la reapropiacin de
esos aspectos no era estrictamente irnico ni pardico, sino por el contrario postulaba
la posibilidad de reivindicar un sentido emancipador en ellos. Su promesa cultural
incumplida. Poltico-cultural: relatos diversos de miembros de mesa revelan que un
nmero interesante de los votos democrticamente viciados durante la llamada segunda
vuelta de aquel ao 2000 exhiba la inscripcin cambio no cumbia.
Esa promesa era, sin duda, la del encuentro liberador de lo pequeoburgusilustrado con lo popular-emergente. Pero tambin la de una genuina colectivizacin de
la produccin simblica. Contra lo que algn medio confundido desinform en cierto
momento, aquella campaa fue producto de una praxis radicalmente colectiva de
concepcin y realizacin material. La propuesta de cada uno de los elementos de ese
afiche cada color, cada lema, cada tipografa surgi de personas distintas que articularon
as (no sin naturales discusiones) sus visiones diversas a un mismo proceso creativo.
Proceso adems dispuesto a fundirse en una esttica mayor, aunque aparentemente
ajena: el diseo grfico final fue pautado por el habitual de los afiches chicha, que

It was necessary to provide a new look and a renewed aura to the

recovery of political/cultural initiative. The dictatorship sought to suppress these
initiatives by making Peru a pathetic society a spectacle, a reality show, trash TV,
and the open manipulation of citizens with the song El ritmo del Chino (The Rhythm
of the Chinese) which included Fujimoris nickname. El ritmo del Chino performs
the new way of making politics in Peru, the president shouted between his scatterbrained chorus while his supporting dancers almost undressed at official rallies.
It was as if the CSC had been inspired by Walter Benjamin their radical politicisation of art came in response to the fascist aestheticisation of politics.
In a careful response to the dictatorship, shortly after the first ballot,
the CSC papered the city of Lima, and specific neighbourhoods, with thousands
of posters in a style called chicha. Carried out by a graffiti artist, the message
CAMBIO NO CUMBIA (change, not dance) was the tagline for a poster whose
vibrant colours exclaimed: NO TO TECHNO FRAUD and DO NOT DANCE FOR
US ANY MORE.
This was, obviously, a repost to the bastardisation of emblematic
aspects of popular culture that the regime used in support of the dictatorship.
Re-appropriation of these cultural aspects was not strictly ironic nor satirical,
but instead advocated the possibility of re-claiming emancipation. An unfulfilled cultural promise. Politic-cultural: diverse reports revealed that a number
of people wrote Cambio no cumbia on their voting papers during the second
vote in 2000.

The cultural promise was, without a doubt, the liberating coming

together of the bourgeois with the emerging-popular. But also that of a genuine
collectivity of symbolic production. Against the misinformation of the media, the
CSC campaign was the product of a praxis that was collective in its conception and
materialisation. Each of the elements of the poster colours, slogans, typefaces
were distinct visions expressed as one. A creative process coalesced into one
greater aesthetic: the final graphic design of the chicha posters on Limas Central
Road. And the work of engraving was entrusted to a popular silk-screen printer
who specialised in advertisements and who, inevitably, marked the work with his
own cultural imprint. As part of this modus operandi, the poster also operated as a
dialogue, including an email address for opinions, discussions and consultations, as
well as a web page with relevant links to media and human rights organisations. An
interactive poster.

SPACE TO DREAM

WASH THE FLAG

The Civil Society Collectives strategy reached its full realisation in Lava la bandera:
a ritual cleansing initiated by the CSC under the relative protection of the Fair
for Democracy (2021 May 2000), organised by civic organisations in Campo de
Marte, one of the larger parks in Lima. On 24 May, however, just four days before the
so-called second ballot, the CSC assumed the high risk of moving Lava la bandera
to the Plaza Mayor (Major Square) in Lima, where the ritual was reiterated every
Friday in the colonial pool of this last emblematic space.
CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

107

LAVA LA BANDERA
La estrategia del Colectivo Sociedad Civil alcanza su realizacin plena en Lava la
bandera: un ritual participativo de limpieza patria iniciado por el CSC bajo la relativa
proteccin de la Feria por la Democracia que organizaciones cvicas armaron el 20
y 21 de mayo de 2000 en el cntrico Campo de Marte. Ese mismo 24 de mayo, sin
embargo, a solo cuatro das de la mal llamada segunda vuelta electoral, el Colectivo
asume los altos riesgos de trasladar Lava la bandera a la Plaza Mayor de Lima,
reiterando luego el ritual todos los viernes en la pileta colonial de este ltimo y tan
emblemtico espacio.
Ubicacin determinante para la fundacin simblica del sentido redentor
postulado por el ritual. Un acto de dignificacin de los emblemas nacionales y al mismo
tiempo un gesto propiciatorio de transparencia y honestidad en un proceso histrico

marcado por graves y turbias irregularidades. Los instrumentos litrgicos son mnimos
pero significativos: agua (el agua lustral), jabn (marca Bolvar: un militar patriota), y
vulgares bateas de plstico (rojo) colocadas sobre bancos rsticos de madera (barata
pero dorada: el altar de la patria, y la frase clebre de Antonio Raimondi).1
Estos elementos esperan all a todos aquellos que traen banderas peruanas,
de cualquier tamao pero confeccionadas en tela, para ser lavadas por los ciudadanos
mismos, y luego tendidas en cordeles hasta convertir al centro simblico de los poderes
pblicos de la ciudad (palacio, catedral, concejo) en un gigantesco tendal popular. Y a
la plaza pblica ms resguardada del pas en una prolongacin del patio domstico.
Los trapos sucios se lavan en casa, se quejaba en tono indignado Martha
Hildebrandt, la presidenta del sometido Congreso nacional, sin percatarse de su admisin
all implcita de la turbiedad impuesta por el rgimen al que tan autoritariamente serva.
Sin percatarse tampoco de que uno de los mltiples sentidos de Lava la bandera es
precisamente la reivindicacin de la Plaza Mayor como la casa de todos: un gora ciudadana.
Hay sin duda una emocin esttica ondeando entre cientos de banderas
que flamean las humedades de sus pliegues bajo la gara limea. Pero igualmente
emotivo es el espectculo de la palabra recuperada por personas de toda condicin que
se agrupan en corrillos diversos para acompaar la accin con discusiones mltiples
que an no cesan. Y cuando los agentes del Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional pretenden
infiltrar a la multitud instigndola a reaccionar violentamente contra el lavado patrio,
esta opta ms bien por debatir y rebatir sus desatinos y sinrazones, desbordndolos con
una prctica democrtica que les resulta desconcertante y termina por ahuyentarlos.

3. Peru is a beggar sitting

on a bench of gold. Although
some time ago, it was proposed
that the saying be inverted
Peru is a bank of gold
sitting over a beggar. In
the 19th century the Italian
Antonio Raimondi explored
much of Perus geography,
leaving an impressive
legacy of observations and
scientific collections.

The historical process of washing was an offering of dignity for a

national emblem marked by murky and serious irregularities and at the same time
a conciliatory gesture of transparency and honesty. The liturgical instruments were
minimal but significant: water (holy water), soap (brand Bolvar: a Patriot soldier),
and vulgar, plastic bowls (red) displayed on rustic wooden benches (cheap but gold:
referring to the altar of the homeland, and the famous words of Antonio Raimondi).3
These elements were provided for all those who brought Peruvian
flags, of any size, to be washed by the citizens themselves, and then hung on cords
until they converted the symbolic institutional centre of the city (Palace, Cathedral,
Council) into a huge public laundry. The most cared-for public square in the country
became an enlargement of the domestic backyard.
Dirty laundry is washed at home, Martha Hildebrandt, president
of the National Congress, complained without realising her implicit admission of
murkiness caused by the regime she served so authoritatively. Without noticing
that one of the multiple senses of Lava la bandera was precisely the vindication of
the Plaza Mayor as the home of all: a citizens agora.
An agora for the citizens. There is no doubt that an aesthetic emotion
fluttered in the waving of hundreds of flags under the drizzle of Lima. But equally
emotional was the spectacle of the public visibility and voice of people of all social
positions, forming new groups and multiple, never-ending discussions. And when
agents of the National Intelligence Service tried to infiltrate the crowd, reacting
violently against the patriotic washing being demonstrated, they were eventually

driven away by the democratic discussion and the refutation of their blunders and
injustices by the crowd.
This was not the only repressive strategy, of course. Repeatedly the
water supply was cut off, but the water still arrived in bags, bottles and bowls,
brought by neighbours and merchants in the area. Other days, noisy military bands
intended to stifle the protest with martial sounds: the population answered by
adapting the oppositions songs to theirs. On 7 July the police guard warned that
all the lines and washing would be forcefully pulled down. Under the symbolic
protection of the national anthem the flag is inviolable by the law the participants draped the flags over their bodies to form a giant human clothesline in
a poignant and powerful action. A dialectical overcoming of repression. And a
radical projection of energies. Lava la bandera was a politically symbolic gesture
but also a liturgical ablution or even a baptism, with all its connotations of rebirth
and return to life. A ritual gesture for the recovery and defense of citizens rights.
A social shamanism.
Lava la bandera was a symbolic investment that served as an effective
strategic rearguard for the reunification of the democratic forces during the worst
repressive times. This was immediately after the Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos (March
of the Four Suyos)4 convened to protest at the pathetic swearing in of the corrupt
dictator in the final days of July 2000. This massive demonstration, unprecedented
in the country, was brutally repressed. Six died tragically in spectacular fires caused
by the National Intelligence Service but blamed on the opposition.

4. Translator note: a massive

demonstration celebrated
during 2628 July (National
Patriotic Days) in Lima, in
which all the democratic
political parties and social
organisations participated
to protest against the fraud.
Suyo means cardinal point,
and the word is associated
with the Incas.

108

SPACE TO DREAM

CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

109

un par de miembros del Colectivo venan fotografiando desde hace varios aos en la
Carretera Central de Lima para otros fines. Y la realizacin material del grabado le fue
confiada a un serigrafista popular especializado en ese tipo de avisos comerciales, quien
inevitablemente tambin marc al trabajo con su propia y deseada impronta cultural.
En coherencia con ese modus operandi, el afiche se proyectaba adems
como una accin dialgica antes que como una obra cerrada. De all la necesidad
sentida de incluir en l una direccin de correo electrnico para opinin, discusin
y consulta, as como de una pgina web con links pertinentes a medios de prensa y
organismos de defensa de los derechos humanos. Un cartel interactivo.

1. El Per es un mendigo
sentado en un banco de
oro. Aunque algunos desde
hace tiempo proponen la
inversin precisa de ese
dicho (El Per es un banco
de oro sentado sobre un
mendigo). En el siglo XIX el
italiano Antonio Raimondi
explor buena parte de la
geografa peruana dejando
un impresionante legado de
observaciones y colecciones
cientficas, adems de
apreciaciones sociales.

110

No ha sido esa la nica estrategia represiva, por cierto. En varias ocasiones

se cort el suministro de agua a la fuente, pero el agua lleg igual en bolsas, botellas
y bateas aprovisionadas por vecinos y comerciantes de la zona. Otros das ruidosas
bandas militares pretendan acallar la protesta con sus sones marciales: la poblacin
respondi adaptando a ese ritmo sus canciones opositoras. El 7 de julio la guardia de
asalto policial advirti que todo lavado sera interrumpido por la fuerza y los cordeles
derribados. Los participantes optaron entonces por iniciar de todas maneras la accin
bajo la proteccin simblica del himno nacional, para luego portar los estandartes
mojados sobre sus cuerpos hasta constituir un gigantesco tendal humano. La situacin
resultante fue as sensiblemente ms conmovedora y poderosa que la que se pretenda
evitar. Una superacin dialctica de la represin.
Y una proyeccin radical de energas otras. La de Lava la bandera es
una gestualidad polticamente simblica que sin embargo se ofrece tambin como
una ablucin litrgica, como un bautismo incluso, con todas sus connotaciones de
renacimiento y vuelta a la vida. Un gesto ritual por la movilizacin de las energas
necesarias (de todo tipo) para la recuperacin y defensa de los derechos ciudadanos.
De la ciudadana misma. Un chamanismo social.
Esta articulacin distinta de sentidos varios y hasta opuestos consolid
en Lava la bandera un capital simblico que sirvi de eficaz retaguardia estratgica
para la reagrupacin de las fuerzas democrticas durante los peores momentos
represivos, inmediatamente despus de la Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos2 convocada
para protestar la auto-juramentacin pattica del dictador en los finales das de julio:

una multitudinaria manifestacin sin precedentes en el pas, brutalmente reprimida

con un saldo trgico de seis muertos en espectaculares incendios provocados por el
Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional pero achacados a la oposicin. Con los partidos
en repliegue y muchos polticos a la defensiva, abrumados por la culpa cuando no
directamente comprados por el rgimen, Lava la bandera aglutin a la llana voluntad
ciudadana de no claudicar. Y creci ms all de toda expectativa. En las siguientes
semanas decenas, quiz centenas de miles de personas, en el pas entero y fuera de
l, se sumaron a quienes ya haban asumido como propia la iniciativa del Colectivo
reelaborando autnomamente el ritual en toda la demografa peruana: Un ritual
simblico y silencioso se va extendiendo a lo largo y ancho del territorio nacional
afirmaba entonces el diario capitalino Liberacin: Lava la bandera: una protesta
que no cesa.
Lava la bandera es un cncer, habra llegado a decir Vladimiro
Montesinos, el oscuro cerebro de represin y corrupcin tras Fujimori, en alusin
a su crecimiento metastsico sin direccin centralizada ni organizacin nica. Ya
para mediados de septiembre no haba virtualmente ciudad alguna en todo el pas,
ni distrito en la inmensa Lima metropolitana (ocho millones de habitantes), donde la
bandera no fuera ritualmente lavada. Tambin en por lo menos veinte comunidades
de peruanos en el extranjero. Ciertos polticos y partidos democrticos se sumaron
pronto a la accin. Pero igualmente lo hicieron reservistas del ejrcito, organizaciones
de periodistas y de mujeres, gremios, comits vecinales e instituciones de todo tipo,
participando corporativamente u organizando lavados propios.

With political parties in withdrawal and many politicians on the defensive, overwhelmed by guilt if not directly corrupted by the regime, Lava la bandera
gave the citizens the will not to give up. And it grew beyond all expectations. In
the following weeks tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, in the whole
country and abroad, joined those who had already taken as their own the collective
initiative. The result was a collective ritual in all Peru: A symbolic and silent ritual
extends to the length and breadth of the country, stated the newspaper Liberacin,
claiming: Lava la bandera: a protest that does not cease.
Lava la bandera is a cancer, Vladimiro Montesinos, the dark brain
of repression and corruption after Fujimori, purportedly said, alluding to the
actions metastatic growth without a centralised focus. Since mid-September
there was virtually no city across the country, or district in the vast Metropolitan
Lima (eight million inhabitants), where the flag was not ritually washed. This also
happened in at least 20 Peruvian communities abroad. Certain politicians and
democratic parties promptly joined the action. Reservists of the army, journalists,
womens organisations, unions, neighborhood committees and institutions of all
kinds also participated in or organised their own washes.
In moments of greatest despair, the flag of Peru was not only washed,
but also the emblems of institutions that were put to the service of the dictatorship.
The district banners of places as politically significant as Callao and Miraflores, for
example. And eventually a dishonoured Japanese flag, due to the protection given by
that country home of Fujimori ancestors to the fugitive leader. Army uniforms

were also washed in front of the commander. Fujimoris constitution and documents
from trials for murder and torture were washed on the steps of the Courthouse, along
with caps and gowns of the judges. There was even a striking face wash, in allusion
to the shamelessness of certain members of Congress.
Lava la bandera became incorporated into the common sensibility
and cultural landscape. An advertising campaign for an encyclopedia showed a child
reading in the Plaza Mayor with the patriotic flags hanging in the background. The
television advertisement of an airline depicted the hands of a worker carefully cleaning
the flag painted on an aircrafts fuselage. Even glamour and celebrity publications used
actresses images identified with the CSC (Mnica Snchez: a womans flag, was the
headline). The most read newspaper supplement in the country stamped on its cover
a dramatic picture of the washing with the headline: Friday: the homeland soaks.
The extent and intensity of the phenomenon seriously worried the regime.
The rants of Martha Hildebrandt and other spokesmen added to that of the corrupt
press with the intent to discredit and ridicule Lava la bandera. The then Minister of the
Interior (who is now in jail), offered a faulty interpretation of the regulations issued
over half a century ago by General Odra (a dictatorship cites another dictatorship),
intending to declare illegal a ritual explicitly defined as an act of patriotic purification.
This situation was understood by the society as a whole, who
quickly endorsed basic but powerful metaphors of hygiene. An effective lesson in
cleaning, in the words of the main newspaper of the country, for which the best
detergent is democracy.

SPACE TO DREAM

CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

2. La gran marcha celebrada en

Lima en la que participaron
todos los partidos
democrticos y organizaciones
sociales para impugnar el
fraude de Fujimori. Suyo
alude a los puntos cardinales
y a las cuatro partes del
Tahuantinsuyo, el imperio inca.

111

En los momentos ms lgidos se lavaba ya no solo la bandera del

Per sino tambin los emblemas de municipios e instituciones puestos al servicio
de la dictadura. Los estandartes de distritos tan polticamente significativos como
el Callao y Miraflores, por ejemplo. O eventualmente el de un Japn deshonrado
por la proteccin otorgada al mandatario prfugo. Pero tambin los uniformes
del ejrcito, lavados frente al Comando Conjunto mismo. La propia constitucin
fujimorista, y los expedientes archivados de juicios por asesinato y tortura, fueron
lavados en las escalinatas del Palacio de Justicia, como adems las togas y birretes
de los magistrados. Hubo incluso un llamativo lavado de rostro, en alusin a la
desverguenza de ciertos congresistas.
En poco tiempo Lava la bandera queda incorporado al sentido comn y
el paisaje cultural de la poca. La campaa publicitaria de una enciclopedia muestra a
un nio leyendo en la Plaza Mayor con el tendal patrio de trasfondo. El spot televisivo
de una aerolnea recientemente asentada en el Per se detiene interminablemente
en las manos de un operario que amorosamente acaricia y limpia la bandera pintada
sobre el fuselaje del avin. Incluso las publicaciones de glamour y farndula privilegian
las imgenes de actrices pblicamente identificadas con el Colectivo Sociedad Civil
(Mnica Snchez: una mujer de bandera, reza el titular). Y el suplemento periodstico
ms ledo del pas estampa en su cartula una dramtica foto del lavado cvico con el
titular: Viernes: Patria en remojo.
La extensin e intensidad del fenmeno preocup gravemente al
rgimen. A los exabruptos de Martha Hildebrandt y otros voceros calificados del poder

se le sumaron las pullas alteradas con que la prensa corrupta pretenda deslegitimar
y ridiculizar Lava la bandera. Y los argumentos pseudo jurdicos del entonces ministro
del Interior (hoy en la crcel), quien haciendo una lectura torpe de reglamentaciones
emitidas hace medio siglo por el general Odra (una dictadura cita a otra dictadura)
pretenda declarar ilegal y vejatorio para la nacin un ritual que sin embargo se define
explcitamente como acto de purificacin patritica.
As lo entendi la sociedad civil en su conjunto, que rpidamente hizo
suyas las elementales pero poderosas metforas de higiene tan deliberadamente
explcitas en Lava la bandera. Su eficaz leccin de limpieza, en las palabras del
principal peridico del pas, para el cual el mejor detergente es la democracia.
Pero esta metfora de limpieza lo es tambin de regeneracin e incluso
de inocencia recuperada, de renacimiento bautismal. No es de extraar que en los
continuos reportajes fotogrficos de Lava la bandera se privilegiara frecuentemente
imgenes enternecedoras de nios participando en el lavado de la esperanza, por
decirlo con uno de los lemas periodsticos caractersticamente utilizados: la revista
Caretas resume el trnsito al nuevo milenio en el dibujo de una pequea que, al lavar
la bandera, limpia a la patria de la sombra ominosa de Montesinos y Fujimori, dejando
atrs esa imagen sumisa de geisha que durante aos encarn la pasividad de tantos.

Cleaning is also a metaphor for regeneration, the recovery of innocence, for baptismal rebirth. It is not surprising that the photoshoots of Lava la
bandera frequently include images of children participating in the washing of
hope. The magazine Caretas summarised the transit to the new millennium in the
drawing of a little girl who, while washing the flag, is cleaning the ominous shadow
of Montesinos and Fujimori, leaving behind the image of a geisha, which embodied
the passivity of so many.

to assume the democratic agenda demanded by the citizens. Simultaneously a huge

banner was raised to the heavens along with 100 white balloons and another 200 red
balloons (poetic justice). This was the climax of the handing over of Lava la bandera
by the CSC to the barely established government. Dancing and washing, thousands
participated euphorically in that festive closing of the weekly hanging of clean flags.
But these flags were also ironed, folded and sewn to keep them for
the moment in which they may be necessary for the re-vindication of democracy,
as reads the manifesto, drawn up for the occasion and titled: Washing, ironing,
sewing, folding, and taking care.
The ritual did not end: it was merely in a state of recess and surveillance. Three months later those banners returned to the Government Palace Square
early one morning as symbolic protection against a destabilising campaign carried
out by the henchmen of Vladimiro Montesinos. Shortly before, it had been used
for a march of blindfolded citizens in conjunction with the slogan Embandera tu
mirada (Flag your eyes), a demand for the broadcast of all Vladivideos made before
the democratic election (all the recordings of Montesinos corruption available to
the Department of Justice). See to vote was the slogan then released by gigantic
advertising placards. (See to vote is the voice! exclaimed one of the cartoon characters in the influential daily newspaper El Comercio).
This call became an important political debate: a few days later the
remains of the fujimontesinismo released the incriminating tapes through the
power of public pressure. Such surprising political effectiveness was founded upon

THE POWER OF THE SYMBOLIC

Lava la bandera gave a collective image to the urgent change needed and demonstrated
the emotion of this historical moment. As did an unusual photograph published in
colour in all the newspapers in Lima on 25 November 2001, shortly after the escape
of the dictator, including the official journal and fujimorista press, which until just
a few days earlier had despised the CSC. It was not to be believed, said the widely
read magazine Somos: there, on the balcony was not only the new President Valentn
Paniagua and the new Prime Minister Javier Prez de Cuellar, but also a handful of
people who, some months ago, could never have imagined stirring the dictatorship
from the Palace, the Red Caps, their voices hoarse from shouting, and in their hands,
the same piece of white and red fabric a witness which is also a flag.
A wrinkled flag, with tears like healing wounds, that shows traces of
thousands of ritual washes carried out over six months. This flag was being delivered
to the highest dignitaries of the new government, as a pledge of their commitment
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SPACE TO DREAM

EL PODER DE LO SIMBLICO
Lava la bandera le dio imagen colectiva y propia a un cambio epocal que urgentemente
precisaba significar la emocin de su momento histrico. Como aquella inslita fotografa

CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

113

que el 25 de noviembre de 2001, poco despus de la fuga del dictador, fue portada a
color de todos los peridicos de Lima, incluyendo el diario oficial y rganos fujimoristas
que, hasta apenas unos das antes se haban ensaado con el Colectivo Sociedad Civil.
Era para no creerlo, relataba la muy leda revista Somos: All, dando el balconazo,
estaba no solo el flamante presidente Valentn Paniagua y el nuevo primer ministro
Javier Prez de Cuellar, sino tambin un puado de personas que, hace algunos meses,
jams hubieran imaginado arengar a las masas desde Palacio, las gorritas rojas, las
voces roncas de tanto gritar y, entre las manos, el mismo pedazo de tela blanca y roja
que es un testimonio y es tambin una bandera.
Una bandera percudida y rota que exhiba, como heridas sanadoras, las
huellas de miles de abluciones rituales ejercidas durante seis meses sobre ellas. El pao
estaba siendo entregado a los mximos dignatarios del nuevo gobierno como prenda del
compromiso que ellos deban asumir con la agenda democrtica exigida por la ciudadana.
Simultneamente un estandarte inmenso era elevado a los cielos por cien globos blancos
y otros doscientos de encendidos rojos (justicia potica). Era el momento culminante de
la despedida ritual de Lava la bandera convocada por el Colectivo apenas instaurado el
nuevo gobierno. Bailando y lavando, miles participaron eufricos en ese cierre festivo
del tendal semanal de banderas limpias.
Pero estas fueron all tambin planchadas, dobladas y cosidas para
mejor cuidarlas a la espera del momento en que sean otra vez necesarias para la
reivindicacin de la democracia, como reza el manifiesto redactado para la ocasin
y precisamente intitulado: Lava, plancha, cose, dobla, cuida.

El ritual no se clausura: pasa a un estado de latencia. Y de vigilancia.

Efectivamente, tres meses despus esos estandartes volvieron de madrugada
a la Plaza para embanderar las rejas del Palacio de Gobierno como proteccin
simblica contra una campaa desestabilizadora propiciada por secuaces de
Vladimiro Montesinos en la televisin vendida. Poco antes haban sido utilizados
para una marcha de ojos vendados que, desde la consigna Embandera tu mirada,
exiga la difusin de todos los vladivideos antes de las elecciones de renovacin
democrtica. Ver para votar era el lema entonces difundido por gigantescos
letreros publicitarios y rpidamente incorporado al nuevo sentido comn (Ver
para votar es la voz! exclamaba uno de los personajes de la influyente caricatura
diaria de El Comercio).
Incorporado tambin al debate poltico como frmula argumentativa de
enorme contundencia: pocos das despus los restos del fujimontesinismo en el poder
se sintieron obligados por la opinin pblica a destrabar la transmisin televisiva de
las cintas incriminatorias. Pero tan sorprendente eficacia poltica se funda sobre una
autoridad moral previa, un capital simblico acumulado desde la energa sacrificial
de miles de lavados rituales. La matriz de identificacin colectiva aqu actuante es
religiosa tanto como patritica. Una religiosidad domstica, cotidiana, propia, casi
irreverentemente pop en su informalidad litrgica, pero no menos sublime por ello.
Pues es desde su accesibilidad e inmediatez que Lava la bandera ritualiza al pas.
De all tal vez su capacidad de inscripcin en un registro mnemnico distinto, en la
memoria emocional de una ciudadana en construccin.

the moral authority of 1000 washing rituals. The collective exercise acts religiously
(symbolically) as well as patriotically. It was its easy access and immediacy that
made Lava la bandera ritualise the country. Hence perhaps its ability to get into
the emotional memory of a citizenship in construction.
Lava la bandera: a ritual that Peruvians wont forget wrote La
Repblica at the end of the Millennium. And El Comercio: The year 2000 will be
remembered as the year in which the flag was washed.

matic flag is perhaps the one taken by Christ in the process of his resurrection,
the resurrection whose only sign is an abandoned shroud in the empty sepulchre.
The Holy Shroud.
The banner is thus related to clothing, as the recurrent legends that
speak of the origin of the flag in terms of a transformation of dress sacred or
heroic. And in that way it is also linked to the idea of a purification, as the Lamb of
God taking away the sins of the world.
The mythical resonances may take other forms, in the same way as the
symptomatic obsession in Peru converts the countrys founders into cleaning products San Martn soap, Bolvar soap.6 Does this reveal a certain unconsciousness of
the unfinished foundations? And the ideological image of the Baroque fountain in
the main square, with its Iberian Lions sodomising Inca serpents: a relentless allegory of the conquest that is now also our colonial condition, even if it is apparently
thawing. A shift that Lava la bandera wanted to contribute to through the ritual
act of liberation.
The density of this chain of associations, however, escapes everyday
readability. Cheap symbolism is the term used by Martha Hildebrandt to disqualify
politically and culturally Lava la bandera. She was right, however, in at least
two ways: the resources needed for the ritual; and the apparent literalness. But both
aspects were conscious decisions.
The broad and radical modification of consciousness the CSCs
required transformative experiences that are only obtainable through the incorporation

6. Translator note: San

Martn and Bolvar were the
great liberators of emerging
Latin American countries
from the Spanish control in
the 19th century.

CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

115

5. Georges Rogues: El color

del arte mexicano (The Colour
of Mexican Art), National
Autonomous University of
Mexico, Mexico City, 2003.

ENTER AND EXIT ART

Ima qquychin qayyana qquychi/sayarimun starts the Apu Inca Atahualpaman (16th
century), the great quechua elegy to the last Inca murdered by the conquerors.
What black rainbow is this rainbow black rising? The colour that is projected
into the sky aspires to cosmic and political significance. Perhaps that is the
reason why few objects, such as flags, articulate so clearly the tension between
representation and presence. Its distinctive colours, its stripes and its folds,
extend to the territory or ideology encoded within it. Almost to the point of
incarnating the most important mystic mysteries, in inverse relationship with
the first function of the flag, its anthropological function as Georges Roque
writes in his texts on the topic.5
The flag has been a sacred symbol of the king and eventually the
nation itself, confusing the collective body with an individual. In China, the
character wu means both banner and essence. And in the West the paradig-

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CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

3. Geroges Rogues, El color

del arte mexicano, UNAM,
Mxico DF, 2003.

Lava la bandera: un ritual que los peruanos no olvidaremos, escribe

La Repblica en su recapitulacin del milenio que termina. Y El Comercio: El 2000
ser recordado como el ao en que la bandera fue lavada.
SALIR Y ENTRAR DEL ARTE
Ima qquychin qayyana qquychi/sayarimun empieza el Apu Inca Atahualpaman, la
gran elega quechua al ltimo Inca asesinado por los conquistadores. Qu arco
iris negro es este negro arco iris que se levanta? El color que se proyecta sobre el
firmamento remite y aspira a un orden de significacin csmico. Y poltico. Tal vez
por ello pocos objetos plsticos como la bandera articulan tan clara y agudamente
la tensin entre representacin y presencia. Sobre sus colores distintivos, por entre
sus franjas y sus pliegues, intenta prolongarse el territorio o la ideologa codificada
en ella. El espacio simblico de un cuerpo que contiene y abarca el mapa que lo
describe. Casi en relacin inversa con la funcin primera de la bandera (su funcin
antropolgica como recuerda Georges Roque en sus varios y esenciales textos sobre
el tema): la demarcacin de los suelos que cada sociedad ritualiza, hasta el exaltado
punto de encarnar los ms importantes misterios msticos.3
La bandera ha sido smbolo sagrado del rey y eventualmente de la nacin
misma, confundiendo el cuerpo colectivo con un cuerpo individual pero cargado de
valores otros. En ciertas sociedades secretas las banderas confunden su identidad con
la de los antepasados. En la China, un mismo carcter Wu significa tanto estandarte
como esencia. Y en Occidente la bandera paradigmtica es tal vez aqulla portada
of the people in a symbolic practice that goes beyond the simple attention to speeches
and slogans and participation in strictly political acts, to retrieve the suppressed
cultural initiative of our people. And in this way to stimulate the self-esteem of the
citizen. The open and participatory structure of the CSC did not seek to generate
artwork but situations which could be appropriated by citizens, who then give up the
passive role of the spectator to co-author the experience. And history itself. Thus, too,
their interventions were made in open public and symbolically loaded spaces, rather
than in protected areas (and therefore restricted) or in strictly artistic circulation.
Critics have appreciated Lava la bandera as happenings, performances,
and different forms of art. But the collective, whose members considered themselves primarily as citizens and only secondly as cultural authors, were indifferent
to artistic evaluation, while not losing sight of the importance of that professional
capacity in the fight for symbolic power.
In the internal discussion of the CSC, references generally do not come
from the history of art, as we traditionally understand, but from situations related
to a broader cultural sociability. As with interventions such as Escena de Avanzada
in Chile during the plebiscite against Pinochet. Or the symbolic strategies of the
mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.
The CSCs proposals were built on the artistic backgrounds of its
members. Susana Torres, for example, who in 1995 opened an exhibition called La
Vandera, a play of words that is also pictorial, sewed and embroidered images of the
popular washerwoman washing flags. Or Emilio Santisteban, who four years later

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SPACE TO DREAM

por Cristo en el trance supremo de su resurreccin. Esa resurreccin cuya nica seal
es la mortaja vaca abandonada en el sepulcro. El santo sudario.
El estandarte se relaciona as con la ropa, como lo sealan las recurrentes
leyendas que hablan del origen de la bandera en trminos de una transformacin del
vestido heroico

o sagrado. Y por esa va se vincula tambin a la idea del lavado

lustral que, como el cordero de dios, quita los pecados del mundo.
Resonancias mticas que quizs actan an entre nosotros como
una latencia de sentido. De igual manera como la sintomtica mana que en el
Per convierte a los padres de la patria en productos de limpieza jabn San
Martn, jabn Bolvar acaso sea reveladora de cierta inconsciente conciencia
de lo inconcluso de su labor fundacional. Y tal vez todava se intuya la oscura
carga ideolgica de la fuente barroca en la Plaza Mayor, con sus leones ibricos
sodomizando sierpes incaicas: una implacable alegora de la Conquista que hoy
lo es tambin de nuestra colonialidad.
La densidad de esta cadena de asociaciones, sin embargo, escapa a
cualquier legibilidad cotidiana. Simbolismo barato fue el trmino utilizado por Martha
Hildebrandt para descalificar poltica y culturalmente a Lava la bandera, y algo de razn
la acompaaba, al menos en dos sentidos: la absoluta economa de recursos necesarios
para el ritual. Y su aparente literalidad. Pero ambos rasgos resultan determinantes para esa
otra y decisiva complejidad obtenida en el proceso social de su elaboracin compartida.
La amplia y radical modificacin de conciencias a la que el Colectivo
Sociedad Civil aspira requiere de experiencias transformativas solo obtenibles mediante la
radically personalised a salute to the flag in a ritual performance that was repeated
1235 times for the same number of spectators (Crisis, 1999). An individual awakening of the sleeping national consciousness.
Such isolated signs, however, distort the collective processing where
the group transforms and drastically rearticulates each proposal. What matters in
this type of experience is not the art condition but the intervention of its resources to
redefine critical power and politics. The construction of a symbolic counter-power:
an artistic transfusion to the dying social body.
HEAL YOUR COUNTRY
What is at stake is the significance and belonging of a paradigmatic emblem, the
flag, which is now also a battlefield. A twisted sacredness that struggles for the
symbolic power found in some of its first and most vital ideas. Primordial senses
whose current effectivity lies in its ritual restaging.
The Civil Society Collective was literally snatching flags from the
enemy, not to drag them through the mud, as in the old triumphs, but to rescue
them and claim them as theirs in an act of purification. The aura is not in the
image but in the ritual which incorporates it into a cult, as Walter Benjamin
understood, also perceiving a possible answer to the fascist aestheticisation of
politics in the politicisation of art. In the radicalisation (Benjamin still believed
in art, sometimes) the CSC generated new civility, new citizenship, a Peruvian
utopian community.
CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

117

118

incorporacin viva de la poblacin a una praxis simblica que supere la simple recepcin
de discursos y consignas, o la participacin en actos estrictamente polticos. Que recupere
la reprimida iniciativa cultural de nuestros pueblos. Y de esa manera tambin la autoestima
ciudadana. De all la estructura elemental pero abierta y participativa en cada una de las
acciones del Colectivo. Se busca generar no obras sino situaciones a ser apropiadas por una
ciudadana que abandona as el papel pasivo del espectador para convertirse en coautora
y regeneradora de la experiencia. Y de la historia misma. De all tambin su realizacin
preferencial en los espacios ms pblicos y simblicamente cargados antes que en los
mbitos protegidos (y por ello mismo restringidos) de circulacin estrictamente artstica.
No han faltado esfuerzos crticos por apreciar Lava la bandera desde
las sugerencias ofrecidas por el happening, la performance, el arte procesal... Pero la
valoracin de sus acciones en tales trminos artsticos le es por lo general indiferente
a un Colectivo cuyos miembros se asumen primeramente como ciudadanos y solo en
segundo trmino como autores culturales, sin por ello perder de vista la importancia
de esa capacidad profesional que en la lucha por el poder simblico le otorga un
evidente plus diferencial.
Los referentes destacados en la discusin interna no suelen provenir
de la historia del arte, tradicionalmente entendida, sino de aquellas instancias que
la fracturan hacia una sociabilidad poltico-cultural ms amplia. Como en ciertas
intervenciones de elementos de la Avanzada chilena en el plebiscito contra Pinochet.
O en las estrategias simblicas de las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo en Argentina.
No es difcil ubicar antecedentes propiamente artsticos que informan las

propuestas del Colectivo Sociedad Civil, incluso entre sus propios miembros. Susana
Torres, por ejemplo, quien en 1995 inaugura una muestra precisamente denominada
La Vandera, en un juego ortogrfico que es tambin pictrico al incorporar a los
estandartes que ella misma cose y borda cuadros intervenidos de la lavandera popular
lavando precisamente banderas. (Un abismamiento patrio). O Emilio Santisteban,
quien cuatro aos despus personaliza radicalmente el retorizado saludo a la bandera
en una performance ritual reiterada sacrificialmente mil doscientos treinta y cinco
veces para igual nmero de espectadores uno por vez (Crisis, 1999). Un despertar
individualizado de la dormida conciencia nacional.
Tales sealamientos aislados, sin embargo, desvirtan el procesamiento
colectivo donde la tormenta grupal de ideas transforma y drsticamente rearticula cada
propuesta. Y adems lo que en este tipo de experiencias importa no es la condicin
artstica sino la intervencin de sus recursos modificados para la redefinicin crtica
del poder y de lo poltico. La construccin de un contra poder, simblico que capitaliza
pero trasciende cualquier referencialidad estrictamente plstica. Entrar y salir del
arte podra ser la frmula aqu operativa. No una liquidacin sino una transfusin
artstica hacia el agnico cuerpo social.

Nothing is more indicative of this than Cose la bandera (sana tu

pas) (Sew the Flag, Heal Your Country): a ritual of symbolic reparation for the
victims of the civil war and the dictatorship, which the CSC began on May 25,
2001 in collaboration with the campaign Commission of the truth now! by the
National Coordinator of Human Rights and other democratic organisations. A
commission designed to reveal and heal the hidden wounds of our recent traumatic history. Consistent with this objective, in Limas main square artists,
activists, citizens and relatives of the disappeared stitched together a large
Peruvian flag without colour as a sign of the still unresolved grief of 20 years of
unprecedented violence. A flag of mourning composed of hundreds of black and
white pieces of clothing, a collective shroud. And at the same time an arpillera (a
patchwork) where the hope of rebirth shelters. The union of these clothes, through
a great act of participatory sewing, symbolised the union of democratic will by
a new country.
In a sign of the times, the military did not attempt any repressive
manoeuvre, rather they tried to publicly repent. The speech On the day of the flag,
published by the army in the press, said: We renew our commitment to the union
of all Peruvians. The image illustrating this legend was a child carefully sewing a
flag. The fabric looks neat and intact, in open contrast with the irregular appearance of hundreds of pieces of clothing that composed the other one, ranging from
Andean robes to military uniforms to erotic corsets contributed by a transvestite.
The dramatic allegory of a country in ruins, a homeland turned into rags, however,

ready to hem a new community which does not repress, but takes into account the
difference. The new citizenship.
Lets make history. Long.

SPACE TO DREAM

SANA TU PAS
Pues lo que est finalmente en juego es la significacin y pertenencia de una emblemtica
paradigmtica que es ahora tambin un campo de batalla. Una sacralidad retorizada
que la lucha por el poder simblico reactiva en algunos de sus sentidos ms vitales

CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

119

y primeros. Sentidos primordiales cuya actualidad y vigencia radica no tanto en la

iconografa como en su puesta en escena ritual.
El Colectivo Sociedad Civil literalmente le arrebata las banderas al
enemigo, pero no para arrastrarlas por el fango, como en los antiguos triunfos, sino
para rescatarlas de l y reivindicarlas como propias en el acto mismo de purificarlas.
El aura no est en la imagen sino en el ritual que la incorpora a un valor de culto, sola
decir Walter Benjamin, quien (ya se ha sealado) tambin perciba en la politizacin del
arte una respuesta posible a la estetizacin fascista de la poltica. En la radicalizacin
de esa lnea radical (Benjamin todava crea en el arte, a veces) el CSC prefigura la nueva
civilidad, la ciudadana nueva, de una an utpica comunidad peruana, construida
sobre la premisa de no reprimir sino productivizar la diferencia.
Nada ms indicativo de ello que Cose la bandera (sana tu pas): un
ritual de reparacin simblica por las vctimas de la guerra civil y la dictadura que el
Colectivo Sociedad Civil inici el 25 de mayo de 2001 en colaboracin con la campaa
Comisin de la Verdad Ya! de la Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos y otras
organizaciones democrticas. Una comisin destinada a revelar y suturar las heridas
ocultas de nuestra reciente y traumtica historia. En coherencia con ese objetivo, artistas,
activistas, ciudadanos en general y familiares de los desaparecidos, cosieron juntos en la
Plaza Mayor una gran bandera peruana sin color en seal del duelo todava no resuelto
por los veinte ltimos aos de violencias inauditas. Una bandera de luto compuesta
por cientos de prendas de vestir negras y blancas, cuyo vaco es tambin el de tantas
ausencias forzadas. Un sudario colectivo. Y al mismo tiempo una arpillera donde

cobijar la esperanza del renacimiento compartido. La unin de estas ropas mediante

un gran acto de costura participativa quiere explcitamente simbolizar la unin de
voluntades democrticas por un pas nuevo.
Signo de los tiempos, la institucin militar no ensay maniobra represiva
alguna, y ms bien intent recuperar para sus propios fines de arrepentimiento pblico
el discurso simblico as circulado. En el Da de la Bandera, reza el aviso periodstico
publicado a toda pgina por el Ejrcito, renovamos nuestro compromiso por la unin de
todos los peruanos. La imagen que ilustra esa leyenda es la de un nio cuidadosamente
cosiendo una bandera. La tela se ve pulcra e intacta, sin embargo, en abierto contraste
con la apariencia irregular y casi informe de aquel otro inacabado estandarte que sigue
sumando cientos de prendas varias, desde ropajes andinos hasta uniformes castrenses.
Pasando por el ertico cors aportado por un travesti. La alegora dramtica de un
pas en ruinas, una patria hecha jirones, dispuesta sin embargo a hilvanar una nueva
comunidad que no reprima sino productivice la diferencia. La ciudadana nueva.
Hagamos historia. Larga.

Lava la bandera (Wash the

Flag), action documentation,
Peru, 2000
Photo: Gustavo Buntinx

120

SPACE TO DREAM

CIVIC SOCIETY COLLECTIVE

121

Ticio Escobar,
Entrevista con
Beatriz Bustos
Oyanedel
La fuerza de
la diferencia

Ticio Escobar,
Interview with
Beatriz Bustos
Oyanedel
Strength Lies in
the Difference

RUNNING CHAPTER TITLE

123

Ticio Escobar (Asuncin, 1947) es crtico de arte, curador,

profesor y promotor cultural. Se ha especializado en
arte paraguayo y latinoamericano, y en el cruce de lo
popular con lo contemporneo. Entre sus libros destacan
El mito del arte y el mito del pueblo (Museo del Barro,
Asuncin, 1986), El arte en los tiempos globales (Don
Bosco, Asuncin, 1997), El arte fuera de s (CAV, Museo
del Barro, Asuncin, 2004), La maldicin de Nemur (Museo
del Barro, Asuncin, 2007) e Imagen e intemperie (Clave
Intelectual, Buenos Aires, 2015). Ha sido curador en
la Bienal de So Paulo (1988) y la Trienal de Santiago
(2009), adems de numerosas exposiciones dedicadas al
arte indgena y popular, como Tekopor, en Buenos Aires
(2015). Su inters por lo indgena, adems, sobresale
de lo artstico: en Paraguay fund y dirigi el Museo
de Arte Indgena, en el Museo del Barro; fue miembro
de la Comisin de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos y
presidente de la Asociacin de Apoyo a las Comunidades
Indgenas de Paraguay. Adems, cre la Ley Nacional de
Cultura de su pas, donde fue Ministro de Cultura (2008
2012). Entre numerosas distinciones, cabe mencionar el
Premio Bartolom de las Casas (2004), por su aporte al
desarrollo de la cultura indgena, y la mencin de Caballero
de la Orden Francesa de las Artes y las Letras (2009).

Tehas dedicado durante aos a estudiar, desde

diferentes mbitos,el cruce entre arte popular y arte
contemporneo. De qu manera estableces una
diferenciacin entre ambos?
Ms que una diferenciacin, me interesa el cruce entre
lo popular y lo contemporneo. Entiendo como contemporneo el rgimen del arte que recusa la linealidad
progresiva del tiempo; es decir, que discute el devenir
histrico moderno concebido como el desarrollo de un
proceso que apunta a un telos, una finalidad prefijada.
Una finalidad, una lnea, un proceso. La esttica moderna
no contempla lugar para el arte diferente, el que se aparta
de la recta trazada por el avance del arte vanguardista
occidental. La perspectiva contempornea incluye la
diversidad de miradas, de deseos, de proyectos. Y, por lo
tanto, incluye la diversidad de frecuencias y de tiempos.
Esa inclusin lo torna anacrnico: lo libera de mirar solo
hacia adelante; el artista contemporneo vuelve la mirada
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SPACE TO DREAM

Ticio Escobar (born Asuncin, 1947) is an art critic,

curator, teacher and cultural promoter. He specialises
in Paraguayan and Latin American art, and the relationship between the traditional indigenous and the
contemporary. His books include El mito del arte y el
mito del pueblo (The Myth of Art and the Myth of the
People, 1986), El arte en los tiempos globales (Art in
Global Times, 1997), El arte fuera de s (Art Beside Itself,
2004), La Maldicion de Nemur (The Curse of Nemur,
2007), Imagen e intemperie (Image and Outdoors, 2015).
Escobar has been curator of the So
Paulo Biennial (1988) and the Santiago Triennial (2009),
and has curated numerous exhibitions devoted to indige
nous art and arts and crafts, such as Tekopor in Buenos
Aires (2015). In Paraguay he founded and directed
the Museum of Indigenous Art, the Museo del Barro,
and he was also a member of the Defense Committee
of Human Rights and president of the Association in
Support of Indigenous Communities of Paraguay. In
addition, when he was Minister of Culture (200812), he
created the National Law of Culture in Paraguay. He has
also been given numerous awards, including the prize
Bartolom de las Casas (2004), for his contribution
to the development of indigenous culture, and named
Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters (2009).

You have dedicated years to studying, from different

points of view, the relationship between traditional
indigenous art and contemporary art. How do you see
the difference between them?
More than just the difference, I am interested in the
friction between indigenous and contemporary art. I
understand by contemporary art which rejects the progressive linearity of time; that is to say, which discusses
the modern historical development as a process aiming
for a goal telos, a preset purpose. A purpose, a line,
a process. Modern aesthetics do not provide a space
for different art, that which deviates from the straight
line drawn by the advance of Western avant-garde art.
The contemporary perspective includes the diversity
of views, of desires, of projects. And, therefore includes
the diversity of time and frequency. This makes it
anachronic: freed from looking only forward, contem-

porary artists gaze towards the past, and sideways.

Within the modern scheme of things
there is no such thing as indigenous art because, following the path of Kant, art is that action devoid of pur
pose. Only the beautiful form, isolated from historical,
social and personal adhesions, and disconnected from
functions, reaches the purity of self-reflective language.
By contrast, traditional indigenous art
is impure by vocation and condition: it is committed to
rituals, magical purposes, political, social and economic
functions. The indigenous aesthetic crosses the entire
field of social experience: beauty does not become
detached from the collective work, but encourages it.
What is beautiful is a factor of social cohesion, but also
of enriching disturbances of consciousness.
Once modern formal autonomy is challenged, art is baffled. If it completely abandons the
form, the shape, the distance of the aura, then it
becomes pure concept, the historical, sociopolitical
and discursive content that has invaded the hitherto
closed grounds of art. But if the form and shape are
hegemonial again, it loses key historical and poetic
achievements: returns back to the academic structure
or modern asepsis. One should therefore look for works
that are not enclosed in the form, but that can maintain a
basic formal frame, capable of making certain the look,
desire and distance. Without a minimum of aura and
beauty there is no art, which implies tension between
image and concept.
Much of arts and crafts and, more spec
ifically, indigenous art, do that: underline the beauty
of situations, events or objects which in themselves
are not artistic. It is supported by the brightness of
the shape; it makes objects, as Jacques Lacan wanted
bait for the eye. This exercise is the dream of art, of
all forms of art: reconciling the density of the contents
with the strength of the image.

hacia el pasado y la dirige hacia el costado.

Dentro del esquema moderno no existe
el arte popular porque, siguiendo el camino de Kant,
es artstico solo el obrar carente de finalidades. Solo la
bella forma aislada de adherencias histricas, sociales
y personales, y desvinculada de funciones, alcanza la
pureza del lenguaje autorreflexivo, vuelto sobre s. El arte
popular es impuro por vocacin y condicin: se encuentra
comprometido con funciones rituales, mgico-propi
ciatorias, polticas, sociales y econmicas. Lo esttico
cruza transversalmente todo el campo de la experiencia
social: la belleza no se desprende del cuerpo bullente y
denso del hacer colectivo, pero lo anima por dentro. Lo
bello es un factor de cohesin social pero tambin de
perturbacin enriquecedora de sentido.
Una vez cuestionada la autonoma formal
moderna, el arte se encuentra desconcertado. Si abandona
completamente el sostn de la forma, la distancia del
aura, entonces se disuelve en el puro concepto, en los
contenidos histricos, sociopolticos o discursivos que
invadieron el hasta ese momento clausurado recinto del
arte. Pero si vuelve a consagrar la hegemona de la forma,
pierde conquistas histricas y poticas fundamentales:
retrocede al normativismo acadmico o a la asepsia
moderna. Por lo tanto debe buscar obras que no queden
encerradas en la forma, pero que puedan conservar un
bsico encuadre formal capaz de asegurar la mirada, el
deseo, la distancia. Sin un mnimo de aura y de belleza
no existe el arte, que implica siempre una tensin entre
imagen y concepto.
Gran parte del arte popular y, muy especficamente, el arte indgena, hace eso: subraya la belleza
de situaciones, hechos u objetos que en s no son artsticos. Los refrenda con el brillo de la forma; los vuelve,
como quera Jacques Lacan, seuelos de la mirada. Esa
operacin es el sueo del arte contemporneo, de toda
forma de arte: conciliar la densidad de los contenidos
con la fuerza de la imagen.

You have talked about the clash and fragmentation

between the indigenous, the colonial and the popular:
the disruption that occurs between these worlds. How
are they positioned within contemporary art?

Has hablado de un choque y fragmentacin entre lo indgena,

lo colonial y lo popular, la disrupcin entre estos mundos.
Cmo se trasvasijan en el arte contemporneo?

These elements are in a continuous state of interaction,

combination, tension and re-articulation. Strictly

Esos elementos se encuentran en estado continuo de

cruce, combinacin, tensin y rearticulacin. En sentido

STRENGTH LIES IN THE DIFFERENCE

125

estricto, lo indgena puede ser considerado una categora

de lo popular en cuanto marca la posicin asimtrica
de ciertos sectores oprimidos, relegados o simplemente
diferentes en relacin con el sistema hegemnico. As,
lo popular implica la subordinacin de grandes mayoras
y de minoras excluidas de una participacin plena en
lo socioeconmico, poltico y cultural; pero tambin
supone la afirmacin de la diferencia. Es decir, supone
no solo un momento negativo la marginacin, sino
uno afirmativo: la construccin de formas alternativas
capaces de conservar identidades y tradiciones. Estas
formas se encuentran, a su vez, abiertas a reimaginar sus propias memorias y construir sus proyectos
asumiendo los retos que imponen las nuevas condiciones de produccin y enfrentando el viejo sistema
colonial, que sigue postergando los derechos bsicos
a la igualdad.
Este concepto considera lo popular en el
curso de procesos complejos, que pueden ser desarrollados
al margen o en contra de las direcciones hegemnicas, pero,
tambin, a partir de cruces, coincidencias, apropiaciones
e intercambios mantenidos con ellas.
Incluir lo indgena como una modalidad
particular de lo popular se justifica bsicamente por
dos razones. En primer lugar, por la expansin de dos
procesos neocoloniales bsicos: la popularizacin de
lo indgena y la hibridacin intercultural. En segundo,
por la ya mencionada posicin subordinada que ocupan
los pueblos indgenas en el contexto de las sociedades
nacionales latinoamericanas, posicin que los equipara
a los dems sectores excluidos de una presencia
social efectiva.
Entendemos con Jacques Rancire que la
coincidencia entre lo poltico y el arte se da justamente
en la posibilidad, en el deber, de replantear un sistema
que permita visibilizar los sectores excluidos del reparto
social. Aqu se posiciona la mirada contempornea, que
busca rediagramar los lugares sociales para que aquellos
sectores inscriban su visibilidad como sujetos partcipes
de la construccin social.
Vemos ltimamente una consideracin mayor por el
arte popular en los circuitos de reflexin sobre arte
contemporneo, a qu crees se debe este inters?

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SPACE TO DREAM

speaking, the indigenous can be considered a category

of the popular, as much as it marks the asymmetrical
position of oppressed, neglected or simply different
sectors, in relation to the hegemonic system. Thus, the
popular implies the subordination of strong majorities,
and minorities excluded from full participation in the
socio-economic, political and cultural; but it is the affirmation of difference which implies not only a negative
moment marginalisation but also a positive one
with the construction of alternative forms capable of
preserving identities and traditions. These forms are,
in turn, open to reimagining their own memories and to
building their projects assuming the challenges imposed
by the new conditions of production and facing the old
colonial system, which defers the basic rights of equality.
This concept of popular art is considered
a complex process, which can be developed outside
or against hegemonic systems but, also, from coincidences, friction and exchanges within this system.
Including the indigenous as a form of
the popular art is basically justified for two reasons.
First of all, by the expansion of two basic neo-colonial
processes: the popularisation of indigenous and
cross-cultural hybridisation. Second, by the subordinate and excluded position that indigenous peoples in
Latin American societies occupy.
We understand from Jacques Rancire
that the concurrence between politics and art can
happen with the possibility and obligation to rethink a
new system, allowing excluded sectors more visibility
in the social network. This is where the contemporary
concept lies; seeking new ways to make social spaces
more conspicuous.
Lately we see in contemporary art circles a wider
reflection on arts and crafts. Why do you think there
is more interest?
There is no longer a model of art in which all that is
different is not contemporary. This model supposes
ethnocentric prejudices which allow only one model.
The idea of the contemporary is marked by the Western
hegemonic model; today, the idea of one contempora
riness in the same sense that it was thought there
was one modern model is unsustainable.

The concept of diversity causes anachro

nisms in contemporary art which alter the line of
history and open spaces where time reacts differently.
The contemporary underlines answers or responses to
those questions put forward from different realities,
different present times. From this point of view, the
Enlightenment purpose of bringing a contemporary
truth to processes which have opted to delay and are
not interested in synchronising their rhythms with
the mainstream became senseless. Why would the
current production of an indigenous group not be
contemporary? Why not a rural scene with or without
technological equipment?
Is it possible to name something Latin American in
contemporary art, or is it no longer relevant?
How do you today conceive the terms centre and
periphery in respect to the movement of art?
Discussing Latin America requires caution and subtleness, the ambiguity of the term generates confusion.
If we set out from the centre (the so-called First World),
the periphery (or Third World) takes the place of the
Other. Here the Other does not refer to the positive
difference which must be included, but to the differences which must be corrected: fascism, in effect. In
this case, Latin America is doomed to be subordinate
and always dependent on the centre. According to
this dichotomy the One and the Other, centre and
periphery, are locked in a metaphysical contradiction
which allows no other places.
Although a right to multicultural difference is proclaimed from the centre, art from Latin
America finally is being valued in its most radical
expression: the exotic, original and kitsch, steeped
in indigenous and popular tradition. This position
displays a broad spectrum of new exoticism, eager for
the most picturesque gesture and also a more typically
local tone. It is obvious that in many cases Latin American artists reproduce their identity in an overactive
manner, or they develop a critical position.
It should be noted, moreover, that the
concept of Latin American is altered by the reconfiguration of the maps of world power, removing the
concept of purely geographical bases (the territory

No corre ya un modelo de arte ante el cual todo lo diferente

no es contemporneo. Ese modelo supone prejuicios
etnocentristas que admiten un solo modelo de contemporaneidad. Si bien la idea de lo contemporneo se halla
marcada por el paradigma hegemnico occidental, resulta
insostenible hoy la idea de una contemporaneidad, en el
sentido en que pudo haberse pensado un modelo moderno.
La figura de la diversidad provoca en el
arte contemporneo anacronismos que alteran el trazado
lineal de la historia y abren la brecha de destiempo
donde opera la diferencia. Lo contemporneo delinea
un mbito de respuestas a las cuestiones que plantean
distintos presentes, diversas actualidades. Desde esta
posicin, pierde sentido el intento iluminista de llevar la
verdad contempornea a procesos que han optado por
demorar sus razones, despreocupados de sincronizar sus
ritmos con los marcados por el mainstream. Por qu no
sera contempornea la produccin actual de un grupo
indgena? Por qu no la de una escena rural activa,
provista o no de instrumental tecnolgico actualizado?
Es posible denominar lo latinoamericano en el arte
contemporneo, o ya no es relevante? Cmo concibes
hoy los trminos centro y periferia respecto de la
circulacin del arte?
Hablar de lo latinoamericano exige cautelas y matices, pues
la ambigedad del trmino genera equvocos, diferentes
segn los desplazamientos de su enunciacin. Enunciada
desde el lugar del centro (el llamado Primer Mundo), la
periferia (o Tercer Mundo) ocupa el lugar del otro. Y ac,
el otro no se refiere positivamente a la diferencia que
debe ser incluida, sino a la discordancia que debe ser
corregida: fascismo. En este caso, lo latinoamericano est
condenado a moverse como el revs subalterno y necesario
del centro. Segn esta posicin dicotmica, lo uno y lo
otro, centro y periferia, se encuentran trabados en una
contradiccin metafsica que no admite terceros lugares.
Aunque desde el centro se proclama el
derecho a la diferencia multicultural, el arte latinoamericano termina siendo valorado en su alteridad ms radical:
lo extico, original y kitsch, adobado con la tradicin
indgena y popular. Esa posicin despliega un amplio
espectro de nuevos exotismos, vidos del gesto ms pintoresco y el tono ms tpicamente local para cosificar al

STRENGTH LIES IN THE DIFFERENCE

127

otro enuncindolo desde afuera. Es obvio que en muchos

casos los propios artistas latinoamericanos reproducen
esa posicin desarrollando una crtica basada en la pura
inversin de las propuestas centrales, o bien sobreactuando
su identidad segn los guiones del mainstream.
Debe considerarse, por otra parte, que el
concepto de lo latinoamericano se ve alterado por la
reconfiguracin de las cartografas del poder mundial
que desanclan ese concepto de sus bases puramente
geogrficas (el territorio de Amrica Latina). Las deslocali
zaciones y desplazamientos de los mapas de la hegemona
global determinan que los mismos trminos centro
y periferia deben ser reformulados para que puedan
asumir las nuevas situaciones transterritorializadas.
Ahora bien, aunque ya no resulta adecuado
definir lo latinoamericano a partir de disyunciones
lgico-formales ni en trminos de territorio, el conflicto
centro-periferia sigue intacto y remite no solo a desigualdades que nunca fueron desmontadas, sino a la calidad
de vida y a la dignidad humana, factores decisivos para
enfatizar las asimetras ocultas en la figura de la diversidad.1
Por eso, ante una oposicin metafsica
entre lo uno y lo otro, se vuelve importante trabajar la
mutua inclusin de los trminos opuestos, que nunca
deberan designar realidades concluidas, idnticas a s
mismas. Lo perifrico o lo latinoamericano (como cualquier
posicin identitaria) se juega en terceros espacios: fuerza
a aquellos trminos opuestos a descentrarse de s mismos
y trascender el particularismo de sus posiciones. No cabe
plantear una conclusin definitiva de la tensin centro/
periferia, cuyos trminos indecidibles, imposibles de ser
sintetizados y resueltos de antemano dependen siempre
de acuerdos, negociaciones o conflictos contingentes.
Por eso, reivindicar la diferencia de lo
latinoamericano no debe partir de su oposicin abstracta
al modelo central, sino de sus posiciones particulares,
variables, determinadas por intereses especficos.
Esta movilidad permite concebir la diferencia ident
itaria de lo latinoamericano no como mera reaccin
defensiva, sino como gesto afirmativo, tendiente a sus
propios intereses.
Amrica del Sur es un espacioen constante movimiento,
las luchas polticas y sociales de algn modo inciden
en la forma en que constantemente enfrentamos el
128

SPACE TO DREAM

of Latin America). Relocations and displacements of

the maps of global hegemony determine that the same
terms centre and periphery should be reformulated
so that they can assume new territorial situations.
While it is not appropriate to define
Latin American from logical/formal disjunctions nor
in terms of territory, the centerperiphery conflict
remains intact and addresses not only inequalities that
were never solved, but includes the quality of life and
human dignity, decisive factors which emphasise the
asymmetric in the figure of diversity.1
Therefore, against metaphysical opposition between the One and the Other it becomes
important to work with the mutual inclusion of opposite terms, which should never conclude with identical
realities. The peripheral or Latin American is played
in different spaces: the friction between the centre/
periphery has no definite conclusion. These para
meters, which are impossible to summarise and resolve
beforehand, depend on agreements, negotiations or
possible conflicts.
To reclaim the difference of what is Latin
American we must begin not from a central model but
from different and variable positions, determined by
specific interests. This mobility allows the identity
difference of Latin America to be as a positive gesture
tending towards its own interests.
South America is a region in constant motion, the
political and social struggles in some way affect
how we constantly face the present. How has artistic
production been affected in this context?
Art always thrives on conflict linked to an imbalance
of time. You can, through this negative, critical way,
pre-empt other visions of the world that, beyond the
tempests of history, anticipate other possible times.
Bertolt Brecht maintained that the displacement of the
world is the reason for art. Georges Didi-Huberman
referred to this when he said: it was not fortunate that
Brecht also convened a long cultural period from
Homer or Esquilo to Voltaire or Goethe pointing
out an overwhelming disaster formula according
to which war would constitute, deep down the real
theme of art.2

But the disasters of war, the violence of

the world, are just some of the reasons for art, which
is nourished simultaneously by calamities and discon
tent. Both the most fateful confrontation and the
slightest concern can call for a form of art, the value of
which does not depend on the magnitude of disorder
that claims it, but on the intensity of the response that
causes it, and the ways that art can imagine facing the
adversities of history.
We have seen how art produced in South America is
received in the so-called mainstream. In general,
in these spaces, this art is linked to concepts such as
exotic and different. In this sense, Space to Dream
aims to explore a dialogue and reflection with an
area that considers itself part of the South, a concept
that also applies to New Zealand. Do you think that
strengthening the SouthSouth dialogue can help
subvert the pre-existing NorthSouth order?
Yes, any alteration of the hegemonic cartographies
helps to better see the excluded, and release it from the
trivialisation of the exotic. But it also helps to promote
more advantageous positions for relegated cultures.
The figure of the South, much more than point out a
geographical direction, defines a political position:
a space where different perspectives can play and
plot alternatives to those drawn by the mainstream.
I consider, therefore, that strengthening the South
South dialogue can at least shape a shared trajectory
that includes and strengthens differences.

presente o, Cmo ha sido afectada la produccin

artstica en este contexto?
El arte se nutre siempre del conflicto, de desajustes del
tiempo. Puede, mediante este camino negativo, crtico,
adelantar otras visiones del mundo que, ms all de las
tempestades de la historia, anticipen otros momentos
posibles. Brecht sostiene que la dislocacin del mundo
es el motivo del arte. Didi-Huberman comenta as esa
sentencia: No era fortuito que tambin Brecht convocara
una larga duracin cultural desde Homero o Esquilo
hasta Voltaire o Goethe para apuntar una sobrecogedora
frmula del desastre segn la cual la guerra constituira,
en el fondo, el verdadero tema del arte.2
Pero los desastres de la guerra, la
violencia del mundo, es solo uno de los motivos del arte,
nutrido simultneamente de calamidades y de ntimas
desazones. Tanto el ms aciago enfrentamiento como la
inquietud ms leve pueden convocar una forma del arte,
forma cuyo valor no depender de la magnitud del trastorno
que la reclame, sino de la intensidad de la respuesta que
aqul provoque. Y de las salidas que imagine ante las
adversidades de la historia.
Hemos sido testigos del modo en que se recibe el arte
producido en Amrica del Sur en el as llamado mainstream.
En general, en estos espacios este arte se relaciona a
conceptos como lo extico y lo diferente. En tal sentido,
esta muestra pretende explorar un dilogo y una reflexin
con una zona que se considera a s misma tambinsur,
como lo es Nueva Zelanda. Piensas que fortalecer el
dilogo sur-sur puede colaborar en subvertir de alguna
manera el orden preexistente norte-sur?
S, toda alteracin de las cartografas hegemnicas
ayuda a divisar mejor lo excluido y a liberarlo de la
banalizacin de la mirada exotista. Pero tambin ayuda
a promover posicionamientos ms ventajosos para las
culturas relegadas. La figura del sur, mucho ms que
sealar una direccin geogrfica, delimita una posicin
poltica: un espacio donde juegan miradas distintas y
se traman diagramas alternativos a los trazados por
el mainstream. Considero, por lo tanto, que fortalecer
el dilogo Sur-Sur puede, al menos, marcar un rumbo
compartido que incluya y fortalezca la diferencia.

STRENGTH LIES IN THE DIFFERENCE

129

1. Garca Canclini afirma que

la globalizacin selectiva
restringe a las elites el
derecho a la ciudadana y
acelera las contradicciones
entre los pases perifricos
y las metrpolis donde se
excluye a desocupados y
migrantes de los derechos
humanos bsicos: trabajo,
salud, educacin, vivienda.
(Nstor Garca Canclini.
Consumidores y ciudadanos.
Conflictos multiculturales
de la globalizacin.
Grijalbo, Mxico, 1995, p. 26).
2. Georges Didi-Huberman.
Atlas. Inquieta gaya
ciencia, en catlogo de
exposicin Atlas. Cmo
llevar el mundo a cuestas?,
Museo Nacional Centro de
Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid,
noviembre 2010, p. 120.

1. Garca Canclini says that

selective globalisation
restricts the right to
citizenship to the elite
and accelerates the
contradictions between
peripheral countries and
the metropolis, [w]here
the unemployed and migrants
are excluded from basic
human rights work, health,
education and housing.
See Nstor Garca Canclini,
Consumidores y ciudadanos.
Conflictos multiculturales
de la globalizacin
(Consumers and Citizens:
Multicultural Conflicts in
Globalisation), Grijalbo,
Mxico, 1995, p 26.
2. Georges Didi-Huberman,
Atlas. Inquieta gaya
ciencia in Atlas Cmo llevar
el mundo a cuestas? (Atlas:
Unquiet Gay Science, in
Atlas: How to Carry on the
World?), Centro de Arte Reina
Sofa, Madrid, 2011, p 120.

130

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Los artistas

The Artists

Fernando
Arias
Born 1963, Armenia, Colombia /
Lives and works in Colombia
and United Kingdom

136

Fernando Arias uses diverse media such as installation, sculpture, performance,

photography and most recently video. His work reflects on and engages the viewer in
a critical dialogue about Colombias complex issues. Intimate and personal gestures
are used to raise awareness of the need for a change in ethics and values in society.
Influenced by historic Latin American political conceptualism, Arias uses domestic
materials and objects that are ideologically and politically charged to refer to the
armed conflict and social situation of Colombia and to more global concerns such
as neo-liberal economics, religion, AIDS, the drug trade, poverty, gender inequality
and sexuality, wealth distribution and nature conservation.
Arias work Se busca donante de cenizas (Donor of Ashes Wanted),
2009 confronts the viewer with an instructive drawing made of donated ashes.
The work demonstrates how to make the sign of the Cross, referring to Catholicisms ever-present influence in South America. The drawing is accompanied by
legal donation documents handed by the donor to the artist as well as a video of the
artist explaining the artwork and asking all viewers to question themselves about
various societal values.
Arias often uses language itself as an art form, playing with words to
give them other meanings, inverting and paraphrasing, and transgressing the limits
imposed on words by convention. In recent years his use of video has increased
because the medium offers immediateness and adaptability. Since 2002, Arias has
been spending considerable time in the remote Colombian region of Choc, where he
has created a collective project titled Ms Arte Ms Accin (More Art More Action),
2005ongoing. The project brings together all the artists interests and allows him
to work with different professionals from various areas of Colombia, and beyond,
to create trans-disciplinary artistic projects that question social and environmental
issues and aim to generate change.
One of his most recent video works, Cantos de viaje (Chants of a Journey),
2014 depicts a voyage that began in the Choc headquarters and ended in the Casa
Daros, in Rio de Janeiro, following the Amazon River from Colombia to Brazils coast
for over two months. The journey resulted in a film based on a conversation about
how people imagine a better world and reveals both lucid and terrifying thoughts
and visions about the Amazon. Arias holds a conversation with two women whose
opposing worldviews create a dialogue between reason and insanity. Viewers hear the
words of a world-renowned scientist talking about the Amazon its complexities,
the challenges it faces and the politicians who have the power to preserve it and
also hear a woman who claims to have been born from a sheeps womb describing
invisible forces and stating her beliefs that the future lies in Gods hands and that
science does not exist. At the end of the video Arias is seen tearing out pages of Michel
Foucaults Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (first
published in 1964) and letting them fall into the Amazon to return to nature and the
water that nourishes life on Earth. M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Fernando Arias
Se busca donante de cenizas
(Donor of Ashes Wanted)
(detail) 2009

THE ARTISTS

137

Catalina
Bauer
Born 1976, Buenos Aires,
Argentina / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

Chilean artist Catalina Bauer makes use of different media such as video, choreography, sculpture and techniques in elementary crafts like braiding, weaving,
knotting, netting and knitting. At times the materials Bauer uses, such as rubber
bands, cords, laces and strings, come from donations by members of the community in which she is working, who are encouraged to participate and collaborate.
To this extent, her art has been read as a fusion of ancient textile traditions with
the Bauhaus principles of colour, form and scale, while also having a meditative and
transformative effect. The act of knitting, for instance, embodies a preoccupation
with both the rhythm and patterns of the process almost as a form of breathing at
the same time as expressing an awe-inspiring creation of forms. Her works suggest
an engagement with slow and labour-intensive techniques, an antidote to the fast
pace of contemporary production, yet could also feature industrial elements and
therefore propose a poetic dialogue between them.
In Chacra, 2009 the word alludes to the concept of a bodily power
centre as well as the Chilean name for a small piece of land Bauer created a large
crocheted textile with nylon string. The artwork was made alongside a group of
women at the weaving workshop in La Casa de la Mujer Huamachuco (Huamachuco
Womens House) in Renca, Santiago, and it reflects both the performative and social
engagement dimensions of her work. Each group member received a ball of string to
weave into a circle with the instruction that it must be joined to another members
when complete. This process was multiplied until everyone was working together
on the same blanket, which became a metaphor for solidarity and self-reliance.
In Networkshop, 2012, the artist organised an actual workshop in the context of a
residence in Gasworks (London). Once again, she worked with a group of women,
this time artists, teachers, mothers and housewives, who became involved in a series
of rounds of collective weaving that acted almost like a group dance.
Such choreographic elements are most obvious in the video Primeras
Palabras (First Words), 2014, part of a larger collaborative project with the dancer
Amelia Ibez. As Bauer explains, this piece refers to the process of learning a
language through the creation of an alphabet of movements and postures performed
with the body. We used the letters to form words and brief sentences that were
presented as a simple choreography.1 The work is based on the book El Silabario
(The Syllabary, 1945) by the Chilean teacher Adrian Dufflocq, who aimed to reduce
illiteracy. The black and white video brings together the movements of both females
(who dance in separate frames) with those of a hand writing on a chalkboard, and
combines the performative aspects of both dancing and tracing. L V

Catalina Bauer (in collaboration

with Amelia Ibez)
Primeras palabras (First Words)
(video stills) 2014

1.See www.catalinabauer.com/
artwork/primeras-palabras/,
accessed 19 Jan 2016.

138

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THE ARTISTS

139

Paulo
Bruscky
Born 1949, Recife,
Brazil / Lives and works
in Recife, Brazil

140

Regarded as one of Brazils most important contemporary artists, Paulo Bruscky

has been at the forefront of avant-garde artistic practice since the 1970s. An early
adopter of the Xerox machine in the making of artwork, Bruscky is a mail artist, poet,
creator of artists books, inventor, performance artist, photographer and filmmaker.
Beginning his career while the military was solidifying its hold over
Brazil after the coup dtat of 1964, much of Brusckys work as does that of many
artists belonging to the Post-Concrete generation reflects on the violent environment imposed on civil society by the military. His practice focuses primarily on
the production of artworks inspired by everyday experiences which invite viewers
to question the world around them, and he has developed a body of work that is
largely based on the dissemination of messages and audience participation. Bruscky
refers to the anonymity of individuals within the urban landscape through the use
of humour, which is characterised by irony and a caustic wit.
Brusckys mail art, such as Arte Correio Brasil (Mail Art Brazil), 1978,
Aerograma #1 (Aerogram #1), 1975, Sem destino (No Destination), 197583 and
Sentimentos: um poema feito como o corao (Feelings: A Poem from the Heart), 1976,
demonstrates how, within the vanguard scene, postcards, rubber stamps and other
means of reproduction were embraced to create an international circulation of art
via post mail. This art defied the political and social barriers present in 1970s and
80s Brazil. Bruscky would print envelopes with no destination address and then
put his address as the sender. With no address the letter would be returned to him.
He also sent stamped letters with his address as the destination to people located
in different places and asked them to mail them upon receipt. His receipt of the
returned letters served to question the bureaucracy of the post office.
Brusckys photograph Limpios e desinfetados (Clean and Disinfected),
1984 exemplifies how he used humour as a response to the way people from certain
sectors of society perceived artists professionalism. Wit is also evident in his
performances, such as O que arte, para o que serve? (What Is Art, What Is It For?),
1978 and Atitude do artista/Atitude do Museu (Attitude of the Artist/Attitude of
the Museum), 1978, in which Bruscky used written messages and quotations to
question the purpose of art and its censorship. For the latter work the artist scribbled
Art cannot be detained on the main wall of the Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
(Museum of the State of Pernambuco) prior to the arrival of Governor Marco Maciel.
Museum workers attempted to erase the message before the governor arrived using
sharp instruments, and instead ended up carving the phrase into the wall, making
it stand out even more.
Bruscky has always operated with the vision that art has the
potential to prompt social change, and his work consistently challenges sociopolitical views. M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Paulo Bruscky
Aerograma #1 (Aerogram #1)
1975

THE ARTISTS

141

Colectivo
de Acciones
de Arte
(C.A.D.A.)
Santiago, Chile 197989
Fernando Balcells, Born 1950,
Santiago, Chile / Lives and
works in Santiago, Chile
Juan Castillo, Born 1952,
Antofagasta, Chile / Lives and
works in Stockholm, Sweden
Diamela Eltit, Born 1949,
Santiago, Chile / Lives and
works in Santiago, Chile
Lotty Rosenfeld, Born 1943,
Santiago, Chile / Lives and
works in Santiago, Chile
Ral Zurita, Born 1951,
Santiago, Chile / Lives and
works in Santiago, Chile

1. Claudia Calirman,
Interventions in the Social
Landscape: Parallels Between
Brazilian Artistic Actions
and the Chilean Avanzada,
Note in the History of Art,
vol 31, Spring 2012, p 36.
2. As transcribed in Fernando
Balcells, c.a.d.a. there is
art and life, yet, Artlink,
vol 27, no 2, p 30.
3. Joanne Pottlitzer, Lotty
Rosenfeld, Visual Artist,
Literature and Arts of the
Americas, vol 36, iss 66,
p 6263.

142

C.A.D.A., an acronym for Colectivo de Acciones de Arte (Collective of Art Actions),

consisted of artists Lotty Rosenfeld and Juan Castillo, sociologist Fernando Balcells
and writers Diamela Eltit and Ral Zurita. The group were highly active from 1979
to 1985 protesting the conditions of living in Chile following the military coup in
1973, and incorporated a variety of strategies to enact anonymous political gestures.
As Claudia Calirman notes, during the dictatorship persecution was often exercised
arbitrarily and without warning, meaning that artists necessarily developed a
metaphorical language to address the realities that they endured on a daily basis.1
C.A.D.A.s activities were entirely sited outside the gallery because during the coup
museums were subject to severe political intervention and censorship.
Ay Sudamrica! (Oh South America!), conceived on 12 July 1981, can
be seen retrospectively as expressing C.A.D.A.s core manifesto. Six light airplanes
deployed simultaneously across Santiago collectively dropped 400,000 pamphlets
onto the streets below. The papers declared: We are artists, but each man who works
for the expansion, even mentally, of their living spaces, is also an artist.2 Many art
historical references reside in the work, from Joseph Beuys maxim everyone is an
artist to the chance operations at the heart of the happenings deployed by John
Cage, Allan Kaprow and, further afield, the Situationist International organisation.
Yet while Kaprows happenings were typically apolitical, the happenstance
encounters generated by Ay Sudamrica! were a vital mechanism for enabling
a collective political voice. As Lotty Rosenfeld stated on behalf of C.A.D.A.: We
thought our work could . . . change the mentality of people . . . small, unplanned
things can alter the history of a country.3
C.A.D.A.s NO+, 198389 series similarly involved a coordinated
effort to mobilise political action within Santiago. The proposition NO+ (no more)
was stencilled onto banners, sprayed onto prominent sites and draped over public
sites within the city. The collective, leading by example, initially inserted their own
subjects into a pointed campaign and these efforts gathered momentum through
the mimetic participation of citizens who took up messages such as: NO+violence,
NO+torture, NO+desaparecidos meaning the missing people taken at the hands
of the dictatorship. In the video documentation, the fluidity of C.A.D.A.s actions is
witnessed as they discreetly unroll several paper rolls from a bridge and slip away.
Through blurring authorial roles C.A.D.A. mobilised a people held under extreme
censorship through a set of light yet potent political gestures. S C

SPACE TO DREAM

C.A.D.A.
Intervention on the north bank
of the Mapocho River, Santiago,
23 September 1983, 14:30 hrs
Photo: Jorge Brantmayer

THE ARTISTS

143

Luis
Camnitzer
Born 1973, Lbeck, Germany /
Lives and works in New York
City, USA

Since moving to New York in 1964 Luis Camnitzers work has been marked by a
synergistic coalescence of South American and various other influences. Prior to his
self-imposed political exile in the early 1960s, Camnitzer worked as a printmaker
and caricaturist; finely tuning a critical sensibility that would inform his practice.
During the 1970s, the artist deployed art as a pointed political instrument, inspired
by a growing wave of South American military regimes taking root in the late 1960s.
Later pieces, such as the Uruguayan Torture Series, 198384, developed added
complexity as both protests against suppressed civil liberties in South America as
well as commentaries on the dissemination and reception of news relating to the
deprivation of human rights.
Camnitzers is an art concerned with promoting critical thinking but
not exclusively around regional geopolitics. Several of his works have a personal
inflection and an eye toward arts dematerialisation, as in the ironic Portrait of the
Artist, 1991/2010 and Self Portraits, 1968, 1970, 1972 where no image of the artist
is shown. In fact, it is in Landscape As an Attitude, 1979 that we actually encounter
Camnitzers person: shot lying down, up close, in profile, with a set of plastic miniatures arranged on his face. The image constitutes a pastoral scene in which the
artists body functions as both figure and ground, sculpture and environment, object
and subject in a playful deconstruction of art tropes that is typical of his approach.
Highlighting a playful yet critical perspective based on a found
object, The Discovery of Geometry, 1978, is one of several images by Camnitzer
somewhat dislocated from the real world and its material constraints. Something
of a visual sleight of hand, the work draws inspiration from the logic-defying
methods of Surrealism and the movements dismissal of rationality. Along with The
Invention of the Postcard, 1972 and The Craftsmanship of Landscape, 1972, The
Discovery of Geometry forms a series relating to particular fictive moments of origin.
Once viewed in light of 1960s and 70s Conceptualism, such works become allegories
for artistic practice concerned with providing material existence to the otherwise
immaterial realm of ideas.
Camnitzers promotion of an important political note for art is
reinforced in one particularly memorable interview, where he refers to his mode
of operation as art thinking in contrast to the more familiar mode of art making.1
The former rubric, he states, characterises a way of organising and acquiring
knowledge that is opposed to promoting object production as the pinnacle of
artistic research. His art embodies methods shared across his parallel pursuits as an
educator, essayist and critic one that is firmly grounded in approaching pedagogy
as a political instrument and art as an intellectual provocation. J M

Luis Camnitzer
The Discovery of Geometry 1978, 2008
Courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates,
New York Luis Camnitzer/Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York

1. Luis Camnitzer on Art

Thinking and Art History,
http://www.guggenheim.org/
video/luis-camnitzer-onart-thinking-and-art-history, accessed 7 Jan 2016.

144

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THE ARTISTS

145

Juan
Castillo
Born 1952, Antofagasta,
Chile / Lives and works in
Stockholm, Sweden

Juan Castillo was member of C.A.D.A. (197985), one of the most vigorous art collectives operating during the dictatorship of General Pinochet in Chile. Works by C.A.D.A.
feature prominently in the contemporary art circuit, as exemplified by their presence
in the collection of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, which also
holds an open digital archive of the group. Its short name stands for Colectivo de
Acciones de Arte (Collective of Art Actions), and indeed the notion of art of action
was central to its operations: the multidisciplinary group would carry out different
events in public spaces aiming to disrupt the Pinochet dictatorship apparatus and to
question the traditional spaces and mechanisms for the production of art. As Robert
Neustadt noted in CADA Da (a title that plays with the phrase every day, 2001),
arguably the most authoritative book on the group, they were driven by a real political
desire and by an attempt to redefine the exclusionary parameters separating artistic
creation from public interpretation and the corresponding creation of meaning.1
The engagement of the public was a key dimension of C.A.D.A.s actions,
during a time of restricted political participation and extreme surveillance. Examples of this are the well-known: Para no morir de hambre en el arte (In Order Not to
Starve to Death in Art), 1979, a performance of several art actions addressing hunger,
poverty and civil needs in the country, which included the distribution of milk to
people in Santiagos slums, a parade of milk trucks, a paid blank page published in the
periodical Hoy and other satellite actions; and Ay Sudamrica! (Oh South America!),
1981, an action that consisted of six small airplanes flying in perfect formation over
Santiago and dropping 400,000 flyers that discussed the relationship between art
and society an artwork that references the bombardment of La Moneda, Chiles
House of Government, in the context of the military coup led by Pinochet.
Castillos individual work expresses both concern about the strategies
and objectives of visual arts and an engagement with audience. Technology, another
very important dimension of C.A.D.A.s pieces, is also essential in Castillos interrogation of art and life, as is the use of video and neon lights in his different installations.
His most recent work explores the processes of modernisation experienced by
different cultures and the undefined zones that configure our identities as global
citizens. Very often the artist works with ideas and elements that he might abandon
and take up again later; he considers these open works. A previous piece shown in
New Zealand reflects this way of working: Minimal Baroque, 200611 was initiated
with a project in Auckland, for which he interviewed marginal inhabitants of the
city about the meanings of art, dreaming and travelling. The responses were gathered
in a video that was projected in the back of a truck which drove around the city.
Different versions of this project have been carried out in Stockholm, Fuerteventura,
Santiago, Antofagasta and Valparaso. L V

Juan Castillo
Huacheras (video stills)
201516

1. Robert Neustadt,
(Con)fusing Signs and
Postmodern Positions:
Spanish American
Performance, Experimental
Writing, and the Critique
of Political Confusion,
Garland, New York and
London, 1999, p 30.

146

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THE ARTISTS

147

Carlos
Castro
Born 1976, Bogot,
Colombia / Lives and works
in Bogot, Colombia

Carlos Castros work combines diverse media including painting, video, objects and
installations. Through the recontextualisation of images and objects Castros art
examines stories that over time have been set aside or ignored, and thus reflects on
how icons and ideas that have been culturally accepted become redefined within
the contemporary context. Castro reflects on what is considered culturally appropriate or clandestine, and searches for moments when these concepts intersect.
The way these notions are perceived, particularly within the conservative context
of Colombia and Latin America, where certain inherited colonial notions prevail, is
a key theme in the artists work.
Risus Sativus (Laughter Music), 2011, one of Castros most well-known
works, is an installation that includes knives that were seized by the police from the
outskirts of Caracas and Bogot. Castro used these everyday weapons to construct
experimental music boxes that play old Italian military marches tunes that despite
their foreign origin are a familiar sound in the Colombian context.
Another one of his well-known works titled El que no sufre no vive (That
Which Does Not Suffer Does Not Live), 2009, is a video showing a statue of Simn
Bolivar made of edible material that is being devoured by pigeons. The figure was
placed in front of the original statue in the Plaza de Bolvar in Bogot on 7 August
2009. Pigeons gradually began to devour the liberation hero, who is considered
the founder of the Republic of Colombia and Bolivia, and who also contributed
greatly to the emancipation of present-day Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama,
Peru and Venezuela.
El que no sufre no vive, conveys the artists interest in inherited values
that have prevailed over time and on how their influence on society today becomes
evident. Castro explains: I am interested in how icons representing cultural values that
have been accepted as a given are redefined in contemporary society when faced with
unrecognizable or unwanted aspects of society. In other words, I have an interest
for that moment where the established and the clandestine overlap and create a
kind of social schizophrenia.1
It can be said that Castros objects and images are like open bodies
which are in a constant process of adaptation a readjustment to established
cultural prejudices found in every context where the artists work is presented.
At first glance they appear to comprise simple elements, yet upon a closer viewing
various juxtapositions become evident and in doing so present meanings that reveal
the artists ironic and critical spirit. A I & M E

Carlos Castro
El que no sufre no vive (That Which
Does Not Suffer Does Not Live)
(video still) 2009

1. Erica Cooke, Without, UCLA

Biennial, 2009, www.carloscastroarias.com/Carlos_
Castro_Arias/Textos_files/
UCLA_Biennial_english.pdf,
accessed 7 Jan 2016.

148

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THE ARTISTS

149

Lygia
Clark
Born 1920, Belo Horizonte,
Brazil / Died 1988, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil

The articulated structure and sharp geometric planes of Lygia Clarks Bichos, 1960,
recall the cool restraint of Minimalist sculpture, but the works are inherently unstable
and were designed to be handled. Their hinges reminded the artist of a spinal column,
and this vertebral animal characteristic is reflected in the artworks name, which
translates to creature. With no fixed shape or front or back, the sculptures can be
reconfigured in multiple ways and are activated through the folding and unfolding
of their related planes, whose movement is interdependent. For Clark, each Bicho
had its own spirit and individuality that revealed itself within its inner time of
expression.1 The creation of the Bichos precipitated Clarks evolution towards
greater active audience participation, and to more body-based work. Clark wrote:
The animal has his own and well-defined cluster of movements which react to the
promptings of the spectator . . . his parts are functionally related to each other, as if he
were a living organism; and the movements of these parts are interlinked . . . The first
movement (yours) does not belong to the animal. The inter-linking of the spectators
action and the animals immediate answer is what forms this new relationship, made
possible precisely because the animal moves i.e., has a life of its own . . .2
As a founding member of the Neo-Concrete movement in the late 1950s,
Clark developed her interactive art experiences in response to the rationalism of
Concrete art and its mythologies of the transcendental and universal. As Clarks
practice evolved, she increasingly refused the value of the art object, turning to
ephemeral material to create sensorial and haptic experiences in which participants
would become more aware of themselves and their inner consciousness.
In an image from Clarks 1965 exhibition at Signals London, Bichos
sit on the floor and on plinths surrounded by her paintings, and a collection of
Estuturas de caixas de fsforos (Matchbox Structures), 1964. Like the Bichos, the
matchbox works were mutable objects. Their structure, comprising small coloured
square compartments, recall the geometric abstract painting of Piet Mondrian and
Theo van Doesburg, but they were designed to be held, and the action of opening
and closing the drawers suggested the objects making and unmaking.
Clark further developed the role of touch with the Nostalgia del cuerpo
(Nostalgia for the Body) series in which she created Luvas sensoriais (Sensorial
Gloves), 1968, where participants rediscovered their sense of touch by handling
objects with gloves of different textures and thicknesses. This work challenged
traditional roles and hierarchies: the viewer was no longer passive; the status of
the art objects shifted; and the object itself was more difficult to collect or exhibit.
Over the course of her career Clark increasingly subverted the identity of the artist
and the notion of authorship and the nature of art through experiential works and
practices that folded the categories of artist and viewer and self and public into
each other. J W

Lygia Clark
Bicho (Creature) 1960, 2016

1. Lygia Clark, Writings by

Lygia Clark in Lygia Clark:
The Abandonment of Art,
19481988, Museum of Modern
Art, New York, 2014. p 160
2. Lygia Clark, Animals
1960, Signals, vol 1, no 7,
AprilMay 1965, p 2.

150

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THE ARTISTS

151

Mximo
Corvaln
Born 1973, Santiago,
Chile / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

152

Mximo Corvalns projects and installations are profound reflections on the

contradictions of modern consumer society, technological advances and fractious
issues such as immigration and social uprisings. Recently, the artist has focused on
combining and stretching the concepts of precariousness and spectacle, generating
an intense mediation on and a formal dialogue between organic and abstract.
In all its various forms, Corvalns work revolves around one theme: power and its
aesthetic dimension, which should not to be confused with the aestheticisation
of power. Proyecto ADN (DNA Project), 2012 is an example of this. The work is
an intervention constructed from three basic elements light, water and bones.
Specifically adapted for a gallery space, it comprises 33 sculptural pieces made
with fluorescent tubes, cables and bones which shine as they hang in a helix form,
suspended above a shallow pool of water. The buzzing sound coming from the works
electric devices appear like luminous insects or neon molecules writhing within an
aqueous landscape.
The DNA helix is an emblem that evokes the ability of science to edit
history, redefine facts and moments from the past; to work with greater certainty
and question documented facts which have been manipulated by judgements and
cultural and subjective misapprehensions. DNA also connects with a brutal moment
in Chiles history that relates to the artists personal story: delivering the wrong
bodies to families whose loved ones were among the disappeared during the Chilean
military dictatorship (197390) led by General Augusto Pinochet.
Corvaln pulls the spectator into terror: the combination of light, neon
tubes, bones, cables, electric energy in such close proximity to water, the vestiges
of bodies, disappeared histories, that which is organic, that which is technological,
that which is beautiful and that which is sinister. The artwork is a provocation. It is
important for Corvaln to move the spectator, to trap him or her from the moment
they enter the room to motivate an interpretation. The dramatic and sinister light
(electricity), water and bone take on symbolic values and create curiosity. The
luminous objects or molecules invite reflection on the effects of the advances of DNA
analysis on history. Proyecto ADN places the viewer between the horror produced by
the emotion ignited by bone fragments and the visual beauty of radiant objects and
water which create a space for reflection. M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Mximo Corvaln
Proyecto ADN (DNA Project)
(detail) 2012

THE ARTISTS

153

Jonathas
de Andrade
Born 1982, Macei,
Brazil / Lives and work
in Recife, Brazil

In the blistering heat of Brazils northeastern coast, dark-skinned street vendors

peddle their wares with great vigour at local markets. You often hear the phrase 40
nego bom por R$ 1,00 (40 black candies for R$ 1,00) projected with the force of a
ritual incantation. The word nego (or nega for women) is a Portuguese colloquialism
for someone black, while the term nego bom, the name for a popular banana-based
Brazilian candy, literally translates to good black. Yet, in spite of their racist and
colonial connotations, the terms are used casually without any intended hostility.
Jonathas de Andrades 40 nego bom 1 real (40 Black Candies Is R$1), 2013, is
a two-part installation comprising an illustration and text which provides a
recipe for the candy, produced in a fictional factory setting. Alongside the recipe
are testimonies of employeremployee relations, ranging from the amicable to
the acrimonious.
De Andrades silkscreened images of men in the industry most of
them shirtless, some wielding machetes, others carrying bananas set the figures
dark complexions against a host of vibrant hues. The use of high-key colour in 40
nego bom 1 real is reminiscent of the chromatic intensity of Brazils Tropiclia
movement of the 1960s and the visual idioms of Pop art, the latter of which often
alluded to the harsh realities of wage labour and mass consumption hidden behind
advertisings aspirational and alluring rhetoric. The characters in de Andrades work
seem to be in good spirits, happily producing the popular candies and accentuating
the stereotype of the handsome (and industrious) native. However, printed notes
point to the workers entrapment in Brazils system of cheap labour, exposing the
fallacy of amicable working relations in order to confront the impact economic
development has on the overlooked regions of Brazil and the precariat workers
who occupy these areas.
By tracing certain effects of colonialism in Brazil, de Andrade assumes
a role akin to that of a social anthropologist, revealing how government, industry
and society intersect to determine the lives of the working classes. Acting as a gauge
of the nations so-called postcolonial condition, his work dismantles the myth of
interracial camaraderie as expounded in texts such as Casa-Grande e Senzala (The
Master and the Slaves,1933) by the sociologist Gilberto Freyre. As the first theory
on local cross-cultural interaction describing the relations among the colonisers,
African slaves and indigenous peoples Freyres work has been challenged for its
untenable optimism. If Brazil, like 40 nego bom 1 real, momentarily furnishes an
image of convivial relations, de Andrade reminds us how such a veneer conceals a
less attractive reality one steeped in inequality and racism.
Having come of age long after the rescission of tropical modernisms
utopian projects,1 in his practice de Andrade works with a variety of media to expose
the notion of progress as modernitys most specious promise. J M

Jonathas de Andrade
40 nego bom 1 real (40 Black
Candies Is R$1) (detail) 2013

1. Silas Mart, Focus:

Jonathas de Andrade, Frieze,
no 145, March 2012, www.frieze.
com/issue/article/focus-jonathas-de-andrade/, accessed 7
Jan 2016.

154

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THE ARTISTS

155

Lenora
de Barros
Born 1953, So Paulo,
Brazil / Lives and works
in So Paulo, Brazil

For the 2014 work Pregao (Portuguese for nail action), Lenora de Barros pins
the letters SILNCIO onto a bare wall and hammers nails into the letters, one after
another, with percussive strikes that mark a negation of the central word. Seconds
later, members of the audience join her in hammering. Before long the space is
made to reverberate with the brutal sonority of metal against metal. At the actions
conclusion there emerges a rather curious-looking sculptural concrete poem.
De Barros adopted a poetic and feminist investigation of the role of
language during the 1970s that was marked by an avant-gardist leaning dating back
to the 1950s.1 Since 1983 Concrete poetry has had a presence in de Barros practice.
That same year marked her turn towards more visually oriented explorations around
language with the publishing of the artist book Onde Se V (Where One Sees), a
compilation of Concrete poems and photo sequences. The precise configuration
of words into typographic designs as a means of foregrounding their verbal, vocal
and visual qualities has since been a feature in much of her art.
In other works approaching the politics of who is speaking, mouths and
tongues have assumed a position of significance, and these appear as both metonyms
for language as well as politically and socially constitutive organs. In Homenagem
a George Segal (Homage to George Segal), 1984, these concerns are made manifest
through a performative tribute in which the artist is recorded frantically brushing
her teeth. This otherwise simple act of ablution is performed repeatedly with such
intensity that de Barros head and upper body are covered in layers of foam to resemble
the stark white figurative sculptures of the titular artist, George Segal.
Through Homenagems protracted gesture, de Barros situates
herself amid a lineage of labouring female bodies in performance art; enacting a
reinsertion of the living body into Segals deathly hollow casts. But even beyond
its feminist implications, one can discern further political strands permeating
the work: including a subtle polemic against North Americas stranglehold on
the canonical discourses of American art. And perhaps another, rather sobering
exegesis might posit the artists vanishing act as calling to mind the voiceless and
invisible victims of persecution.
For de Barros, audiovisual interplays, where the aural converges with
the graphic, allow for conceptually generative encounters with text and speech.
Through her work we witness the mechanics of language fold and collapse by way
of contortions, stretching beyond semiotic boundaries to unlock new affective
registers. It should therefore come as no surprise that de Barros is a former student
of linguistics. As an artist, her greatest facility lies in deploying a range of media
(video, performance, photography, installation, sound art, object-poems) to unveil
the dynamics of speech and language as embodied phenomena, which form the
locus of subjectivity. J M

Lenora de Barros
Pregao (Nail Action)
(performance documentation)
2014

1. Artist Brochure: Lenora

de Barros, Broadway 1602,
www.broadway1602.com/
artist/lenora-de-barros/,
accessed 7 Jan 2016.

156

SPACE TO DREAM

THE ARTISTS

157

Eugenio
Dittborn
Born 1943, Santa Cruz,
Chile / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

158

Eugenio Dittborn is one of the most internationally renowned Chilean artists.

The Aeropostales (Airmail Paintings), 198490s represent a specific discourse in
Dittborns work which relate to travelling, circulation, arrival, departure, movement
and rest. For the Aeropostales Dittborn sourced images from outdated magazines,
newspapers and police records to reproduce on sections of fabric. These sections
were then stitched together to form a single piece a painting or photosilkscreen
which was folded to make a small parcel that he then placed inside an envelope
and posted to an international address. Engaging with issues of circulation and
representing the marks of travel through this use of images and the fact that the
artworks literally travel the operation of Aeropostales is simple yet visually effective.
During the dictatorship years in Chile (19731989) this operation allowed Dittborn
to deceive Pinochets censorship apparatus at one of the points it was exercised
and also to challenge the distribution of knowledge between centre and periphery.
These artworks also emphasise the pressures and possibilities of globalisation.
Smaller in scale, Dittborns artworks in Space to Dream draw attention to strategies belonging to the Aerospostales which have a constant presence
in the artists oeuvre. Ideas related to travel and border crossings also feature here,
sometimes literally as in Viajar II (Travel II), 1989, or more subtly, as occurs in the
successive encounters and translations of images to different forms and media which
are seen across the artworks. Combining a number of different techniques the use
of a mixture of photography, silkscreen, calligraphy, painting, embroidery, sewing,
text and poetry is another characteristic of Dittborns work.
The artist problematises the understanding of Chilean and Latin
American art as being subordinated to ideals and canons imported from Europe.
This subordination leaves little or no space for local practices that differ from the
romantic ideal of the indigenous and the exotic. The understanding of a disjointed
and patched Latin American identity is emphasised through the use of fragmentation
and collage. These techniques connote the precariousness of the local context in
relation to technologies and knowledge imported from Europe, and reveal a lack of
fit between dissimilar cultural systems and the tensions that therefore arise when
translating referents across different contexts.
In similar vein, Restos (Remains), 1998, comprising mug shots of petty
criminals alongside the images of American natives (most of them familiar faces for
those viewers well acquainted with Dittborns work), stress the relationship between
photography a European import and power in the context of state control, and
remind viewers of the early uses of photography in the context of criminology, police
stations, prisons and mental health institutions. L V

SPACE TO DREAM

Eugenio Dittborn
Viajar II (Travel II) 1989

THE ARTISTS

159

Juan
Downey
Born 1940, Santiago, Chile /
Died 1993, New York City, USA

The well-known anthropologist Michael Taussig has noted that there are too many
stories about Juan Downeys The Laughing Alligator, 197779 narratives about
the actual laughter of the Yanomami Indians, and those about Downeys near-death
experience when, on a hunting expedition, several Indians turned their poisonous
arrows on him and he defended himself by grabbing his camera as if it were a weapon.
So many stories, Taussig implies, that at times the artwork is forgotten. Yet Taussig
reminds us of the extraordinary qualities of the video itself: he notes, for instance,
the rhythms of light and shade, flicker and sheen; the collage of images telling many
stories simultaneously; the human faces and the nearly naked bodies in loving
close-up; the importance of the absent sound. Recorded while Downey and his
family were living among the Yanomami people of Venezuela, this compelling series
of anecdotes tracks the artists search for an indigenous cultural identity and his
interest in the funerary customs of the Yanomami community, who ritually consume
the pulverised bones of their dead in a banana soup, giving rise to outsiders claims
that they are cannibals.
Downey trained in Santiago and Paris, and developed his career in
New York. He is mostly known for his innovative autobiographical and anthropological
approaches to the documentary genre, exploring both European myths and the roots
and rituals of a contested Latin American identity in complex and layered videos
based on non-linear narratives. He searched for an alternative view of the Americas,
and of his own place within it. The term invisible architect seems an apt way of
describing his working method. The fact that Downey trained as an architect in
Santiago appears anecdotal; at a more profound level, he weaved different traditions
and multiple channels to explore and rethink connections between society, history,
information and the environment. The invisible architect becomes one (interweaves
his life) with energy and manipulates this wave material, he said.1 These ideas were
first explored through paintings; later through animated electronic and kinetic
sculptures; and then in happenings and performances. For the latter he used closedcircuit television systems to record the action and audience, who were encouraged
to participate. Later on he purchased a video camera and started to experiment with
the expansion of space and time using mirrors, light, shadow and the radiant nature
of electro-magnetic energy, making him an early pioneer in the exploration of how
cities replace physical connections with virtual exchanges in the information age.
Through his association with the Raindance collective and the magazine Radical
Software, he was also at the forefront of the theorisation of video work in the 1970s,
aiming to relate the medium to political, social and ecological issues.
The Laughing Alligator is arguably his most personal video work and
the climax of his art; a combination of methods of anthropological research with
journaling, it is a liminal space of objective and subjective visions. L V

Juan Downey
The Laughing Alligator
(video still) 197779
Estate of Juan Downey,
courtesy of Marilys B Downey

1. Valerie Smith, Juan Downey:

The Invisible Architect,
MIT List Visual Arts Center,
Cambridge MA, 2011, p 7.

160

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THE ARTISTS

161

Ronald
Duarte
Born 1962, Barra Mansa,
Brazil / Lives and works in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1. Oxal is an orisha, a
spirit that reflects one
of the manifestations of
God. In this case Obatal is
the Sky Father and creator
of human bodies of the
Yoruba religion.
2. An African religious
belief that was introduced
into Brazilian culture
though the Atlantic slave
trade migration.

162

Ronald Duartes work is often described as art activism. He is most well-known

for disruptive art interventions that address political and environmental concerns.
In Brazil many artists create interferences in urban areas, both individually and
collectively, to demonstrate critical views and sensitivities they have about society
and politics. Duarte believes that by interfering in urban areas artists join collective
and political manifestations and diversify artistic processes and reveal the multiplicity inherent in urban spaces in the process.
One of Duartes interferences in urban space, Fogo Cruzado (Crossfire),
2002, referenced the crossfire between criminal factions in Santa Teresa, Rio de
Janeiro and consisted of a street action performed by 26 artists which took place
at 3 am. Each artist was responsible for one part of the action, and in their coming
together they created a sense of the collective power of crowds. Duartes intention
was to create a division in the city that invited spectators to actively become
part of a work and question how they thought about space while at the same time
exposing clandestine social powers. The dramatic space of Fogo Cruzado, created
by a flowing fire that ran through sections of the citys tramlines, refers back to
the flow of firearms among criminal groups. Spectators watched as artists inserted
flammable material into the grooves of the tram rails and simultaneously set light
to them along 1500 metres. The highly dramatic work caused differing reactions
in spectators and traversed the spectatorartwork boundary.
In much the same way Duartes video Nimbo Oxal (Nimbus Oxal1),
2004 questions the relationship between the city of Rio de Janeiro and its natural
surroundings. Rio de Janeiro has spread through demolished hills and areas of
deforestation; its growth has destroyed the areas forests and affected water quality.
Nimbo Oxal reveals how a city that once offered shelter against natures brutality
is now a cause of increasing insecurity and existential anguish, a place people move
through nostalgically seeking moments of refuge and restoration with the nature that
remains. The art action presented in the video was carried out in the outdoor patio
of the Gustavo Capanema Palace, an exemplar of Brazilian modernist architecture.
On a Friday, the weekday on which the god Oxal is traditionally worshipped, 20 actors
dressed in white released a large white cloud from fire extinguishers they carried.
This artificial cloud signifies an eruption of the sacred and represents the infinite in
the pictorial tradition. Oxal is an interjection that comes from the Arabic In shaa
Allaah meaning If God wills or hopefully in Portuguese, yet it is also the name of a
god in Yoruba Orishas.2 Duarte utilises the ambiguous image of this deity to create a
parallel with what he identifies as the ambiguous promises of humanity. M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Ronald Duarte
Nimbo Oxal (Nimbus Oxal)
(video still) 2004

THE ARTISTS

163

Juan Manuel
Echavarra
Born 1947, Medelln,
Colombia / Lives and works
in Bogot, Colombia

164

Before becoming an artist Juan Manuel Echavarra was a writer. He published two
novels: La gran catarata (The Great Waterfall) (1981) and Moros en la costa
(The Coast Is Not Clear) (1991). This literary background perhaps enhances Echavarras
ability to narrate stories through images, particularly photographs and videos. The
artist views his artwork as short stories which are told through images.
Echavarra uses literary devices such as metaphor and metonymy to
help portray the pain and grief of his country in an attempt to provide hope to the
Colombians who live in a context filled with devastation and brutality. Echavarras
work explores reality to examine the tragedy of a country at war while attempting
to preserve the memory of the Colombian conflict. Visiting sites of conflict and
searching for scenes that can convey the situation to those who have not witnessed
what is occurring in remote locations, places Echavarra has come to call cemeteries,
is part of the artists working method.
In 2010 Echavarra was invited to visit Mampujn in the Montes de
Mara, Colombia. The local community gathered to commemorate 10 years since
their exile, which was brought about by the actions of the paramilitary group Heroes
de los Montes de Mara. During this visit Echavarra began his photographic series
Serie Silencios (Silence Series), 2010ongoing. As he was walking by the abandoned
remains of the Escuela Rural Mixta de Mampujn, one of the municipal schools of
this community whose roofs are broken and floors covered in vegetation, Echavarra
spotted vowels written on a chalkboard. He was lured by the handwriting and colour
of the letters, which seemed as if they were dancing on the board. Individual letters
were still visible, despite the humidity and passing of time, except for o the letter
that became the title of the first photograph in this series.
Another discovery Echavarra made during his walk around Mampujn
was the phrase Lo bonito es estar vivo (Being alive is what is beautiful), also written
on a chalkboard. These barely legible words were clear enough to be read and they
conveyed to Echavarra the essence of what had become the daily struggle in this
place: to be alive.
The photographs of these empty spaces touch the collective memory
of all those who were forced to leave their towns and villages and provide at least
a brief restoration of the time before this exodus. The series includes images from
schools belonging to more than 60 towns and cities in Colombia, the majority located
in the Montes de Mara, and the project is ongoing. A I & M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Juan Manuel Echavarra

4 parts from Serie Silencios
(Silence Series) 201015

THE ARTISTS

165

Virginia
Errzuriz
Born 1941, Santiago,
Chile / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

166

Virginia Errzurizs art making has from the outset of her practice focused on the
use of print, drawing, photographs and especially found objects which she collects
and combines to create diverse installations. Her approach when selecting materials
is analytical and her arrangement of a works constituent parts rigorous. Items in
Errzurizs art include discarded cardboard, industrial waste, newspaper clippings,
postcards and other such ubiquitous everyday objects. The artist defines her work
as pieces to be put together, and she reduces the elements present in her artworks
to the point that they offer only small signals for the viewer to employ in their interpretation of what they are seeing.
In 1974, Errzuriz founded along with her husband and fellow artist
Francisco Brugnoli the Taller de Artes Visuales (TAV, Visual Arts Workshop).
The workshop, which was formed in response to the Chilean military dictatorship,
was created after more than half of the professors teaching at the Arts Faculty of
the Universidad de Chile lost their teaching positions. The TAV was created as a
place that could house a printing workshop and it promoted the freedom to make
art, which was at the time restricted. The importance of the TAV in the context
of the 1970s lies in the fact that it allowed the dissemination of works by new
artists. Besides being a member of this group, Errzuriz has been an art educator
for decades, and her way of thinking and her visual work have provided important
inspirations for many generations of young artists.
Among Errzurizs artworks her textiles are noteworthy, particularly
the tapestries created in the late 1960s during her youth. Errzuriz was at that
time searching for new materials to use and in this quest began to create textile
collages. The first of these works had a strong connection with femininity and
motherhood, and related also to the time of its creation. Much in the same way as
she composes installations with collected objects, the method of embroidery the
way she was able to return to it periodically to include found pieces of fabric, old
clothes even some of her own bras or petticoats appealed to the artist. The tapestry
collage gradually becomes completed during an extended process of reflection.
The characters depicted within Errzurizs collages allude to personal references,
including caricatures of her family. These are, in a way, an approximation of folk or
popular art. Through her work Errzuriz questions art, especially the traditional
means of artistic production and how the representation of reality is conceived
and realised. A I & M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Virginia Errzuriz
Tapices/Bordados
(Tapestries/Embroideries)
196667

THE ARTISTS

167

Len
Ferrari
Born 1920, Buenos Aires,
Argentina / Died 2013,
Buenos Aires, Argentina

168

The total freedom to create a crafted object or a shocking ethical statement is

the hallmark of this Argentinean artists work. At the time of his death in 2013,
aged 83, the polemical Ferrari was considered one of Argentinas and the worlds
most important living artists. He created sculptures for children in public spaces
and used paper collages to convey his critical views on politics and accepted social
standards. Ferraris wide use of materials and ways of working plaster, wood and
wire sculptures, drawings and texts, painting and film, various types of inscription
from religious imagery to Braille is contemporary, rich and appealing, as the
collages from his later years show. These pieces were still considered heretical in
2004, when they were vandalised in an exhibition celebrating his lifes work in
Buenos Aires.
Ferrari never attended art school, a fact he considered beneficial
to his work. He told his biographer Andrea Giunta that a lack of taught technique
helped him to work it out by his own means. He became a formal artist during a
residency in Italy and always moved internationally, though he remained strongly
rooted in Argentina. After training as an engineer (until his 1976 exile in So Paulo
he worked in chemistry), he decided to become an artist at age 30. First he created
ceramic, wood and wire works, whose properties evoked musical compositions,
which he could hang as subtle sculptures or architectural pieces. Then he started
a long series of abstract drawings that resembled writing and were related to the
works of Paul Klee and Henri Michaux. These works form a new visual language
with its own set of meanings.
In the late 1960s Ferrari started creating a long series of subversive
collages and pieces that manipulated commonplace images. He appropriated
cultural and Christian icons and texts, and through his work played judge and
jury to political leaders of the time, critiquing their ideological abuses of power.
One of his most striking works was a two-metre high image of a US bomber airplane
which included the figure of Christ crucified. His interpretations of the Bible,
in the 1980s, mixed with his work on big urban scales, social problems and maps.
The main themes of his compositions in that period were massacre, torture and the
Argentinean dictatorship. These works were called excessive metaphors by critic
Horacio Zabala for their questioning statements of the world and the way they give
viewers a very precise image of violence.
In 1991 Ferrari returned to Buenos Aires from Brazil and introduced
into his oeuvre a new extreme: excrement mixed with oil painting, new graphic
writing, mannequins and wire, newspaper and clothes, non-rhythmic music,
popular iconography and pornography. He also became a regular contributor to
the newspaper Pgina/12, criticising Catholic authorities and anti-Semitism. His
texts are collected in Prosa poltica (Political Prose, 2005). M F

SPACE TO DREAM

Len Ferrari
LOsservatore Romano 2007

THE ARTISTS

169

Ignacio
Gumucio
Born 1971, Via del Mar,
Chile / Lives and works in
Santiago, Chile

170

In recent years mural painting has become a characteristic aspect of the work of
Ignacio Gumucio. Trained as an engraver, he has dedicated himself to painting and
creating a body of work that comprises images of great compositional simplicity
a small figure in an empty room, for example and which simultaneously possess
overwhelming complexity, such as his representation of immense architectural
structures whose graphic elements approach abstraction.
Gumucios tendency to geometrical abstraction was displayed in the
exhibition Lo fcil y lo difcil (The Easy and the Difficult, 2010). This aesthetic did
not develop in the same way as those of the modern avant-garde through the choice
of basic materials and the need to build a programmatic oeuvre. Gumucio states
that he works with a mental image of models that lose their relevance, and that he is
more interested in the pictorial resolution of distorted images which, paradoxically,
bear closer relationships to a certain space or environment. The plain, analytical
character of some of his artwork is just one of the aesthetic solutions Gumucio has
found for the problem presented by abstraction. In Gumucios practice we find a
complementarity at work between his graphic composition of shapes and the close
attention he pays to the abstract qualities of matter, such as brightness or transparency,
which he achieves through the combination of varnishes, enamels, acrylics, oils and
photocopies of figures.
Gumucio also tackles the issue of abstraction in an exact opposite
manner, as seen in Sauce mental (Mental Willow), 2012. In this case the model, the
starting point, is its own abstraction, the idea of something generic here, a willow
tree. Gumucio paints the idea of a willow by letting paint trickle along the picture
plane and then tips the work horizontally so a puddle forms, which he leaves to dry.
Thus, the same issue regarding abstraction is solved by the different technique
of dripping. This method was also used by Gumucio in his latest murals, such
as Superacin (Improvement), 2015 and Salvar la Navidad. Murales sin moraleja
(To Save Christmas. Murals without a Moral), 2014.
Gumucio created his first mural after being commissioned by the
Parsito Gallery in Prague. Everybody Knows that Our Cities Were Built to be
Destroyed, 2008 was exhibited for just one day, after which it was wiped clean.
This was a formative moment in the artists practice. Talking about his creative
process, Gumucio has indicated that the murals offer a counterpoint to working in
his studio, where painting has a different rhythm because a work can be returned to
repeatedly over time. With murals, Gumucio subjects himself to an intensive regime
of working to a short deadline a strategy borne out of necessity. Following the
Prague work he painted five other murals, all ephemeral, for which he employed
different materials and worked in varied spaces. The mastery of Gumucios combination of aesthetic decisions and technical methods in his latest artworks show the
maturity of his practice. D S

SPACE TO DREAM

Ignacio Gumucio
Salvar la Navidad. Murales sin
Moraleja (To Save Christmas. Murals
without a Moral) (in progress) 2014

THE ARTISTS

171

Patrick
Hamilton
Born 1974, Leuven,
Belgium / Lives and works
in Madrid, Spain

Patrick Hamiltons work, which re-examines and assembles art historical forms
and architectural features, is tethered at its foundations to the social and political
climate of contemporary Chile. Hamilton creates a framework from which to
look critically at the influence of the neo-liberal economy on social and cultural
fields since its imposition under the Pinochet regime in the 1980s alongside the
Chilean economists known as the Chicago Boys. The three interlaced diamonds of
Intersecciones (Intersections), 2014, are an example. Lying expansively across the
gallery wall, these spike drawings are reminiscent of the geometric minimalism of
Sol Le Witt or Donald Judd. The material is modelled on the spikes that border and
provide security for middle and upper-class homes in Santiago. The work, with the
diamonds representation of delimitation and confinement, throws social divisions
into plain view. Referring to the traditions of Constructivism, geometric abstraction
and Minimalism, Hamilton made the observation, In this sense it is a series that
joins an extreme formalism of minimal shapes, with social context.1
Understated and eloquent, Hamiltons work has been continually
influenced by the context of his upbringing. Manifest in the three Traba Volante
(Wheel Lock), 2014, pieces is an exploration of the fragility of Chiles image of wealth
and prosperity a sort of societal aesthetic that acts to mask the many pitfalls of
economic and cultural globalisation. Brought to a fluid copper patina, the wheel
locks themselves the product of inequality call into question Chiles profound
social and economic divides. Copper accounts for over half of the nations exports
and represents a significant portion of the economys turnover. In 2014, a steady
drop in the copper price caused the Chilean peso to slip and drew attention to the
instability of the popular rhetoric of advancement and exultation. Employing material weighted with significance Hamilton translates everyday objects into a site of
questioning. The copper and the wheel locks are used as two sides of the same coin:
affluence and disparity.
Two earlier series Proyecto de Arquitecturas Revestidas (Project of
Coated Architectures), 200709, and Santiago derive, 2008, show a consistency
in this narrative, as the artist delicately shines a light on two differing aspects of
Santiago. In Proyecto de Arquitecturas Revestidas, by replacing the silhouettes of
banking houses and skyscrapers in Sanhattan with a plastic film of imitation marble
or exotic wood, Hamilton playfully exhibits the bland homogenisation of the citys
corporate architecture and Chiles place in the global market. While Santiago derive,
an exhibition almost in homage to the tricycle used commonly by street vendors
in central Santiago, speaks of the socioeconomic dislocation of the working class.
Each of his objects, installations, photographs and pieces of collage
induce thoughtful reflection. Appropriating utilitarian materials or images, visual
metaphor, and popular myth, the artist questions their cultural and sociopolitical
value. Hamilton presents an intelligent and often scathing critique of postdictatorship Chile, veiled behind an immaculate visual and conceptual aesthetic. R G

Patrick Hamilton
Intersecciones (Intersections)
(detail) 2014

1. Patrick Hamilton,
artist statement, www.
abstractioninaction.com/
patrick-hamilton/, accessed
6 Jan 2016.

172

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THE ARTISTS

173

Juan
Fernando
Herrn
Born 1963, Bogot,
Colombia / Lives and works
in Bogot, Colombia

174

The work of Colombian artist Juan Fernando Herrn proposes a direct encounter
with the existing world. His visual reflections focus primarily on the Colombian
context and his work generally speaks of concerns revolving around geography and
the changes human beings impose on the environment. Herrns mode of work varies
between the activation of found objects as if he were some kind of archaeologist
and photography or drawing.
Escalas (Steps), 2008 is based on the artists experience of walking
through the slums of Medelln, in Colombias mountainous Antioquia province, and
questioning the processes of construction that define public spaces. Medelln is
surrounded by hillsides inhabited by a low-income population. The construction of
the city reflects the basic needs of having to claim and occupy a space. Medellns
urban fabric is mainly formed by the stairs and walkways that were gradually and
organically built by its inhabitants to access their homes. Herrns project also
refers to the widespread presence of public sculptures in Medelln, resulting from
a government initiative that began in 1982. For more than a decade, the government
supported and promoted the installation of sculptural works in urban spaces. Herrn,
aware of how this policy would influence the relationship a city holds with sculpture,
developed a photographic series which portrays his interest in three-dimensional
elements, or compositions, that are not necessarily labelled as art.
At a primary level, the images that comprise the series Escalas portray
how the inhabitants of these marginalised areas have managed to claim sections of
the terrain and create accesses to their homes, defying the geography of the area.
On a second level, the work reflects how citizens contribute to the construction
of public spaces as a result of the need they have for private space that may be
adjusted to their personal requirements. Thus, as suggested by the artist, the idea
of public and private implicate and depend on each other. Herrns photography
makes obvious the way in which the practical, idiosyncratic and symbolic aspects of
a population are manifested in the construction of the stairs. The artwork reflects
how public spaces are responses to individual and collective needs and, most importantly, may sometimes create a utopia of social inclusion and development. A I & M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Juan Fernando Herrn

Bifurcacin (Junction) 2008

THE ARTISTS

175

Alfredo
Jaar
Born 1956, Santiago,
Chile / Lives and works
in New York City, USA

5. 4. 3. 2. 1. An amateur Youtube video1 of Alfredo Jaars 2014 version of A Logo for

America opens with a spinning film leader counting down on a giant LED screen.
The hand-held footage was shot amid dense crowds in Times Square, New York, at
precisely 11.57 pm. As the counter reaches zero Jaars short loop commences with a
solid white silhouette of the United States of America set against black. The white
fill of the country quickly dissolves to black, leaving only its skeletal outlines, and
this icon is then covered by the words THIS IS NOT AMERICA. Moments later
we cut to a colour rendition of the USA flag which similarly switches to stark black
and white outlines and is superimposed with the message: THIS IS NOT AMERICAS FLAG. Finally, the word AMERICA is isolated and grows to fill the frame.
A silhouette of the entire American continent, from the upper regions of Canada to
lowest borders of Argentina and Chile wipes out the word, triggering an animated
sequence in which the single word AMERICA is repeatedly stacked and animated
alongside the cheeky spinning icon of the entire continent. AMERICA. AMERICA.
AMERICA . . . The concise message closes with Alfredo Jaars name and immediately loops. As the raw footage continues to track over several prominent buildings
Jaars public service announcement is seen looping simultaneously across many
sites until its midnight shut-off.
The clarity of Jaars digital protest banners leaves little room for
confusion. A Logo for America, 1987 highlights the pernicious effect of using the
shorthand term America to describe the United States. For Jaar: Language is not
innocent. It reflects a geopolitical reality. 2 Despite the 2014 reiteration of the
piece being synched across 11 signs and 40 screens, in comparison to the adjacent
conglomeration of the worlds power-brands from McDonalds to Gucci Jaar
described his own work as a small gesture of resistance. A Logo for America is less
an all encompassing spectacle than a pointed provocation for thinking through the
power of language in shaping our perceptions of nationhood.
Jaars practice places pressure on our everyday encounters with language
and image-based sign systems. One of his most renowned works, Untitled (Newsweek), 1994 featured 17 consecutive weeks of the magazines celebrity-clad covers
in 1994. Each cover focused on a single cultural figure in American culture, among
them portraits commemorating the deaths that year of rocker Kurt Cobain, United
States President Richard Nixon and former First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, along
with multiple covers addressing the murder trial of American footballer O J Simpson.
Jaar annotated the images with accounts of the Rwandan tragedy as it simultaneously
unfolded, concluding the line-up with the 1 August cover that acknowledged the mass
genocide which resulted in approximately 1 million deaths. With such a strategy, the
imagery and text in each cover can only be seen as being fully complicit in facilitating
a devastating distraction from this monumental tragedy. S C

Alfredo Jaar
A Logo For America 1987
Digital Animation commissioned by
The Public Art Fund
Times Square, New York, April 1987

1. www.youtube.com/
watch?v=hYacuiq6PbE,
accessed 18 Oct 2015.
2. www.news.artnet.com/
art-world/alfredo-jaars1987-video-interventionretakes-times-square69623,accessed 18 Oct 2015.

176

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THE ARTISTS

177

Cristbal
Len
Born 1980, Santiago,
Chile / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

Joaqun
Cocia
Born 1980, Concepcin,
Chile / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

Like New Zealand, Chile is a land with a history of natural disasters where buildings
are constructed with the knowledge that they may eventually collapse. The permanent
threat of this and the social and political breakdown that exists across South America
places the continent and its people in a constant state of vulnerability. Chilean
artists Cristbal Len and Joaqun Cocia consider this precarious situation, where
there is no solid base on which to build culture, as being a release: When one is not
always aware of where to step you are seen liberated from falling into consistency,
correctness and a constant preoccupation with transcendence.1 Inspired by this
sense of instability, Len and Cocia explore processes of creation through a focus
on construction, bringing layers of production to the surface of their work.
In Len and Cocias considered yet playful approach they acknowledge
the context in which they work, embracing the sometimes chaotic environment of
museums and galleries while asserting arts status as a living entity. The handmade
aesthetic of their video works and temporary installations, along with their inclusive
way of working, refutes the slick, excessively formal and the marketable nature of
a lot of contemporary artwork, which privileges product over process. Their recent
projects involve collaborating with students and audiences to develop and construct
new artworks, and take the form of studio-sculptures. Their decision to make the
creative process and artworks construction more visible for audiences developed
through the artists observation that the process is often more interesting than the
finished result.
The video work Los Andes (The Andes), 2012, is the first chapter
of Len and Cocias personal Bible, in which the artists attempt to create a new
Latin American religion using stop-motion animation, tape, cardboard and paint.
The work is centred inside a dark, innocuous-looking office where basic materials
come to life as a paper mouse scuttles across the floor and a forest and mountains,
made of paint and cellophane, burst from the computer screen. The homemade quality
of the work reinforces the duos strong interest in performance and the transformation of materials, and alludes to the constructed nature of South Americas own
creation stories. Stepping outside of their comfort zones, Len and Cocia adopt the
role of prophets using the writing of Chilean poet Miguel Serrano, author of esoteric
and nationalistic texts, to suggest how easy it is to create myths and religions. J W

Cristbal Len, Joaqun Cocia

Los Andes (The Andes) (video still)
2012

1. Cristobal Len and Joaqun

Cocia, exhibition proposal
to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o
Tmaki, Nov 2015.

178

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THE ARTISTS

179

Marcos
Lpez
Born 1958, Santa Fe,
Argentina / Lives and
works in Buenos Aires,
Argentina

1. Valeria Gonzlez,
The Photography of Marcos
Lpez in the context of
Argentinean art of the
Nineties, http://www.
marcoslopez.com/en/textosacerca-gonzalez-contexto.
php, accessed 6 Jan 2016.

180

When Marcos Lpez began to use colour in his photography in the early 1990s
his work underwent a sudden and immense shift. No longer satisfied with the
iconographic, black and white documentary style that had tended to typify Latin
American photography, Lpez began to employ an explicitly theatrical language.
These photographs, heralded by the 1993 photograph La Ciudad de la Alegra, came
to be known as his Pop Latino work. The aesthetics are easily recognisable, yet
filled with dualities tribute and criticism, the individual and the universal, vibrant
humour and restrained seriousness they resist simple categorisation.
Lpez picks up on the prosaic, the unsophisticated, the common
and, often, those with clear aspirations for something more. The queen in Reina.
Iquitos, Per, 2012, offers an example of this. She is reticent and her attire lies
in stark contrast with her surroundings. Posed ahead of a painted mural of the
Amazon, the figure joins a cast of grinning characters: a bare-chested mermaid, a
jaguar and a garishly pink dolphin, and an indigenous archetype hauling a fish from
the river. As in many of Lpezs works the viewer is given little by way of explanation, yet the story builds, perhaps, as an allegory of the increasing degradation of
local culture in the face of a global world. In Reina. Iquitos, Per, as in Cementerio.
Iquitos, Per, 2012, an underlying political current is evident, an illustration of the
uneven progress and visibility of modernity in Latin America. You see the dualities
of cultures in transition, where the aesthetics of mass consumerism are contrasted
with traditional dress or a historic setting. In this disparity Lpez positions the
viewer in an uncertain space we are left to contemplate our own assumptions of
Latin American identity.
This language of society in transition presents itself as a common
thread in another 2012 work, Terraza. San Pablo, Brasil. The tableau is precariously
positioned on the edge of a terrace high above the city. The scene is littered with
excess and each of the vapid figures is adorned with the paraphernalia of commercial
culture. Terraza. San Pablo, Brasil acts as a sociopolitical chronicle that questions
the promises of modernity and neo-liberal economy. The vibrancy of the foreground
lies in opposition with the view to the figures backs, where a construction site tears
down the old remains of the city, and a skyline of bland, late 20th-century highrises
speaks to the realities of dense urban living in the metropolis of So Paulo.
In recent years, following a teaching position in Latvia, Lpezs
approach has expanded. This is evident in his 2014 series, Riga. In these Latvian
works the kitsch, the colour and the scale are reminiscent of the Pop aesthetic
of the 1960s and yet the artist employs this language as a way of foregrounding
particularities of behaviour, beliefs and lifestyles. Lpez uses this model as a site
of transgression, exaggerating the Pop and transforming his images into a kind of
theatrical performance for the viewer to consume.1 R G

SPACE TO DREAM

Marcos Lpez
Terraza. So Paulo, Brasil
(Terrace, So Paulo, Brazil)
2012

THE ARTISTS

181

Kevin
Mancera
Born 1982, Bogot,
Colombia / Lives and works
in Bogot, Colombia

182

Kevin Mancera is an artist/illustrator from Colombia. His work is characterised by

a delicacy and complexity of line and the mixing of images with ironic and witty
phrases that reveal the artists critical view. Mancera generally uses pencil on paper
to create his drawings, some of which have been reproduced in beautiful illustrated
books and presented in installations that occupy entire rooms.
Mancera is interested in systems of organisation lists, for example. He
transforms some of these systems into projects, while others simply help him manage
his work and daily life. Mancera believes that the list, as a form of classification, helps
people understand their surroundings in a different way revealing relationships
between things and places that one would normally not connect, which allows for a
new way of thinking. It was through one of these lists that Mancera created his project
La Felicidad (Happiness), 2012.
After discovering that South America has more than 15 settlements
called Felicidad, he embarked on a 12-month expedition through seven countries.
On this journey, Mancera travelled from one Felicidad to the next, facing a series
of setbacks and obstacles as he attempted to reach some of the places. Manceras
voyage became an analogy for the pursuit of happiness by all human beings.
Throughout his trip the artist met with markedly different situations.
In some towns the name Felicidad had been changed; other sites had such adverse
climates that they were virtually impossible to reach; and in some he received
police warnings not to enter. Mancera travelled through these places with only a few
notebooks, drawing pencils and his camera. His notebooks gradually filled up with
drawings and notes of his tour and he took photographs of each place. Manceras
pursuit of happiness gradually became a poetic passage through South America a
pilgrimage in search of happiness. A I & M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Kevin Mancera
La Felicidad (Happiness)
(sketchbook) 2012

THE ARTISTS

183

Antonio
Manuel
Born 1947, Avels de Caminha,
Portugal / Lives and works
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

184

Antonio Manuel started working during the 1960s and became familiar with
some of the most well-known Brazilian artists of the second part of the century,
including Lygia Clark, Hlio Oiticica, Lygia Pape and Ivan Serpa, and also the
critic Mrio Pedrosa. Oiticica, in particular, was a mentor to Manuel when he was
based in Rio de Janeiro, where Manuel has lived for several decades. Key elements
of Oiticicas works lie at the core of Manuels practice the commitment to make
work outside traditional art institutions and an active engagement with the audience.
Like many of the artists of this generation, Manuel expanded the limits of art practice.
He used his own body to challenge the Brazilian dictatorships social and political
repression with boldness and irreverence. At other times his challenges were more
covert. Ignoring the restrictions of the 1960s and 1970s, Manuel emphasised the
randomness of military decisions regarding censorship.
Artworks from the 1960s illustrate Manuels interest in mass media,
cultural dissemination and strategies of appropriation of mainstream circuits. These
were expressed by the use of newspapers and sensationalist headlines that mirror the
language and fake truths of popular journalism. A number of his artworks from 1968
feature student riots and other political events. During this time, Manuels actual
process of production involved a semi-clandestine access to the newspaper O Dias
printing workshop, which led to his interference in certain runs of the newspaper
itself. The resulting series, Clandestinas (Clandestines), 1973, comprised altered
news and images of front pages. These were produced in limited runs which followed
the usual circulation of the official newspaper. The Clandestinas highlight a key
concern of Manuel and other artists working in the same cultural milieu: exploring
new routes for social activism while being immersed in the aesthetic and poetic
dimensions of the everyday; and finding new forms of artistic practice that would not
fit into the traditional repertoire of the left. His interest in the actual mechanisms
of the production of mass media is evident in Contra represso (Against Repression),
1968, Clero define situao (Clergy Defines the Situation), 1968 and Guerra do
Consumo / vampiro insacivel (War of Consumption / Insatiable Vampire), 1975, all
of which expose the high and low relief matrices used for the printing process of
periodicals, and therefore highlight the newspaper as a graphically constructed site.
Other examples of the use of mass media as a political and playful
tool in Manuels work are drawings of silhouettes with black ink crayon over printed
newspaper headlines and images. Some of his untitled drawings show cut-out doll
figures, a form of automatons, looking at bureaucrats who stand in front of the iconic
Brazilian flag with the slogan Ordem e Progresso (Order and Progress) followed by
a question mark. A similar questioning and subversion of the well-known Brazilian
motto is present in Sem represso h ordem (Without Repression There Is Order),
1968, which makes a less direct but still obvious reference to the historical modernising narrative of the country, hampered in this context by a restrictive government
that limits the political agency of its citizens. L V

SPACE TO DREAM

Antonio Manuel
Sem represso h ordem (Without
Repression There Is Order) 1968

THE ARTISTS

185

Cinthia
Marcelle
Born 1974, Belo Horizonte,
Brazil / Lives and works in
Belo Horizonte, Brazil

O Sculo (The Century), 2011 opens with the view of an empty street. You soon
hear sounds: running and an echoing crash. Rocks are thrown from the right, then
helmets, buckets, shoes, crates and videotapes. The sound, now louder, is unceasing.
Fluorescent tubes shatter into dust. Artists Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Machado
create a conflict between two unseen sides as brooms, chairs, a barrel and clothing
join the rubble which builds to the left. Gas bombs are thrown back to the other end
of the square. The whole scene slows under the fog and sirens ring out. The screen
turns black a pause for reflection then, in a mirrored copy of the first half, debris
rains down to the right.
The title O Sculo was drawn from French philosopher Alain Badious book The Century (2005), which also influenced the ideology of the artwork.
It alludes to Walter Benjamins conception of divine violence a violence that does not
seek an end, but instead acts as a pure and freeing anger which creates a new order.1
Conceived of in the context of the 2010 Arab Spring, the work reflects Benjamins
freeing anger in its disorderly action, which contains within it a generative power.
The interplay in Marcelles choreographies and installations between harmony and
chaos raises questions over participation in and resistance against the status quo,
and at times borders on affirmative calls for civil disobedience.
If O Sculo is an exercise in disorder, perhaps Cruzada (Crusade),
2010 is one of cooperation. Greeted by an empty crossroads, the viewer hears
the faint clanging of cymbals. Sixteen musicians march into the frame, four by four.
Each group comes from a different arm of the cross and performs a disorganised and
incomplete tune on percussion and wind instruments. A challenge of sorts begins,
which soon dissolves into a synchronised exchange that forms four groups of different
instruments. As the clusters take shape, the music becomes harmonious. As in much
of her film work for example, Automvel (Automobile), 2012 the viewer holds
a unique position above the fray, reinforcing the idea of a larger structuring force
playing a part in the choreographies. Here, too, the movement of vehicles, people and
objects all that initially appear to be insignificant or slight translate into poetic
manifestations of exchange.
Common threads run through Marcelles practice. For installations
such as Dust Never Sleeps, 2014, the focal point was a vast room coated in a dense
layer of black soot. The only strip left bare for visitors was starkly defined against the
black. This again presented a dichotomy between order and disorder, and embodied
Benjamins notion of history being in an inexorable state of decline.
Marcelle describes her work as a synthesis of the world around her. She
elevates the everyday small acts that may have greater ramifications, now or in the
future. Inheriting the uncertainties of a generation marked by economic, ideological
and political upheaval, Marcelles work skirts the prescribed relationship to this
history, and offers a poetic yet subversive reflection on social behaviour and societal
structures. RG

Cinthia Marcelle, Tiago Mata Machado

O sculo (The Century) (video stills)
2011

1. Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago

Mata Machado in Zizhiqu:
Autonomous Regions, Hou
Hanru (ed), Times Museum,
Guangzhou Shi, 2013, p 151.

186

SPACE TO DREAM

THE ARTISTS

187

Eduardo
Navarro
Born 1979 Buenos Aires,
Argentina / Lives and works
in Buenos Aires, Argentina

188

The bronze walnuts in Eduardo Navarros Monuments, 2016 are modest in scale
and they contrast the indestructible metal containers of officially sanctioned time
capsules, which interest the artist and which the works title goes some way to
evoke. Burying and reopening time capsules is traditionally steeped in ceremony, as
carefully chosen artefacts and stories of the present are packaged for storage, and
then unlocked by later generations. The unearthing of these containers of historic
information, which are often secured under plaques or set into the foundations
of state monuments and buildings, is rarely left to chance. This also differs from
Navarros Monuments project. His walnut time capsules are buried, but their locations
are known only to those who bury them there is no public record or set date for their
opening. The completion of the artwork a series of completions, not a single one
occurs only when the walnuts are discovered.
Time capsules act like temporal full stops. Encapsulating a defined
period, they punctuate the seeming endlessness of time. In Navarros work, it is as
if time has been transferred onto the little bronze nut and paused until someone
finds the object and reactivates it by carrying it into their life. The walnut, with its
familiar ridged surface of two fused halves, also acts as a poetic metaphor for the
unknowable mysteries of life. Its kernel, invisible in Navarros work but present
by suggestion, strongly resembles the convoluted topography of the human brain,
the site of planning, reasoning, abstract thought and memory the unknowable
essence of the individual.
Navarro associates his early understanding of time with his childhood
experience of Ecuadors landscape, particularly its mountains and lakes. For the
artist, that landscape had an immutable, enduring quality, and Navarro has said
that he often thought about the billions and billions of invisible particles that form
mountain peaks. In a performance-based work, Timeless Alex, 2015, he explored the
way a human might phenomenologically experience a different kind of time from
the perspective of a tortoise, famous for its slowness and long life. Donning a paper
shell inspired by Lonesome George, the last documented member of the Chelonoidis
abingdoni species, Navarro gave a two-hour performance in which he embodied a
tortoises feeling of time by slowing down his metabolism.
Navarros practice often involves collaboration with specialists from
different fields to explore alternative solutions to environmental and social issues.
In Tratamiento homeoptico para el Rio de la Plata (Homeopathic Treatment for the
River Plate), 2013, for example, a rivers wellness was measured after a specific
homeopathic treatment was administered to it. Navarro collaborated with the
active volcano Guagua Pichincha in Poema volcanico (Volcanic Poem), 2014, which
painted with its gas emissions.
The modest hand-made quality of many of Navarros artworks creates
a feeling of accessibility a counterpoint to the technical expertise and abstract
conceptual framework that underpins his practice. Navarro questions environments
and structures, drawing on cross-disciplinary knowledge to test ideas and present
new possibilities for now, and for the future. J W

SPACE TO DREAM

Eduardo Navarro
Monuments (detail) 2016

THE ARTISTS

189

Maria
Nepomuceno
Born in 1976 in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil / Lives and
works in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil

Brazilian artist Maria Nepomucenos biomorphic installations coil up walls and

slump onto the floor. Expansive and unruly, her works evoke the somatic and the
botanical worlds of growth and renewal. Nepomuceno imbues ready-made material
with metaphorical significance rope becomes a circulatory system linking the
parts of the work, connecting the ceramic flesh and the cellular beads. Together,
these colourful colonies of forms radiate energy, as Nepomuceno explains: There
is a pulsation that is vital to my work. The spiral is about infinite transformation.
It always makes the same movements, but always along a new path. Its the umbilical
cord, of cyclones, of planets, DNA and galaxies.1
In Grande Boca (Big Mouth), 2013 a mass of orange beads spill from
an aperture in the central form, which functions as a kind of heart in the installation.
Inside lies a trove of vessels that are filled with colourful beads, and a long pink
tonsil-like structure stands in the centre. Grande Boca creates a sense of movement
across space, beyond the boundaries and formality of traditional plinth-based
sculpture. The work was first shown in the exhibition TRANS (2014), whose title
evokes words such as transform, transmute and transcend, all terms which may be
related to the effect of Nepomucenos art.
Ideas of movement and time are central to the artists organic-looking
forms and fertile environments. Time is given to the making of the work and time
is needed to experience it. Grande Bocas vitality operates at macro and micro
levels. Multi-coloured ropes of different weights and gauges are coiled, braided
and bound to create open and sealed forms which appear to swell and deflate.
An ancient symbol the spiral motif is present in the construction of the works,
and has symbolic resonance for Nepomuceno who believes it connect[s] human
beings, the Cosmos and Nature. The spiral, she says, is the only open form that
expands inside and outside at the same time.2
The theme of connectivity is not just expressed through formal
means; it flows into the making of the works. Nepomuceno is interested in collective
practices, pointing out that contemporary art is about singularity each artist is
looking for the unique, like a tribe in him or herself. Which is the opposite to the
indigenous culture of Brazil.3 Drawing on the diverse cultural practices of Brazil and
the textile and fibre-based work of Indigenous, African and European communities,
Nepomuceno incorporates different forms of weaving in her installations. The
recent large-scale installation Tempo para Respirar (Breathing Time), 2013, at
Turner Contemporary, was made with the assistance of local artists who donated
materials and worked together on the construction of the work. Like Grande Boca,
the Turner work transformed rope, clay vessels and beads into an environment
that evoked earthy experiences and the deep connections shared between people
across time. J W

Maria Nepomuceno
Grande Boca (Big Mouth)
(installation view) 2013

1. Corinne Julius,Time
to Breath The Work of
Maria Nepomuceno, Craft
Arts International no 87,
2013, p 82.
2. As above, p 82.
3. As above p 82.

190

SPACE TO DREAM

THE ARTISTS

191

Ernesto
Neto
Born 1964, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil / Lives and works in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Ernesto Netos large-scale installations are arresting and sensuous, with biomorphic
forms that evoke the otherworldly labyrinths of subcellular structures. Composed
of elaborate web-like constructions and soft globular shapes that stretch and
droop through space, they present counterpoints of lightness and weight, tactility
and ethereality.
The immersive installation Just like drops in time, nothing, 2002,
invites a heightened engagement with our sensing selves. The installations scale
and simplicity is visually mesmerising heavy droplet-like forms hang at different
levels from a canopy of finely stretched white fabric. You are likely to smell the
work before you see it. Highly scented spices seep through the white gauze filling
the gallery with the fragrant aromas of turmeric and cloves, and creating dusty
pools of colour.
Netos practice is in dialogue with Brazils culture and history, and it
continues the legacy of Neo-Concretism and the experiential work of Hlio Oiticica and
Lygia Clark. This earlier generation of artists inverted modernist ideas of rationalism,
which they considered colonialist, and redefined the role of the artist and art object
through the dynamics of participatory experiences that actively engaged the body.
Netos interactive installation Anthropodino, at the Park Avenue Armory, New York
in 2009, layered ideas from anthropology with references to the Brazilian concept
of Anthropfagia. Poet Oswald de Andrade coined the term in the 1920s to express
the idea of Brazils history of cannibalising other cultures as a sign of strength over
colonial powers. Inspired by Oiticicas engagement with Tropiclia in the 1960s,
which also referenced de Andrades ideas, Neto constructed a cavernous dreamscape
with flexible fabrics, spices and Styrofoam that recalled a microscopic view of a cell.
Neto said: When I do a large work like that, I think about how to put humanity in it.
The whole anthropodino idea considers the human being in a scientific way, not only as
an individual or as a part of society, but in the sense of an organ. In society, the human
being must be an organ or cell. So this is a cell.1
The artists soft sculptures have been installed in a range of architectural settings, from the modern white cube to more historic sites including the
Panthon in Paris. Inside hard industrial shells, Netos organic installations strike a
dynamic tension which mirrors the relationship between Brazils modern cities and
the countrys primordial jungle. He explains, Im not trying to make design-based
works. I try instead to create a kind of fantasy of nature, and a hypothesis about a
structure of a body.2 J W

Ernesto Neto
Just like drops in time, nothing
(installation detail, Art Gallery
of New South Wales) 2002

1. Jess Wilcox,Anthropodino:
A Conversation with Ernesto
Neto, Art in America, 27 May
2009, accessed 21 Dec 2015.
2. Ralph Rugoff,An Interview
with Ernesto Netoin Ernesto
Neto: The Edges of the World,
Cliff Lauson (ed), et al,
Hayward Publishing, London,
2010, p 22.

192

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THE ARTISTS

193

Hlio
Oiticica
Born 1937, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil / Died 1980, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil

1. Monica Amor,From Work

to Frame, In Between and
Beyond: Lygia Clark and Hlio
Oiticica 19591964: Grey
Room, no 38 Winter 2010, p 23.
2. Hlio Oiticica,
Tropiclia in Brett et al,
Hlio Oiticica, Walker Art
Center and Witte de With
Center for Contemporary Art,
Minneapolis and Rotterdam,
1993, p 126.

194

Hlio Oiticicas multi-disciplinary practice transferred the aesthetic issues of

modernism onto everyday life and the body, and recast the public as active partici
pants. Interested in geometry and the abstract paintings of Paul Klee and Piet
Mondrian, Oiticicas early practice explored the materiality of colour and notions
of non-objectivity. As a founding member of Brazils Neo-Concrete movement, he
and fellow artist Lygia Clark refuted Concrete arts rationalism and universality of
pure form, which they considered colonialist. The pair were inspired by the work of
poet Ferreira Gullar, who wrote the Neo-Concrete Manifesto, (1959), and they began
to apply his theories of immateriality, developing phenomenologically-based art
and multisensorial experiences.
Built at the height of Brazils Neo-Concrete movement, Oiticicas
Relevo Espacial (Spatial Reliefs), 195960, transcend the pictorial plane and conventional structures of representation, reflecting Gullars ideas that Colours, space,
do not belong to this or that artistic language, but to the living and indeterminate
experience of man.1 The structures were suspended from the ceiling, which opened
painting up to its surrounding space. Viewers moved around them to experience
changes in colour and form.
Oiticicas investigations into space led to the creation of painted
environments known as the Penetrveis (Penetrables) series, 196079, comprising
colourful installations of sliding panels, doors and curtains that could be stepped
inside. These works recalled the lively, precarious environment of the local favelas
(slums) where Oiticica lived in Rio de Janiero.
The Parangols (Capes), 196369, Oiticicas first wearable sculptures,
were initially made as costumes for fellow samba dancers at the Mangueira Samba
School in Rio. Parangols have been described as habitable paintings they were
worn or carried while dancing, and consisted of capes, flags, banners and tents
made from fabrics and plastic, ropes and a range of other materials. Their title is
a slang expression used to describe a moment of sudden confusion or excitement
among people.
A leading member of the counterculture movement known as Tropiclia,
Oiticica championed the Brazilian concept of Antropfagia a concept coined by
Oswalde de Andrade in his 1928 Manifesto Antropfago and based on the idea of
cultural cannibalism in which diverse artistic, social and political influences are
absorbed to create something original, without being enslaved by art from abroad.
Oiticica described tropicality as the consciousness of not being conditioned by
established structures, hence highly revolutionary in its entirety. Any conformity,
be it intellectual, social, or existential, is contrary to its principle.2 Consciously
consuming principles and techniques from Western modernism throughout his
career, Oiticica created new and expressive art forms that transcend and subvert
established formal and intellectual structures to form a creative cultural hybridity. J W

SPACE TO DREAM

Hlio Oiticica
Documentary photo of a
Parangol (Cape) wearer
c196369

THE ARTISTS

195

Bernardo
Oyarzn
Born 1963, Llanquihue,
Chile / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

Bernardo Oyarzn is a Chilean Mapuche1 mestizo (mixed-ethnicity) artist from the

South of Chile. Utilising his cultural context in researching topics related to his
roots and the Latin American environment, Oyarzn creates an aesthetic analysis of
identity in which elements of his life or his self-image are often present. Oyarzns
artwork refers to folkloric or popular culture, to marginalised sectors of society and
to the aesthetic congruencies that emerge in these areas. Through these references
he creates works of art that respond to domestic aesthetic perceptions, empirical
knowledge, autodidactic ingenuity, the transmission of knowledge and critical
views about the place he inhabits.
Oyarzns primary interest is in highlighting and learning from the
gestures and local synergies belonging to specific cultural backgrounds, and identifying with what is understood as original and primary. His artistic process involves
recollecting the information and models that lie beneath what is minute, picturesque,
folkloric, artisanal, mysterious, mythological and indigenous.
Ekeko, 2014, a multimedia installation inspired by the Aymara,2
shows Oyarzns use of indigenous popular references which have been transmuted
into a contemporary language. Ekeko is the god of joy, fertility and abundance.
However, this new Ekeko is seen distorted by the power of consumption and has
little to do with the joy of fertility. Oyarzns figure represents the absurdity of the
neo-liberal system the fact that its lack of regulations and its insensitivity have
warped society, filling everyday life with addicts who are in a constant frenzy of
consumption. This neo Ekeko is less the god of joy than a symbol of the ecstasy
of personal desire and of waste, representing a new disintegrated territory that is
transformed by the madness of individual entrepreneurship, competition and the
negation of those who surround us. M E

Bernardo Oyarzn
Ekeko (installation view)
2014

1. The Mapuche are a group

of indigenous inhabitants
of south-central Chile and
southwestern Argentina
including parts of presentday Patagonia.
2. The Aymara are an
indigenous nation from
the Andes and high-plain
regions of South America,
primarily living in
Bolivia, Peru and Chile.

196

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197

Nicanor
Parra
Born 1914, San Fabin de
Alico, Chile / Lives in
Las Cruces, San Antonio
province, Chile

A self-defined anti-poet, 101-year-old Nicanor Parra is the most significant Latin

American living poet, an eminent figure among the vast poetic tradition that
distinguished Chile in the 20th century. According to literary critic Harold Bloom,
he is unquestionably one of the best poets of the West. Parras books Poemas y
antipoemas (Poems & Antipoems, 1954) and Sermones y prdicas del Cristo del Elqui
(Sermons & Homilies of the Christ of Elqui, 1977) have had an enormous influence
on contemporary Hispanic poetry. He received Chiles National Prize for Literature
in 1969 and the Cervantes Prize in 2011; and he has also been nominated on three
occasions for the Nobel Prize.
Born in 1914 in San Fabin de Alico, southern Chile, Parra is the eldest
of nine children. His siblings Violeta and Roberto also made significant contributions
to poetry, music and theatre. He was awarded a scholarship to study mathematics
and physics in Santiago, and he later carried out postgraduate studies at Brown
University and the University of Oxford. Most of Parras professional life was filled
by his work as a professor in Universidad de Chile, a position he held until 1994.
His poems collect expressions from the Chilean countryside, philo
sophy, science and slang; he freely uses humour and word play which convey his
mistrust of poetic and political conventions. Parras poetry is considered a groundbreaking interpellation, connecting the lives of readers and with the ironies he
identifies in daily existence. Because his writing can be appreciated even by those
unfamiliar with the codes and conventions of poetry, Parra has democratised the
high genre of poetry. In La montaa rusa (The Rollercoaster, 1962) he wrote:
For half a century / poetry was / a solemn fools paradise. / Until I came along / with my
rollercoaster. / Climb on, if you want. / Though of course I cant be responsible if you
get off / bleeding from the mouth and the nose. This text is considered a manifesto.
Anti-poetry can be understood as an attempt to counterbalance the
presence of poet/diplomat and politician Pablo Neruda in Chilean poetry. Halfjoking, as usual, Parra once commented, in an interview with the critic Cristin
Huneeus: Neruda was always a problem for me, a challenge, an obstacle that was
put on the road. I had to think about things in terms of that monster.1
Parras anti-poems, built on a frame comprising everyday speech,
disarmed readers thoughts while acting as an attack on lyricism and cultural standards.
His Artefactos (Artifacts), which are very short poems, take several forms; for example,
phrases collected from his usual sources or appropriated images or objects. These
are presented in a new context to trigger odd poetic associations enhanced by the
use of suggestive graphic accompaniments, or very simple verbal propositions, such
as Antes s /Ahora no (Before, not now). Parra defined the Artefactos as a puncture
to the bone. They touch readers sensitive points with the tip of a needle. M G

Violeta
Parra
Born 1917, San Fabin de
Alico, Chile / Died 1967,
Santiago, Chile

Creator of a valuable legacy in painting, embroidery, sculpture, poetry and above

all music, Violeta Parra is one of Chiles most well-known creators. The richness
and strong identity of her work took some time to be considered in all its depth and
subversive force. Parra was an artist who chose to work with materials she took from
the land, and lessons from folklore and people. Her travels across Chile and Europe
were personal endeavours, undertaken without much support. In 1965, while visiting
her workshop in Geneva for a programme on Swiss television, the journalist MarieMadeleine Brumagne asked her: Violeta, you are a poet and a musician, you make
tapestries and paintings. If you had to choose one of these means of expression,
which one would you choose? Her answer was eloquent: I would choose to stay
with the people. It is they who encourage me to do all these things.
Unlike artists who manage their work to claim authorship and call
attention to their individual expressions, Parra saw her creations as being in dialogue
with folk tradition. Born in a small town in southern Chile to a family with nine
children, Parra lived in poverty, something that would remain a constant in her life.
She had no formal education in art or in music. Her main teachers were cantores
(singers) from the countryside, and she was influenced by writing her older brother
Nicanor shared with her. Parra forged a body of work comprising three poetry books
(including her own autobiography in verse, the dcimas form) and a discography of
10 titles (plus several posthumous releases). Among them one finds her most famous
pieces compositions like Gracias a la vida and Volver a los 17 (Thanks to Life,
Back at Seventeen), true classics of the Latin American popular songbook. Protests
against abuses of power, the anguish of lost love and the celebration of nature were
recurrent themes in Parras work.
Violeta Parra died by her own hand in 1967 in her final home: a wooden
hut with a dirt floor that stood alongside a circus tent in the heights of Santiago,
where she gave her last concerts. A couple of years earlier she had been the first Latin
American artist to exhibit her visual work (tapestries, paintings and sculptures) in
the Museum of Decorative Arts of the Louvre in Paris, but even that international
success did not alter her vital decision to stay close to her land and her people. Parra
came back to Chile determined to persist in her self-imposed mission: to rescue and
spread the countrys folk tradition. Her legacy is the dissemination of all the past
tunes she ressurected. M G

1. Cristin Huneeus, Dossier,

no 24, Jun 2014.

198

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THE ARTISTS

199

Liliana
Porter
Born 1941, Buenos Aires,
Argentina / Lives and works
in New York, USA

200

Originally from Argentina, Porter studied art in both Buenos Aires and Mexico City
before settling in New York, where she has lived since 1964. She began her artistic
practice as a printmaker. However, in addition to photography and video work, in
recent years she has been making works on canvas, prints, drawings, collages and
creating small installations, such as the ones shown in this exhibition. Most of
these date from 2015.
Scale and size seem very important in these miniature worlds, which
provide a counterpart to the very large and total experience installations that are
often found in contemporary art. A number of these pieces feature a central character,
a toy or figurine, executing an apparently minute task, such as a figure in blue
dungarees making a graphite line on the wall in Man Drawing, 2015 or a woman also
dressed in blue holding a string in To Hold a String, 2015, which the artist sources
from places such as flea markets, antique shops, garage sales and airport stores.
As often happens with childrens toys, the figures can look intriguingly unique
despite being mass-produced commodities, and whimsical in spite of the banal
activities they perform. According to Porter, these objects have a double or even
contradictory character: On the one hand they are mere appearance, insubstantial
ornaments, but, at the same time, have a gaze that can be animated by the viewer,
who, through it, can project the inclination to endow things with an interiority and
identity. The artist calls them theatrical vignettes that, with humour and at times
concealed agony, become observations about labour, time and the contemporary
human condition.
In her now classic book On Longing (1992) about miniatures, souvenirs
and collections, Susan Stewart discusses how everyday objects are narrated to
animate or realise certain versions of the world. The miniature works as a metaphor
for interiority and as the embodiment of a certain ambiguity; though small in scale,
much labour is involved in their making. Miniatures are also able to transform
their context by disrupting our familiar notions of scale, precisely as happens
with Porters small figurines and their settings. This question of size in relation to
the environment recalls the artists interest in the central character from Alice in
Wonderland (first published 1865). In The Book of Alice, 1980 a toy sailboat rests
casually against the bottom of Lewis Carrolls book, which has been opened to the
chapter that includes an illustration of Alice swimming in her own pool of teardrops.
Porter has also referred to Carroll by combining fragments of his book Through
the Looking Glass (first published 1871) with reproductions of books by Jorge Luis
Borges, whose work features prominently in her work. This interest in both Carroll
and Borges speaks of the artists desire to explore the extent to which reality itself
is a form of representation and to her playful dismantling of the conventions of
fiction and truth. L V

SPACE TO DREAM

Liliana Porter
The Task 2015

THE ARTISTS

201

Rosngela
Renn
Born 1962, Belo Horizonte,
Brazil / Lives in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil

202

Rosngela Renn has created a strong body of work in which photography and
video oscillate between documentation and fiction. Photographs belonging to
family albums, prison documents, official communications and press cutouts are
some of Renns findings in her visits to flea markets. Working with files and found
photographs since the late 1980s, Renn retouches and manipulates each article to
transform common everyday images into works of art, and in the process essentially
resignifies photography in a world saturated by images.
In Srie Vermelha (Militares) (Red Series), 19962000 Renn digitally
alters old photographs of men and boys dressed in uniform, and amplifies the
photographs into red monochrome images, thereby transforming quotidian pictures
into art. Through the simple act of changing an images colour its perception and its
available meanings are altered. The red opens a range of possible reflections with
respect to the role the military played in Brazil and throughout history as well as
the emblematic meaning of red within a socialist context. Renn also questions the
role of photography and its purported truth in the making of history and memory.
Renns repurposing of other peoples imagery also underpins her
triptych series, Operao Aranhas/Arapongas/Arapucas (Operations Spiders/
Arapongas (a type of bird)/Traps), 2014. This series includes Operao A3-2
(Operations A3-2) and Operao A3-3, each consisting of a combination of three
images made by three photographers at specific times and depicting specific
events in Brazilian history. Twelve photographs were taken by Jos Inacio Parente
during the protest known as the Passeata dos Cem Mil in Rio de Janeiro in 1968,
a popular march against the Brazilian dictatorship. Renn herself contributes 12
images made during the demonstration known as the Comcio das Diretas J in Belo
Horizonte in 1984, a protest to allow direct elections in Brazil. And the remaining
12 were taken by Cia de Foto at the social movement protest called Movimento
Passe Livre in So Paulo in 2013. The images are covered by a sheet of embossed
tissue paper, resembling how old photographs are protected in albums. Images
from each of the three photographed events are then combined to form triptychs
uniting depictions of all three events in which individual faces within the crowds
are visible through the addition of a lens. This series considers the agency of both
individuals and the public, and the role of the people in the articulation of social
and political communication and change.
Questions of authorship, documentation and appropriation of images
in regard to the technology of photography are common in Renns work. This logic
of appropriation assumes that the past is irretrievable and considers all acts of
memory to be acts of reinvention. A I & M E

SPACE TO DREAM

Rosngela Renn
Untitled [Little Balls]
19962000

THE ARTISTS

203

Miguel
ngel Ros
Born 1943, Catamarca,
Argentina / Lives and works
in Mexico City, Mexico and
New York, USA

Miguel ngel Ros Crudo, 2007 begins as a close examination of a figure dancing.
Sporting a loose-fitting white suit that rhythmically trails each movement of his
body, we track over the dancer as he performs a combative Argentine dance, complete
with leaps, stomps and skilful pivots of the body from one foot to another. He taps
the floor in sharp heal-toe movements and sweeping actions and then incorporates
a pair of long tethered weights called boleadoras into his routine which similarly
rap the floor. But as the boleadoras are brought to an abrupt halt they are revealed
to be not standard weights but two hefty slabs of raw meat. The sound of barking
is heard as a pack of dogs emerge salivating after the meat.
The dancer glares at the dogs, enticing them into his routine. Excited
by the raw flesh the dogs quickly succumb and begin to lunge at both the meat and his
alluring suit as if drawn by a matadors cape. Yet even as the dogs lock jaws onto the
dancers clothing and are swung about from his waist and wrists, the dance continues
and the dogs actions are further incorporated into his tango. The dogs give chase as
he hurls the meat from the hip and rebounds it back again. As two canines fight over
a steak the dancer flails a leg in the air in a kicking action. Once the meat is devoured
the pack subsides and the sequence draws to a close with the dancer continuing his
dance in marked defiance against the dogs base animalistic tendencies.
The Spanish word crudo translates to English as raw. In the context
of Ros video, this candid title not only describes the steaks being hurled about
but our experience of the artwork served cold. The contact between performer and
animal constitutes a punishing juxtaposition that lays bare the harsh reality of the
body-as-flesh, the dogs easy manipulation from a state of domestication to wild
fervour, and our own attraction to power nature as red-in-tooth-and-claw. But the
humour of this absurdist scenario also suggests a poetic that is routed in violence
as an unpredictable but natural force. The combative movements of the performer
seem to embody the dogs autonomous actions as much as they assert a form of defence.
Ros black humour and attraction to chance were foreshadowed in A
Morir (til Death), 2003, one of a number of videos showing a game of spinning-tops
called trompos. None of Ros players are in view but the competitiveness is plainly
witnessed as the tops jostle for dominance within a marked grid on the pavement.
The equilibrium of the dancer in Crudo is prefigured here by the residual human
energy in the revolving tops as they smash, waiver and topple. As Raphael Rubinstein
put it, A Morir was a quasi-abstract video-ballet that underscores Ros attempt
to convey a dramatic meditation on the uncertainty and brevity of human life.1 S C

Miguel ngel Ros

Crudo (video stills) 2007

1. Raphael Rubinson,
A Serious Game, Art in
America, Jun/Jul 2005,
iss 6, p 171.

204

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THE ARTISTS

205

Lotty
Rosenfeld
Born 1943, Santiago,
Chile / Lives and works
in Santiago, Chile

1. Jack Kerouac, On the Road,

New York: Penguin Books,
1999, p 183.
2. Joanne Pottlitzer, Lotty
Rosenfeld, Visual Artist,
Literature and
Arts of the Americas, vol 36,
iss 66, p 65.
3. As above, p. 67.
4. As above, p.67.
5. As above, p.70.

206

The highway is frequently imagined as a liberating space. Be it road movies or works

of literature, these transitory sites are depicted as places to lose oneself within
continually fleeting encounters: Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is
ever so on the road.1 But in Lotty Rosenfelds Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento
(4) (A Mile of Crosses on the Pavement [4]), 198389 the artist extended this ambition
beyond an idea of personal liberation and towards activating a larger community.
Exploring a language of occupation which has become intertwined with protest,
Rosenfeld deployed an extended stretch of a highway near Santiago to unseat the
complacency of the public and confront authoritarian power.
Like Francis Als later work Retoque (Painting), 2008, in which the
artist refreshed 60 median strips in the loaded site of the former American Panama
Canal Zone, Rosenfelds action was inserted directly into a larger system of public
movement. Yet Rosenfelds work not only refreshed the centrelines but crossed
them by dividing the median strips with taped perpendicular lines. The resulting
+ symbols disrupted normative behaviour in an effort to signal that something was
wrong in the larger political terrain. From the air the crosses had funeral associations
and have been interpreted as referring to the mass killings that occurred under Chiles
brutal dictatorship. The long sequence of crosses can be read, then, as lamenting
the ongoing violence that ensued in Santiago through exploring a poetic of dissent
charged with the experiences of a traumatised territory, expressing Rosenfelds
conviction that art must confront political oppression.
In an interview Rosenfeld stated: After the coup, I was concerned that
my art and my political work were separate though they should be one in the same.
I thought: Art has to communicate. It has to take on the responsibility of saying
things that are not being said.2
Rosenfeld was a key member of in the activist group C.A.D.A. and from
1983 onwards her + symbol increasingly featured in their political meme NO+, in
which members of the public were invited to insert their own subjects: [no more]
violence, guns, et cetera. Yet while C.A.D.A. dispersed once the political situation
became less hostile, Lotty Rosenfeld considers her extensive solo practice to be a
continuation of the groups activities. C.A.D.A. gave me the impetus and political
passion for dissent. It taught me to take things, culturally and aesthetically, to the
limits of systems in a rigorous and noncomplacent way.3 However, Rosenfeld also
acknowledges that today such strategies of artistic resistance need to be continually modified, because the seats of power have become more concentrated around
capitalism.4 She continues: The street isnt enough to guarantee that a work will be
perceived as a gesture of transgression; one must continually seek out the politics
of an image and its destabilising potential.5 S C

SPACE TO DREAM

Lotty Rosenfeld
Registro de cruces (Register
of Crosses) 1987

THE ARTISTS

207

Joaqun
Snchez
Born 1977, Barrero,
Paraguay / Lives and works
in La Paz, Bolivia and
Asuncin, Paraguay

Joaqun Snchez has a strong interest in the iconographies and cultural expressions
of ethnic groups from South America. The artist adopts these and produces new
meanings to portray the cultural syncretism that many South American countries
experience today. This is also a reflection of his personal story as a mestizo (mixedethnicity) Paraguayan-Guaran artist living in both Bolivia and Paraguay.
Political, social, cultural and personal conflicts are formulated by
Snchez into narratives, such as in Margarita, 2009. In this video work, Margarita, a
maid who works in the artists house, is seen transformed into a movie star costumed
in the dress and shoes worn by an aristocratic character in the Bolivian film Zona
Sur (Southern Zone), 2009. Subtitles reveal her desires, longings and frustrations.
In another work, Jiwasa (meaning us in Guaran), 2009, a group of women from the
Quechua community of Mollo in the Apolobamba Mountains are shown un-weaving
the Bolivian flag and forming a yarn ball with its remains. Shown simultaneously
alongside these women in Snchezs videos are documentary images of historic
Bolivian culture and social movements from the 1950s until today.
Snchezs most recent work focuses on the themes of war and frontiers,
particularly the Uruguayan Civil War, Guerra Grande in Spanish (183951), a conflict
between Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay; the War of the Pacific, Guerra del
Pacfico (187983) between Chile and Bolivia; and the Chaco War, Guerra del Chaco
(193235) between Bolivia and Paraguay. These influences and the stories Snchezs
grandfather used to tell him as a child can be seen in Chaco, 2012 in which the artist
portrays a native Guaran1 whose heart has been replaced with an embroidered anduti
or spider web, a traditional Paraguayan embroidered lace introduced by the Spaniards,
which has been made by women of a Guaran community. References to the conflicts
are also evident in his video Lnea de agua (Line of Water), 2010, in which Bolivian
immigrants living in Chile are seen forming a phrase that reads I dont know how to
swim as a commentary on the existing conflict between Bolivia and Chile concerning
sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean.
The combination of these works by Snchez faithfully portrays the
diverse realities, conflicts and difficulties experienced by all of South Americas
societies. M E

Joaqun Snchez
Margarita (video still) 2009

1. Guaran are a group of

culturally related
indigenous peoples of
South America.

208

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209

Martn
Sastre
Born 1976, Montevideo,
Uruguay / Lives and works
in Montevideo, Uruguay

210

U from Uruguay, 2012 opens with a low-angle view of the faade of Banco de la
Repblica Oriental del Uruguay a state-owned bank in Uruguay. An enigmatic
masked figure, wearing a black cape and carrying a briefcase, enters the buildings
grand entrance. Seeming to use magical powers, the figure opens the doors, walks
into an empty, low-lit marble foyer and creeps, dances and hurdles his way towards
the vault stripping off his clothes along the way. Using a set of heavy keys he opens
the large safe and we see a purple, shard-shaped perfume bottle. The now unmasked
figure the artist himself sprays himself with the fragrance in slow motion. These
first scenes co-opt the visual codes of luxury advertisements, working to subvert the
commercially focused strategies of mass media and at the same time drawing attention
to a range of social issues related to wealth disparity and social disadvantage. The
scent contained in the opulent bottle was made from owers grown by Uruguayan
president, Jos Mujica, who appears in the video harvesting flower heads from his
farm on the edges of Montevideo. Mujica has been described as the worlds poorest
president. He gives much of his salary to charity, so his presence in the artwork imports
a perspective that is at odds with the depicted symbols of wealth the bank and the
economy of luxury goods. Inspired by Mujicas spirit of altruism, Sastre organised
for one of the scent bottles to be auctioned during the 2013 Venice Biennale to raise
money for a National Fund for Contemporary Art.
As a child Sastre was an avid film viewer and he is now fluent in the
visual languages of popular culture and celebrity, which he often humorously critiques.
In Tango con Obama (Tango with Obama), 2010, he again cast himself in the lead
role as Barack Obamas dance partner. They perform an uneasy tango, and the
complicated footwork and intense dynamics of the dance evoke the complex
relationship and mutual reliance shared between North America and South America.
Phrases announcing political controversies flash onto the screen Brazil develops
atomic submarines for security defence, UNASUR is created for security and military
defence. Punctuating the dance, these messages remind viewers of ongoing tensions
existing between North and South America. In the short film Diana: The Rose
Conspiracy, 2005, Sastre borrows techniques of journalism and satire mockumentary
to construct a conspiracy theory in which Princess Diana was not killed, but instead
lives with her lover in the slums on the outskirts of Montevideo. Recasting world
affairs and representing key personalities from a South American perspective is a
strategy through which Sastre explores the vacuous sensationalism of mass media.
The artists practice confronts issues from a socially engaged
perspective, which is strongly informed by his South American identity. In 2003, he
established the Martin Sastre Foundation for the Super Poor Art using the provocative
slogan, Adopt a Latin American Artist to raise support for artists at the periphery.
Such creative acts are typical of Sastres interest in generating opportunities for
South American artists, while critiquing an unthinking celebration of status, fame
and success. J W

SPACE TO DREAM

Martn Sastre
U from Uruguay (video stills)
2012

THE ARTISTS

211

Mira
Schendel
Born 1919, Zurich,
Switzerland / Died 1988,
So Paulo, Brazil

212

Presence, absence, physicality and ephemerality coalesce in Mira Schendels Ondas

paradas de probabilidade (Still Waves of Probability), 1969. The works nylon strands
render it both visible and invisible; they simultaneously diffuse into and demarcate
the gallerys white walls. Physical interaction with the work is desired in order to
confirm its solidity, and this questioning of material actuality prompts a search into
the intersensory realms of optical, tactile and experiential realities.
First exhibited in the 1969 So Paulo Biennial, Ondas paradas de
probabilidade eludes and elicits links with its social context. Taking place in the
fraught context of Brazils military dictatorship, the Biennial was boycotted by the
international arts community. Schendel agreed to participate and her work was
thus charged with the potential for social critique, namely expression in the face of
the dictatorships censorship. The suggestion of an alternative world was perhaps
implied by Schendel when she stated that the work was an attempt to show that
the back of transparency lies in front of you, and that the better world is this one.
The works repose also expresses Schendels existential, intellectual
and geographical solitude. Raised in a strongly Catholic environment despite her
Jewish heritage, Schendel was forced to flee to Brazil after the implementation of
Mussolinis anti-Jewish legislation in 1938. With no art school training and a dis
interest in general art historical canons, Schendel forged an individual artistic path
in which she amalgamated various philosophies and spiritual beliefs. She immersed
herself within creative circles in which she was introduced to the postulations of
the semiologist Elisabeth Walther-Bense and the German philosopher Max Bense.
Inspired by their advocacy of experiential reality, Schendels artistic practice
from this point on turned around themes focusing on a common conceptual crux:
the certainty of relationships between people and places.
In her drawings of the 1970s, blank areas of the composition (the
negative space) interact with forms (the positive space) to present new understandings
of line, shape and space. Knowable reality is disrupted and the viewer is prompted
to question, feel and reflect upon the specific object in question, assembling it in
their minds eye. Reality is not simply a two-dimensional presentation of truth or
falsity, but rather a multidimensional force field in which myriad senses interact
and influence each other.
In this conceptual framework, the spiritual and the material world
become one and the same. Schendels view is easily complicated by subjective
sensory insight and revelations. Rather than presenting a singular narrative, her
works continuously present several overlapping scenarios and sensations for the
viewer. They can, as such, be seen as visual parallels to Guy Bretts 1968 book
Kinetic Art: The Language of Movement, which argues that an artwork does not
have a singular motion but rather embodies an innate, intense energy emblematic
of several potential movements. Schendels Ondas paradas de probabilidade is a
practical exploration of this. Its subtle use of form, transparency and the gallery
environment is evocative in its ambiguity and potently creates a nexus in which
personal experiences, philosophies and optical activity combine. E J

SPACE TO DREAM

Mira Schendel
Ondas paradas de probabilidade
(Still Waves of Probability)
(installation view, 2014) 1969

THE ARTISTS

213

Demian
Schopf
Born 1975, Frankfurt am
Main, Germany / Lives and
works in Santiago, Chile

Demian Schopfs work can be divided into two main veins of research that converge
in an area related to the Baroque movement of the 17th century. On the one hand
Schopf re-signifies specific manifestations of the historic Baroque and Latin American
Neo-Baroque movements in photography, video and writing, specifically working
with the postmodern condition of Neo-Baroque heritage and its syncretism with
the postcolonial Andean world. And on the other hand Schopf has also developed
two major investigations into the relationship between computer sciences, the
philosophy of language and computer word processing, which concern the literary
texts and the poetry of Spanish Baroque writer Luis de Gngora.
Schopfs photographic series La Nave (The Nave), 2015, consists of
images taken inside an unfinished building known as a cholet, a term resulting from
the combination of the mestizo (mixed-ethnicity) expression cholo and the French
term chalet. These structures also belong to cohetillo architecture, which was
created by Bolivian autodidact architect Freddy Mamani. The cholets are the most
notable expression of a social class the new Aymara or cholo bourgeoisie in the
city of El Alto, Bolivia that has emerged and consolidated under the government
of Evo Morales. The images reflect Schopfs fascination for Baroque and Andean
elements and demonstrate his ability to fuse folkloric forms with contemporary art.
Three photographs from La Nave Chuta Mariachi, Moreno and Rey
Moreno (all titles are proper names or variations on them) portray dancers dressed
in typical costumes of Bolivian popular folkloric dance. These are worn primarily
at the Carnival of Oruro and the Festival of Lord Jesus of Great Power in La Paz.
Schopfs dancers costumes show references ranging from cultural globalisation
(such as the Chinese dragons, dinosaurs and Bolvars shields) to unique local symbols,
including spiders, lizards and toads, belonging to ancient myths of the Uru1 culture.
The strong contrast between the dancers costumes and the space
in which they are placed recalls artist Matthew Barneys films or science fiction
imagery from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and portrays an updated concept of syncretism
that challenges spectators to define the images different elements. It is not easy
to discern where the photographs were taken and in this, too, lies a liberation of
preconceived definitions, temporalities and hierarchies a gesture that can be
considered political when reflecting on postcolonial behaviour that aims to portray
a globalised contemporaneity. M E

Demian Schopf
La Nave (Rey Moreno) (The Nave
(King Moreno)) 2015

1. The Uru are a pre-Incan people

who live in 42 self-fashioned
floating islands in Lake
Titicaca Puno, Peru and Bolivia.
They form three main groups:
Uru-Chipayas, Uru-Muratos, and
Uru-Uruitos. The latter are
still located on the Bolivian
side of Lake Titicaca and
Desaguadero River.

214

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THE ARTISTS

215

Alejandro
Thornton
Born 1970, Buenos Aires,
Argentina / Lives and works
in Buenos Aires, Argentina

216

Alejandro Thornton has said that as a child he used to play the same three albums
to get to sleep: one by Neil Diamond, and the two operas Carmen (1965) and Evita
(1976). It was not until he saw The Sound of Music again with his children that the
link was made and the idea came together for Eva Rebelde (Rebel Eva), 2012. Panning
across a brilliant landscape, Eva Rebelde is at once familiar in its appropriation of the
opening scene from The Sound of Music. Onto this scene Thornton and co-creator
Paula Pellejero impose the song Dont Cry for Me, Argentina, from Evita, which
is arranged so that Julie Andrews appears to be in a struggle to vocalise the ballad.
Parallels exist between The Sound of Musics main protagonist and Eva Pern, on
whom Evita was based: a taste for performing, their perceived strong and rebellious
characters, the love of a military figure, and the mountainous landscapes of their
homes, the Alps and the Andes. These connections illustrate Thorntons interest in
the possibilities of language and reformulating the codes of culture.
Eva Pern, the wife of President Juan Pern, and a political figure in
her own right, occupied a unique place in Argentinas history and remains a touchstone. Thornton provides a contemplative space for viewers to consider Argentinas
political history and a figure who became symbolic in South America and beyond.
The exploration of signs in Eva Rebelde is characteristic of Thorntons
practice. Through photography, film, visual poetry, painting and intervention,
he looks to alter modes of representation and to disturb existing formal structures.
While his painted and drawn works invite comparison to Cy Twombly, their calligraphic
scrawl is used to elicit new meanings from linguistic conventions and the ways in
which we communicate. An example is the printed series AmericA, 2014, created
during his residency at the Kansas City Artist Coalition. Thornton takes the same
printed A and repeats its form in black and red across the paper. Grouped in threes,
turned upside down, or crowding the page, the A starts to lose its original value and
take on other associations: from Concrete poetry to a study of social interaction.
This playful and often humorous exploration of language is further
evidenced in the titles that Thornton chooses: Eva Rebelde is a play on the Latin
American title for The Sound of Music La Novicia Rebelde which translates as The
Rebellious Novice. In This is an unfinish line, 2014, a strip of paper, hung slackly
from the ceiling, forms a loop. A graphite line following the length of the exterior
face is interrupted like a blip on a heart monitor by the title scrawled in cursive.
Seamlessly joined, the title and line form a continuous circuit around the paper:
an unfinish line. Yet, Thorntons works are more than just play on words: they
deconstruct, examine and recreate. Drawing from the historical and ideological,
Thornton presents loaded signs and symbols as something new, creating his own
artistic language as the results of a semiotic study and explaining the accepted
knowledges and systems of their signs. R G

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Alejandro Thornton,
Paula Pellejero
Eva Rebelde (Rebel Eva)
(poster) 2013

THE ARTISTS

217

Joaqun
TorresGarca
Born 1874, Montevideo,
Uruguay / Died 1949,
Montevideo, Uruguay

1. Joaqun Torres Garca,

The School of the South,
in Joaqun Torres Garca,
Constructive Universalism
and the School of the South,
Art Museum of the Americas,
Organization of American
States, Washington DC,
1996, p 41.

218

In Uruguayan artist Joaqun Torres Garcas upside-down map of South America a

galleon sets sail off the coast of Montevideo. First published in 1936 in the journal
Crculo y Cuadrado for the Asociacin de Arte Constructivo, the maps inversion was
part of Torres Garcas wider programme to reorientate his home in the context
of constructive universalism, a mode of abstraction that promoted universal
principles based on Constructivist practices in indigenous South American art.
In Amrica invertida (Inverted America), 1943 Torres Garca uses cartography to
critique the souths marginal position, while undermining the northsouth divide.
Today, the maps message about the status and legacies of geopolitical prejudices
and the centreperiphery model still resonates, and seems especially apt in a time
of globalisation when borders and nationalities are less easily defined.
An international figure and influential modernist, Torres Garca
embodied Jean Baudelaires precept to be of ones time. He spent years living in
Europe and the United States where he worked with artists Theo van Doesburg and
Piet Mondrian, participating with them in a dialogue on abstraction. Torres Garca
shared van Doesburgs views on the value of order, harmony and proportion in relation
to painterly non-objectivity, but he was unwilling to fully reject nature. Instead, the
artist worked to find balance between nature and reason through the combination of
Constructivist elements with symbols from the natural world. His paintings of the
1930s combined geometric abstract structures with symbols including fish, animals
and leaves, which were based on ancient natural motifs from Bronze Age artefacts.
During a period of rapid modernisation when artists looked to the
future, Torres Garca was deeply engaged with history and the archaic. Temporality
was not just linear and successive for the artist; it was a layered and durational
concept, which he explored in his practice. Paintings and sculpture made during
the 1930s reference the prehistoric and classical art of Europe and the Americas,
including pre-Columbian art. Torres Garca developed a personal philosophy for
art which comprised three dimensions and balanced order, emotion and intellect,
the natural and the phenomenal.
In flipping his map 180 degrees on the equator axis, Torres Garca
asserted a new status for the south; he asked artists to consider the relevance of their
own culture and to look at their heritage and local traditions. The artist wrote: I have
said School of the South, because in reality, our north is the South. There should be
no north for us, except in oppositions to our South.1 In 1944, he formed the Taller
Torres Garca, an artist studio for teaching and producing collective work, in the
hope of fostering a distinctive style based on his Constructivist ideas and Indian
traditions. Today, the significance of Torres Garcas practice, which encompassed
toy making, painting, sculpture, writing and teaching, is increasingly acknowledged
for its breadth and collective qualities. J W

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Joaqun Torres Garca

Amrica invertida
(Inverted America) 1943

THE ARTISTS

219

Biografas
de artistas

The Artist
Biographies

FERNANDO ARIAS

CATALINA BAUER

PAULO BRUSCKY

Born 1963, Armenia, Colombia

Lives and works in Colombia and the UK

Born 1976, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Born 1949, Recife, Brazil

Lives and works in Recife, Brazil

Fernando Arias works with different mediums, exploring

through video, photography and installation conflicts
related to sexuality, drugs, identity, religion, politics,
nationalism, the distribution of wealth and nature
conservation. Arias is concerned that his art raises
awareness and he researches the need to change the
ethics and values of our society. He seeks to make
artworks that are unfamiliar and which force the
viewer to critically reflect on what they see. The
meaning of his work is not implicit; rather, it is open
to questions that the spectator brings when viewing
it. Arias currently lives between Bogot and the Choc
jungle while developing a project called Ms arte ms
accin (More Art More Action). This project combines
all of his interests and involves him working with
other professionals in a transdisciplinary manner that
questions social and environmental issues involving
the most vulnerable people of our society.

Catalina Bauers work references certain basic aspects

of our daily lives: the home, work, food, education. The
incorporation of natural elements, such as plants, water
and food, as well as objects of industrial production,
grant a sense of temporality, life and potential change
to her work. The material and symbolic elements in
Bauers artwork combined with extremely delicate and
earnest gestures, provoke a tension that establishes a
relationship of resistances between force and fragility.
Labourious manual work or references to labour are
the means through which she attempts to transform a
particular material or object, granting it new meaning
or expanding its possible resonances. Through both
small objects and monumental pieces, Bauer establishes
a relationship with the spectator that leads to instances
of social relations and interactions.

Paulo Bruscky operates under the idea that art carries

with it the potential to provoke change. Bruscky
produces works that inspire audiences to think anew
about the world around them. He often looks at ideas
of anonymity, alienation of the urban landscape, and
he continually engages with the unique positions and
culture of the city Recife and Brazil. Whimsical, political and with a caustic wit, Brusckys practice spans
a number of mediums, notably mail art, performance,
poetry, film and Xerox. The artist played a critical role
in introducing Fluxus, mail art and performance to
Brazil, all of which circumvented the traditional means
of the creation and distribution of art.

Selected exhibitions (solo): Srinagar Kashmir, East

Central Gallery, London (2011); Thirst, Threshold
Artspace, Perth Concert Hall (2010); Shot on Location, Museum of Modern Art, National University,
Bogot (2003).
Selected exhibitions (group): Cantos Cuentos Colombianos opening of Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro (2012);
Art Basel, Christopher Paschall Gallery, Bogot (2012);
Cuenca Biennial (2011); Dorado, Fondo Internacional
de las Artes, Madrid (2010); Aqu Colombia, Moctezuma
Zaragoza Latina Festival (2007); Group Show at Museum
of Modern Art Bogot (2007); Body PoliticX, Witte de
With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2007);
Cuenca Biennial (2004); Havana Biennial (2003 &
1994); Venice Biennale (1999); Bienal do Mercosur
(1999); Infancia Perversa, Museu de Arte Moderno Rio
de Janeiro and Museu de Arte Moderno Baha (1995).

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Selected exhibitions (solo): Cortina Mgica, Centro

Cultural de Coyahaique, Aysn (2013); Incessant, Cecilia
Brunson Projects, London (2013); Lleno de algo y de
nada, Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago (2011); Albores,
Museo de Antropologa de Xalapa, Veracruz (2007).
Selected exhibitions (group): Block Mgico, Museo de
la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago (2014); Magic
Block: Contemporary Art From Chile, Stiftelsen 3,14,
Bergen (2014); 33 Degrees, EB & Flow Gallery, London
(2012); Tectonic Shift, Phillips de Pury & Company,
London (2011); Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art
(2011); Contaminaciones Contemporneas, Museu de
Arte Contemporneo de So Paulo (2010); Material
Ligero: Five Artists from Santiago, Chile Travelling
Light, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne (2009);
Rplica, Haus der Kunst Gallery, Guadalajara (2008);
Handle with Care, Museo de Arte Contemporneo,
Santiago (2005).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Paulo Bruscky: Artist Books

and Films, 19702013, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles,
CA, Another Space, New York, NY and Galeria Nara
Roesler, So Paulo (201415); Paulo Bruscky, Museu
de Arte Moderna de So Paulo (2014); Art Is Our Last
Hope, Phoenix Museum, AZ and The Bronx Museum,
New York, NY (201314); Foto/linguagens, Amparo 60,
Recife (2013); Banco de ideias, Instituto Tomie Ohtake,
So Paulo (2012); Arte Correio exposio retrospectiva,
Centro Cultural dos Correios, Recife (2011).
Selected exhibitions (group): Encruzilhada, EAV Parque
Laje, Rio de Janeiro (2015); Art from Pernambuco,
Embassy of Brazil, London (2015); Paulo Bruscky &
Robert Rehfeldts Mail Art Exchanges from East Berlin
to South America, Chert, Berlin (2015); MAC 21 Um
Museu do Novo Sculo, Museu de Arte Contempornea
do Rio Grande do Sul (2014); Tupi or Not Tupi, Museu
Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba (2014); Under the Same Sun:
Art from Latin America Today, Solomon R Guggenheim
Museum, New York, NY (2014); Artevida, Biblioteca
Parque Estadual, Rio de Janeiro (2014).

COLECTIVO DE ACCIONES DE ARTE (C.A.D.A.)

(Action Art Collective)
Santiago, Chile 197989
Fernando Balcells / Born 1950, Santiago, Chile
Lives and works in Santiago, Chile
Juan Castillo / Born 1952, Antofagasta, Chile
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden
Diamela Eltit / Born 1949, Santiago, Chile
Lives and works in Santiago, Chile
Lotty Rosenfeld / Born 1943, Santiago, Chile
Lives and works in Santiago, Chile
Ral Zurita / Born 1951, Santiago, Chile
Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

The Colectivo de Acciones de Arte C.A.D.A. (Collective of Art Actions) was an interdisciplinary group of
Chilean artists that came together in 1979 to critically
reflect on the dilemma of art and politics. Formed by
sociologist Fernando Balcells, C.A.D.A. included the
visual artists Juan Castillo and Lotty Rosenfeld, and
writers Ral Zurita and Diamela Eltit. During the 1980s,
under the dictatorship of Pinochet, C.A.D.A. created a
series of interventions that sought to propagate a new
aesthetic aimed at reformulating the artistic scene under
the dictatorship by appropriating and transforming
mass media forms of communication into art discourse.
Their work incorporated theatrical and performance
strategies as essential elements for art actions which
questioned and denounced the practices and political
institutions of the dictatorship. C.A.D.A. conceived art
as a necessary social practice and sought to break down
the traditional space that existed between artist, art and
viewer. Their art operations intended to disrupt and
alter the standard routine of daily urban life through
de-contextualisation and semantic restructuring of
urban behaviours, locations and symbols.
Selected interventions: Para no morir de hambre en
el arte (In Order to Not Die of Hunger in Art) (1979);
Inversin de escena (Scene Inversion) (1979); Ay
Sudamrica! (Oh South America!) (1981).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

223

LUIS CAMNITZER

JUAN CASTILLO

CARLOS CASTRO

LYGIA CLARK

Born 1973, Lbeck Germany

Lives and works in New York City, USA

Born 1952, Antofagasta, Chile

Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden

Born 1976, Bogota, Colombia

Lives and works in Bogota, Colombia

Born 1920, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Died 1988, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Luis Camnitzer is a German-born Uruguayan artist who

took part in the vanguard scene of 1960s Conceptualism
in New York. Camnitzer works primarily in printmaking,
sculpture and installation and his subject concerns
include social injustice, repression and institutional
critique. His humorous and often politically charged
use of language as an art medium has characterised
his practice for over four decades. In 1964, along with
Liliana Porter and Guillermo Castillo, he co-founded
The New York Graphic Workshop, an artist collective
that examined the conceptual meaning behind printmaking and sought to test and expand the limits of
the medium.

Juan Castillo creates art actions that critically reflect

on the strategies and objectives of the visual arts, on
being an artist and on creating art. These lie in parallel
to his social and cultural criticism which focuses on the
processes of modernisation experienced by different
cultures he has explored while researching. Castillo
defines his work as occupations that expand throughout their sites in multiple forms and mediums. The
interaction between the artist and the spectator is a
fundamental aspect of Castillos work.

Carlos Castros works combine painting, video, objects

and installations that focus on the appropriation and
re-contextualisation of images and objects. Castro
is concerned to explore narratives that have been
historically ignored or suppressed. His work focuses
on examining how certain icons and traditionally
accepted notions are redefined in contemporary life.
In addition, his practice considers disjunctions in
historical and national symbols, and Latin-American
notions of taste and class inherited from the colonial
times that still prevail.

Lygia Clark was a founding member of the Neo-Concrete

movement with fellow Brazilian artists Amilcar de Castro,
Franz Weissmann, Lygia Pape and poet Ferreira Gullar.
Her practice developed in response to the Concrete art
movements beliefs in rationality and the universality
of pure form. Clarks work recast the audience as active
participants with multisensory sculptural works that
were designed to be touched. She supported the need
for a new expressive space for people to experience,
and developed work that involved the body and com
munal engagement. The primacy of the art object was
increasingly negated as Clarks practice evolved toward
works which became more ephemeral and experiential.
In the later phase of her career, Clark worked in the
field of art therapy, developing situations that drew
on psychoanalytic research.

Selected exhibitions (solo): The Mediocrity of Beauty,

Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY (2015); Luis
Camnitzer, Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos,
Santiago (2013); Luis Camnitzer Retropsective, Museo
de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Santiago, Centro de Artes Visuales/Museo del
Barro, Asuncin (2013); Luis Camnitzer Retrospective,
Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Museo
de Arte Moderno de Medelln (2012).
Selected exhibitions (group): Mercosul Biennial (2015
& 1997); Dark Mirror: Latin American Art Since 1968,
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2015); Species of Spaces,
Museu dArt Contemporani de Barcelona (2015); Scenes
for a New Heritage: Contemporary Art from the Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2015);
Illuses/Ilusiones/Illusions, Casa Daros, Ro de Janeiro
(2014); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America
Today, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York,
NY (2014); Havana Biennial (1984, 1986, 1991, 2009);
Documenta, Kassel (2002); Whitney Biennial, New York,
NY (2000); So Paulo Biennial (1996); Group Material:
Project Democracy (Politics and Elections) and Project
Democracy (Culture and Participation), Dia Foundation,
New York, NY (1988); International Biennial Exhibition
of Prints, Tokyo (1974 & 1962).

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Selected exhibitions (solo): En annan dag, Galleri

Lokomotiv, rnskldsvik (2011); Minimal-barroco,
Hammarby Art Port (HAP), Stockholm (2007); Another
Bloody Day, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Manukau City
(2006); Pacha mama, Ekeby Qvarn Art Space, Uppsala
(2000); Cruz del sur, Kulturhuset, Stockholm (1987);
Te devuelvo tu imagen, art actions across Chile (1981).
Selected exhibitions (group): Dislocacin, Kunstmuseum, Bern (2011); Swedish Conceptual Art, Kalmar
Konstmuseum (2010); Trienal de Chile (2009); Octava
Bienal de Video y Nuevos Medios, Santiago (2007);
Havana Biennial (2003); Australian Video Art Festival
(1987); World Wide Video Festival, Kijkhuis, The Hague
(1984); Paris Biennale (1983).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Old News of the Present,

21st Projects, New York (2014); Accidental Beauty,
Santa Clara Museum, Bogot (2013); Looking for What
Is Not Lost, LA Galera, Bogot (2011); National Juried,
Phoenix Gallery, New York (2010); Immediate Future,
San Francisco Art Commission, San Francisco CA (2009).
Selected exhibitions (group): Bogotapolis, The Stenersen
Museum, Oslo (2013); 10 aos de Tesis, Museo de Arte
Contemporneo, Bogot (2013); Nuestro Sitio, MAC
Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, and MAVI, Santiago (2012);
Rituals of Chaos, Bronx Museum, New York, NY (2012);
Catalejo, Museo de Artes Visuales of Universidad Jorge
Tadeo Lozano, Bogot (2011); Vernissage, MFA Show,
Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA (2010); Building a
Natlop, Contemporary Art Center, Las Vegas, NV (2010);
Prembulo, Saln regional de artistas de Colombia,
Bogot (2009); A tribute to Asian American Art and
Cultural Expressions, Young Museum, San Francisco,
CA (2008).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art 19481988, Museum of Modern Art,
New York, NY (2014); Retrospective, Museu de Arte
Contempornea da Universidade de So Paulo (1987);
Retrospective, Venice Biennale (1968); Signals Gallery,
London (1965).
Selected exhibitions (group): Tropiclia: A Revolution
in Brazilian Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago, IL (2005); Documenta, Kassel (1997); Retrospective (with Hlio Oiticica), Pao Imperial, Rio de
Janeiro (1986); So Paulo Biennial (1967); Pao Imperial,
Rio de Janeiro (1965); Mouvement II, Paris (1964); So
Paulo Biennial (1963); Venice Biennale (1963); So Paulo
Biennial (1961); Konkrete Kunst, Zrich (1960); Venice
Biennale (1961); So Paulo Biennial (1959).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

225

MXIMO CORVALN

JONATHAS DE ANDRADE

LENORA DE BARROS

EUGENIO DITTBORN

Born 1973, Santiago, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Born 1982, Macei, Brazil

Lives and work in Recife, Brazil

Born 1953, So Paulo, Brazil

Lives and works in So Paulo, Brazil

Born 1943, Santa Cruz, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Mximo Corvaln explores ideas about power and its

aesthetic dimension, and is interested in the formation
of an individuals subjectivity. His projects and installations offer a deep reflection on the contradictions of
modern consumer society. Corvaln ironically comments
on issues including recent historical processes, immigration and social upheaval. Through his use of video
and photography he creates a relationship with the
spectator and establishes a dialogue between the real
and the virtual aspect of an image. In his most recent
work, Corvaln combined concepts of precariousness
and spectacle, creating a strong effect that causes
anguish and unease, and establishes a formal dialogue
between the organic and the abstract.

Jonathas de Andrades multi-disciplinary practice

comprises installation, photography and video, and
explores socio-economic issues and themes of love,
nostalgia and urbanisation with a focus on the northeastern region of Brazil. De Andrades recent work
considers how systems of power shape the construction of history and identity. Exploring the borderlines
between fact and fiction, Tropical Hangover, 2009
combined contemporary photographs taken by the
artist with archival documents and fictional material related to the absence of the human scale in late
modernist architecture in Recife. In his most recent
work, The Uprising, 201213 de Andrade organised a
horse race in a public space, framing the event as a film
project to gain the approval of local bureaucrats, but
with the purpose of revealing policies that had caused
this feature of urban life to be outlawed in recent years.

Lenora de Barros began her career in the 1970s studying

linguistics, during a time of intensive experimentation in
the Brazilian art scene. Her early practice incorporated
visual poetry shaped by the avant-gardism of this period
and by the influence of her father, leading Concrete artist
Geraldo de Barros. The potential of language is a central
theme that she explores, employing irony and humour with
references to feminine experience, through a variety of
media including video, sound, performance, photography
and installation. Ping pong balls are a recurring motif and
were first used as a poetic object in 1990. Since then, de
Barros has explored the game and created ping-poems
that engage in a dialogue with the history of the Brazilian
avant-garde, and Pop and Conceptual art.

Eugenio Dittborns work is characterised by the use

of graphic elements and printmaking such as offset,
screen printing and photographic impression over
non-traditional canvases including cloth or textured
cardboard. His conceptual works revolve around a
critique of traditional forms of representation and
the different social conditions of Chilean society. One
of Dittborns most celebrated works of art, Airmail
Paintings, 1984, consisted of mixed-media collages
attached to papers that were then folded and packed
into specially made envelopes. These were posted via
airmail to cities around the world, where they were
opened and exhibited. These artworks were Dittborns
solution to the challenges of working as an artist during
Chiles military dictatorship, and they successfully
gained visibility in the international art world.

Selected exhibitions (solo): Proyecto ADN, Museo de

la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Santiago (2012);
DNI, Wewerka Pavilion, Mnster (2009); Free Trade
Ensambladura, Main Gallery, Fullerton, CA (2005);
Proyecto EWE-03, Museo de Arte Contemporneo,
Santiago (2003)
Selected exhibitions (group): Warriache 2009, Fonds
Rgional dArt Contemporain (FRAC), Marseille (2009);
Havana Biennial (2009); Southern Exposure/United We
Stand, Dumbo Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY (2008); Haber,
Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago (2007); Lenguas
muertas, Galera Ojo Atmico, Madrid (2006); From
the Other Side/Site, National Museum of Contemporary
Art of Seoul (2005); Backyard, The Americas Society
Gallery, New York, NY (2003).

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SPACE TO DREAM

Selected exhibitions (solo): Jonathas de Andrade,

Alexander and Bonin, New York, NY (2015); Museu
do Homem do Nordeste, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de
Janeiro (2014); Jonathas de Andrade: 40 Nego Bom
um real, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2014);
Museum of the Man of the Northeast, Galeria Vermelho,
So Paulo (2013); Tropical Hangover, Galeria Vermelho,
So Paulo (2009); Love and Happiness in Marriage,
Instituto Furnas Cultural, Rio de Janeiro (2008).
Selected exhibitions (group): Under the Same Sun,
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (2014);
Dakar Biennial (2014); Lyon Biennale (2013); The Right
to the City, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam
(2013); When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes,
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2012); New Museum Triennial (2012); Istanbul
Biennial (2011); So Paulo Biennial (2010).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Umas e Outras (Some and

Others), PIV, So Paulo (2014); Umas e outras, Casa de
Cultura Laura Alvim, Rio de Janeiro (2013); Sonoplastia,
Galeria Millan, So Paulo (2011); Issoossodisso, Projeto
Passagem, Oi Futuro Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro (2010);
Temporlia, Galeria Millan, So Paulo, (2008); Retalhao,
Centro Universitrio Maria Antonia, So Paulo (2007);
No quero nem ver, Pao Imperial, Centro Cultural do
IPHAN, Rio de Janeiro (2006); Ping-poems, Galeria da
Fundao do Centro de Estudos Brasileiros, Buenos Aires
(2003); Procuro-me, Centro Cultural Srgio Porto, Rio
de Janeiro (2002); Game is Over, Galeria Laura Marsiaj
Arte Contempornea, Rio de Janeiro (2002).
Selected exhibitions (group): Encruzilhada, Escola de
Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (2015);
Cut, Paste, Repair: A Hundred Years of Collage, Sicardi
Gallery, Houston, TX (2014); Poder Provisrio | Fotografia no Acervo do MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna, So
Paulo (2014); Circuitos Cruzados, Centre Pompidou in
collaboration with MAM, Paris (2013); So Paulo Biennial (2012); Thessaloniki Biennale (2013); Aire de Lyon,
Fundao Proa, Buenos Aires (2012); Constructive Spirit:
Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s50s,
Newark Museum, NJ (2010); So Paulo Biennial (2010).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Tate Modern, London

(2008); The New Museum for Contemporary Art, New
York (1997); Institute of Contemporary Art, London
(1993); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (1987);
Artspace, Sydney (1984); Museo de Arte Moderno de
Cali (1984); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago
(1974, 1994, 1998).
Selected exhibitions (group): Museo del Barrio, New
York, NY (2004 & 2008); So Paulo Biennial (2004);
Gwangju Biennale (2000); Arte y Poltica, Anomalas
del Espacio, Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Santiago
(2000); Face a lHistoire 19931996, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris (1996); Cocido y Crudo, Museo Nacional
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1994); Out of Place,
Vancouver Art Gallery (1993); La Cita Transcultural,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1993); Documenta,
Kassel (1992); Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
(1992); Havana Biennial (1991); The Interrupted Life,
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York,
NY (1991); Ciruga Plstica, Staatlichen Kunsthalle,
Berlin (1989).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

227

JUAN DOWNEY

RONALD DUARTE

JUAN MANUEL ECHAVARRA

VIRGINIA ERRZURIZ

Born 1940, Santiago, Chile

Died 1993, New York City, USA

Born 1962, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Born 1947, Medelln, Colombia

Lives and works in Bogot, Colombia

Born 1941, Santiago, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Juan Downey worked with photography, painting,

drawing, printmaking, performance, installation and
writing, yet is most well known as a pioneer in video
art. In the early 1960s, Downey began working with the
techniques of video art, developing and reflecting on
the confrontation of indigenous and Western cultures,
placing his work at the limits of art, anthropology,
aesthetics and scientific speculation. His videos often
begin with documentary material enriched by mixing
footage and incorporating voice-overs. The works
subject matter is as complex as the artists enriching
techniques, including a meditation on perception,
ecological issues, politics and history. He constantly
examined his Latin American heritage, contrasting it
with his experiences in Europe and the United States
to reflect on identity and power.

Ronald Duarte uses public space as the arena for his

urban interventions. The interventions are performative, collaborative, ephemeral and used as a means of
reflecting on sociopolitical problems in contemporary
Brazil. In Fogo Cruzado (Crossfire), 2002, for instance,
Duarte organised 26 artists to set fire to 1500 metres
of tramline in the neighbourhood of Santa Teresa,
Rio de Janeiro. The project combined celebration
with urban violence and caused mixed reactions:
admiration, disgust, shock, protest and police intervention. Duartes focus is on the here and now of each
action and how it engages a particular community.
The happenings live on through filmed documentation
that offers a glimpse of this engagement.

A writer and an artist, Juan Manuel Echavarra has

published two novels, La gran catarata (1981) and Moros
en la costa (1991). His passion for metaphors, symbols
and art led him to work with video and photography.
Echavarras art explores reality through visual metaphors, examines the tragedy of a country at war and
seeks to preserve the memory of the Colombian conflict
with the guerrillas. In the social dismantling of war, he
attempts to find humanity. Echavarra visualises places
that have experienced war for others to see. He thinks
of his artworks as short stories, and with just one image
he is able to write a narrative.

Virginia Errzuriz was important in the vanguard

scene of the 1960s in Chile. Her work is characterised
by an economy of means. She selects materials which
are then given an analytical content, emphasising
the precariousness in her choice of disposable and
found objects or industrial residues. Errzurizs
reduction of these elements to minimal expressions
and the way she carefully treats throwaway materials
challenges traditional forms of art and questions how
art and images can represent reality. Through this
questioning Errzuriz incorporates her views on the
social and political conditions of Chile, especially after
the military coup of 1973 when her visual narrative
denounced censorship and the violation of human
rights. Errzuriz views her work as pieces that must
be put together, to give signals and clues for the viewer
to construct his or her own interpretation of the work
through the reconstruction of its parts.

Selected exhibitions (solo): Juan Downey: Instalaciones,

Dibujos y Videos, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes,
Santiago (1995); The Thinking Eye, Video Feature,
International Center of Photography, New York (1987);
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco,
CA (1985); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
(1976, 1978); Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX
(1976); Casa de Las Amricas, Havana (1965).
Selected exhibitions (group): Museo Nacional de Bellas
Artes, Santiago (2006); Venice Biennale (2001); Museum
of Modern Art, New York (1984); Venice Biennale (1980);
Documenta, Kassel (1977); Paris Biennale (1975);
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1975,
1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991); Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam (1971); Some More Beginnings,
Brooklyn Museum, New York (1968).

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SPACE TO DREAM

Selected exhibitions (solo): Gota D Agua, with Emerging

Collective, Edifcio Raposo Lopes, Rio de Janeiro (2015);
Parafinos, Progetti Gallery, Rio de Janeiro (2013);
Fogo Cruzado, urban interference, Santa Teresa, Rio
de Janeiro (2002); O Que Rola VcV, urban interference,
Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro (2001).
Selected exhibitions (group): Conversation Pieces,
Neuen Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2014); Arte Rio,
Cais do Porto, Rio de Janeiro (2013); So Paulo Biennial (2010); Afro-Modern, Tate Liverpool (2010); 2nd
Bienal do Fim do Mundo, Ushuaia (2009); Havana
Biennial (2009).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Public Manifestation of

Creative Dissent, Malm Konsthall (2007); Guerra y
pa, Erich Maria Remarque Peace Center, Osnabrck
(2003); Bocas de ceniza, Museo de Arte Moderno,
Buenos Aires (2000).
Selected exhibitions (group): Re-framing History,
Lelong Gallery, New York, NY (2014); Cuenca Biennial
(2014); Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro (2013); Nocturnes
de Colombie edition de Biennale Photoquai, Muse du
Quai Branly, Paris (2013); Amerique Latine: Silencio
si te gusta, Fondation Cartier, Paris (2013); Aliento:
la guerra que no hemos visto, Kunstmuseum Bochum
(2013); Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, El Museo
del Barrio with Queens Museum of Art and the Studio
Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2012 & 2007);
Acts of Voicing, Total Museum, Seoul (2012); Bienal
do Mercosur (2011); Sammlung Goetz at Haus der
Kunst, Munich (2011); Los desaparecidos, Museo de
Arte Moderno, Bogot (2008); Autopsia de lo invisible,
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires (2008
& 2001); The Hours: Visual Art of Comteporary Latin
America, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2007);
Venice Biennial (2005); Museo Nacional Centro de
Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid (2000).

Selected exhibitions (group): Bienal Latinoamericana

de Arte sobre Papel, Buenos Aires (1996); X Mostra
da Gravura, Curitiba (1992); Havana Biennial (1992);
Contemporary Art from Chile, The Americas Society
Gallery, New York, NY (1991); Instalacin al Tresbolillo, Staatlichen Kunsthalle, Berlin (1989); Fragments
of Contemporary Art, Palazzo Valentini, Rome (1988);
Chilenas, dentro y fuera, NGBK, Kunstraum Kreuzberg,
Berlin (1983); La poesa israel a travs de la expresin
plstica chilena, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes,
Santiago (1980); Centro de Bellas Artes, Maracaibo
(1980); Latin-American Engraving Triennial, Buenos
Aires (1979); Biennial of Printmaking, Wellington
(1979); Exposicin I y II, Aniversario del Gobierno
Popular, Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Santiago
(19712); Amrica no invoco tu nombre en vano, Museo
de Arte Contemporneo, Santiago (1969).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

229

LEN FERRARI

IGNACIO GUMUCIO

PATRICK HAMILTON

JUAN FERNANDO HERRN

Born 1920, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Died 2013, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Born 1971, Via del Mar, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Born 1974, Leuven, Belgium

Lives and works in Madrid, Spain

Born 1963, Bogot, Colombia

Lives and works in Bogot, Colombia

Len Ferrari was one of the pioneers of Conceptual art

in Argentina. With an artistic practice that comprised
painting, sculpture, poetry, collage and printmaking,
Ferrari is internationally renowned for his unsparing
social and political critiques. Forced into exile in 1976
and only returning to Argentina in 1991, throughout
his lifetime Ferrari created works that condemned the
repressive military regime and its relationship with
the religious establishment, and was highly critical of
social inequalities, sexual, religious and ideological
discrimination, and abuses of power. Ferrari made clear
his intentions in a widely circulated manifesto during
his early career, in which he wrote, Art is not beauty or
novelty, art is effectiveness and disruption . . .

Ignacio Gumucio creates paintings based on memories

of common spaces and situations: waiting rooms,
buildings, the geometric voids of city plazas, a group
people gathered around a table or a child sitting on
the floor. He uses a wide range of materials such as
latex, oil, markers, enamel, cardboard, photocopies
and wood, according to the environments he attempts
to evoke. His artistic preoccupation arises from being
unable to retain an image of the places that fascinate
him. Gumucio has found photographs inadequate in
conveying the things he finds important. When he recalls
an image the differences dim out, light flattens, the
hierarchy of things change, and perspective becomes
twisted according to elements he strongly remembers.

Patrick Hamilton works with photography, collage,

objects and installations. Through the intervention
and manipulation of everyday objects, such as tools,
Hamilton reflects on the concepts of labour, inequality,
architecture and Chilean history from the last 50 years,
particularly from the post-dictatorship period. He
proposes an aesthetic reflection on the consequences of
the neo-liberal revolution implemented in Chile during
the 1980s and its cultural and social ramifications from
then onwards through a study of urban phenomena and
myths concerning the countrys history.

Selected exhibitions (solo): La donacin Ferrari, Museo

de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2014); Len Ferrari,
Haunch of Venison, New York, NY (2011); Luces de Len,
Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires (2010);
Retrospective, Museo Emilio Caraffa, Crdoba (2010);
Len Ferrari, Los Msicos, Galera Braga Menndez Arte
Contemporneo, Buenos Aires (2008); Len Ferrari.
Obras 19762008, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico
City (2008); Revisiting Tautology, Pan American Art
Projects, Miami, FL (2006); Retrospectiva Len Ferrari,
Pinacoteca do Estado do So Paulo (2006); Retrospective
Len Ferrari, obras 19542004, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2004); Instrumentos para dibujar
sonidos, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires
(2004); Escrituras, Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires (2004).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Sauce mental, Galera AFA,

Santiago (2013); Golden Year, Canvas International
Art, Amsterdam (2006); La jaula por dentro, Galera
Animal, Santiago (2003); La revolucin silenciosa,
Galera Gabriela Mistral, Santiago (2001).

Juan Fernando Herrn bases his work on the reality that

surrounds him. Through the use of photography, video,
drawing, sculpture and installation Herrn develops
conceptual and analytical works, informed by extensive
research, which reflect on the Colombian context. He
primarily develops works of art that combine different
visual material to portray the relationship people share
with the environment and how the changes imposed on
the landscape by human beings reveal sociopolitical
issues. His most recent work, in which he creates images
of stairs in drawing, photography and three-dimensional
structures, represents the socially and economically
marginalised communities located in the outskirts of
Medelln. Through a rigorous investigation Herrns
work attempts to propose new ways of reflecting on
political, economic and social complexities.

Selected exhibitions (group): Impressions/Abstractions, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX (2013); Inverted

Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America, Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, TX (2004); Heterotopias: Medio
siglo sin lugar, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina
Sofa, Madrid (2000); Re-Aligning Vision: Alternative
Currents in South American Drawing, Jack S Blanton
Museum of Art, Austin, TX (1997).

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SPACE TO DREAM

Selected exhibitions (group): Behind the Scenes, Espace

Louis Vuitton, Paris (2010); Golden Year, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam (2006); From the Other Side/
Site, National Museum of Contemporary Art of Seoul
(2005); Marking Time, 19952005: Contemporary Art
from Chile, Jack S Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
(2005); Shanghai Biennale (2004); Octava Bienal de
Pintura de Cuenca, Ecuador (2004); Backyard, The
Americas Society Gallery, New York, NY (2003).

Selected exhibitions (group): Beleza?, Centro Cultural

So Paulo (2015); Proyecto Lanz, FLORA Ars+Natura,
Bogot (2014); Beyond the Supersquare, The Bronx
Museum of the Arts, New York, NY (2014); Slow Future,
Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
(2014); Progreso, Museo de Arte Contemporneo,
Santiago (2013); Disrupted Nature, Museum of Latin
American Art, Long Beach, CA (2013); Venice Biennale (2013); Ultramar Sur, Paco das Artes, So Paulo
(2012); Dublin Contemporary (2012); Havana Biennial
(2009 & 2003); Prague Biennial (2005); So Paulo
Biennial (2004).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Espina Dorsal, NC-Arte,

Bogot (2011); Tierra incgnita, Museo de Arte Moderno,
Bogot (2002); Imprinted Stories, Delfina Studios,
London (1995).
Selected exhibitions (group): Venice Biennale (2011);
Menos tiempo que lugar, Museo de Arte Ral Anguiano,
Guadalajara (2011); Menos tiempo que lugar, Museo de
Antioquia, Medelln (2010); Menos tiempo que lugar, Centro
de Arte Contemporneo, Quito (2009); Iberoamrica
Global, Casa de Amrica, Madrid (2007); Contrabandistas de imgenes, Museo de Arte Contemporneo,
Santiago (2005); So Paulo Biennial (2004); Liverpool
Biennial (2002); De la representacin a la accin, Le
Plateau, Paris (2002); De adversidades viviemos, Muse
dArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2001); Versiones del
sur: Eztetyca del sueo, Palacio de Velzquez, Museo
Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid (2001);
Define Context, Apex Art CP, New York, NY (2000);
Bienal do Mercosur (1999); The Garden of Forking
Paths, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, Edsvik Konst &
Kultur, Stockholm, Helsinki Art Museum, Nordjyllands
Kunstmuseum, Aalborg (1998); Istanbul Biennial (1997);
Havana Biennial (1994).
THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

231

ALFREDO JAAR

CRISTBAL LEN

MARCOS LPEZ

KEVIN MANCERA

Born 1956, Santiago, Chile

Lives and works in New York City, USA

Born 1980, Santiago, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Born 1958, Santa Fe, Argentina

Lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Born 1982, Bogot, Colombia

Lives and works in Bogot, Colombia

Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker

who lives and works in New York City. He was born in
Santiago de Chile. Jaars work has been shown extensively around the world. He has participated in the
Biennales of Venice (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013), So
Paulo (1987, 1989, 2010) as well as Documenta in
Kassel (1987, 2002). Important individual exhibitions
include The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New
York; Whitechapel, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Museum of Contemporary
Art, Rome; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. A major
retrospective of his work took place in summer 2012
at three institutions in Berlin: Berlinische Galerie,
Neue Gesellschaft fr bildende Kunst e.V. and Alte
Nationalgalerie. In 2014 the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki hosted the most extensive
retrospective of his career.

JOAQUN COCIA

During the mid-1990s there was a dramatic shift in

Marcos Lpezs work after he grew uncomfortable with
the sentimental and iconographic style that typified
Latin American photography. Lpez began making
critical observations of his cultural surroundings,
rejecting aestheticism and questioning the promises
of modernity that accompanied Argentinas entrance
into the capitalist system under President Menem.
His photographic portraits and scenes, and more
recently his paintings, are characterised by their
saturated palette, overwhelming dimensions, and are
overloaded with mass consumerism and folk culture.
This could easily be ascribed to the Pop of North
America, however Lpezs appropriation isolates
and reassembles a kitsch aesthetic for the purpose
of alluding to Argentinas loss of cultural identity.

Kevin Mancera creates illustrations primarily with

ink or pencil on paper and in some cases watercolour
and photography. His work is highly personal yet also
acknowledges and confronts universal constructs that
he finds problematic. Manceras illustrations speak at
a human level, recalling moments of pain, loneliness,
heartbreak, and have recurring themes of misfortune,
agony and death. He exalts small daily tragedies and he
finds inspiration in magazines, conversations, emails,
dictionaries and newspapers. Many of his works play
conceptually with the idea of replication, transcription, listing or categorising, and he explains that his
drawings act as classifiers to organise the world that
surrounds him.

Jaar has realised more than 60 public interventions

around the world. More than 50 monographic publications have been published about his work.
He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a Mac
Arthur Fellow in 2000.
His work can be found in the collections of The Museum
of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum, New York,
the MCA in Chicago, MOCA and LACMA in Los Angeles,
the Tate in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in
Paris, the Centro Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Moderna
Museet in Stockholm, the Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art in Humlaebeck, and dozens of other institutions
and private collections worldwide.

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SPACE TO DREAM

Born 1980, Concepcin, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Joaqun Cocia and Cristbal Len create audiovisual

projects where drawing, sculpture, literature and
cinematographic techniques converge. Their films
superimpose narratives inspired by fairy tales, myths
and religion with quotidian South American spaces and
politics. Their interest lies in making films in which
reality and stories combine, are reinterpreted just as in
a dream, and reprojected onto a constructed universe
with its own material and temporal laws. Cocia and
Lens films work like moving sculptures, with material
in a constant state of destruction and construction and
where the creation process is the work itself.
Selected exhibitions as a duo: El castillo de la pureza,
Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Santiago (2014); La
Bella y la Bestia, Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos
Aires (2014); Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, (2013
& 2011); Venice Biennale (2013); La casa lobo, Kampnagel Sommerfestival, Hamburg (2013); Bienal de
Montevideo (2013); Bienal de Nuevos Medios, Santiago
(2013); Huiselijke Storingen, CC Het Gasthuis, Aarschot
(2012); Art in the Auditorium, Whitechapel Gallery,
London (2011); Psychopomp Council, De Ateliers,
Amsterdam (2011); Art in the Auditorium II, Fundacin
PROA, Buenos Aires (2010); You Tube Play: A Biennial
of Creative Video, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New
York, NY (2010); Highlights from Colonge Kunst Film
Biennale, Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art,
Berlin (2010); Bienal do Mercosur (2009).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Latino Pop Invades Toledo,

Toledo (2014); Debut and Farewell, Recoleta Cultural
Center, Buenos Aires (2013); Local Color, Fernando
Pradilla Gallery, Madrid (2012); Earth in Trance,
YPF Foundation, Buenos Aires and Mor-Charpentier
Gallery, Paris (2011); Excess, Ruth Benzacar Gallery,
Buenos Aires (2010); Domestic Flight, Castagnino
Museum, Rosario, Santa Fe, NM (2010); Latino Pop,
Sanomatalo, Helsinki (2004); Creole Sub-Realism:
Color Photographs 19932003, Fernando Pradilla
Gallery, Madrid (2003); Double Speech, Rojas Center,
Buenos Aires and Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas (1997).

Selected exhibitions (solo): La Felicidad, Galera

Vermelho, So Paulo (2013); 100 cosas que odio,
Fundacin Gilberto lzate Avendao, Bogot (2007)
Selected exhibitions (group): Intersecciones, Museo
de Arte Moderno, Bogot (2012); Saln de Arte BBVA,
Nuevos nombres del Banco de la Repblica, Bogot
(2011); Vamos, Museo de Arte Moderno, Barranquilla
(2010); Cuarto Festival Internacional de la imagen,
Muestra de Media-Art, Manizales (2008).

Selected Exhibitions (group): Habeas Corpus, Republic

Bank Art Museum, Bogot (2010); Biennial of Plastic
Arts, Havana (2008); Subtle Violent, Museo Nacional
de Bellas Artes, Santiago (2008); Scenic, Ricardo Rojas
Cultural Center, Buenos Aires (2008); Signs of Existence, Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Santiago (2008);
Art, Satire, Subversion: Five Latin American Visions,
Casa de America, Madrid (2007); Violent Subtle, Latin
American Forum of Photography, So Paulo (2007).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

233

ANTONIO MANUEL

CINTHIA MARCELLE

EDUARDO NAVARRO

MARIA NEPOMUCENO

Born 1947, Avels de Caminha, Portugal

Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Born 1974, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Born 1979 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Born in 1976 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

From the beginning of his career, Antonio Manuels

work has been politically potent. Working throughout
the Brazilian military dictatorship, the artist created
artworks that critiqued the censorship and restrictions
of military rule, and played a role in the development
of the Neo-Avantgarde movement in Rio de Janeiro.
Manuel developed a position that augmented the
limits of traditional practice, working at the boundaries of print media, and he was a pioneer of Body art.
His more recent works, although departing from the
graphic style of print, remain profoundly confronting,
presenting issues of police brutality, censorship and
crime in contemporary Brazil.

Cinthia Marcelle works primarily with installations and

carefully choreographed performances in public spaces,
using video and photography as an artistic means for
documentation. Built on a history of conceptual interventions in Brazil, Marcelles performances often rely
on the collaboration of volunteers and are marked by
a degree of absurdity, simultaneity and synchronicity.
It is impossible to know how each event will evolve as
daily life becomes a theatrical performance and the
public its performers.

Eduardo Navarros multi-disciplinary practice is research

based and involves working closely with communities or
sites to investigate phenomenological experiences and
alternatives to pre-existing structures in society. Over
the last 10 years he has collaborated with legal, spiritual,
scientific, medical and archaeological communities,
drawing on a series of discussions and exchanges within
these groups and their contexts to create richly layered
work in a variety of mediums, including sculpture,
performance and installation. There is often a naivet to
his work, such as the home-made costumes and modestly
constructed tools, which Navarro describes as a starting
point in the development and a pre-requisite for the
viewers experience.

Maria Nepomuceno is one of a group of artists who

came to prominence through the dynamic gallery A Gentil
Carioca in Rio de Janeiro, founded by artists Marcio
Botner, Laura Lima and Ernesto Neto. Over the last 10
years, she has created a number of colourful biomorphic
sculptures and installations in which networks of forms
hang, flop and stretch across the gallery in different
states of movement and relaxation. These landscapes
are made from store-bought materials and rope that
is braided, woven and coiled into interconnected
ecosystems. Nepomuceno imbues material, including
beads, rope, woven straw and found objects, with
metaphorical significance, such as the use of rope as
an umbilical cord that connects and provides energy to
another form. Interested in the techniques of traditional
Latin American weavers and the collective nature of their
practices, Nepomuceno frequently invites volunteer
artists and artisans to help make the work.

Selected exhibitions (solo): Antonio Manuel, Museu

de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2014); I Want to Act,
Not Represent!, The Americas Society Art Gallery, New
York, NY (2011); Antonio Manuel Sucesso de Fatos,
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, So Paulo (2007);
Antonio Manuel, Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud,
So Paulo (2006); Antonio Manuel, Pharos Centre of
Contemporary Art, Nicosia (2005); Antonio Manuel,
Galeria de Arte Manoel Macedo, Belo Horizonte (2004);
Antonio Manuel, HAP Galeria, Rio de Janeiro (2004).
Selected exhibitions (group): Venice Biennale (2015);
Possibilities of the Object: Experiments in Modern and
Contemporary Brazilian Art, The Fruitmarket Gallery,
Edinburgh (2015); America Latina 19602013, Foundation Cartier, Paris (2014); Arte de contradicciones.
Pop, realismos y poltica. BrasilArgentina 1960,
Fundacin PROA, Buenos Aires (2012); Open/Closed,
Pinacoteca, So Paulo (2012); Performa 11, New York,
NY (2011); So Paulo Biennial (2010); Art Vida: Action
by Artists of the Americas, 19602000, Museo Del
Barrio, New York, NY (2008).

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SPACE TO DREAM

Selected exhibitions (solo): Dust Never Sleeps, Secession,

Vienna (2014); Zona Temporria, Centro Cultural Banco
do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2013); See for Been Seen,
Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev (2011); This Same World Over,
Foyer Gallery, Camberwell College of Arts, London
(2009); Bolsa Pampulha: Cinthia Marcelle, Museu de
Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2004).
Selected Exhibitions (group): A Mao Negativa, Escola
de Artes Visuas do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (2015);
Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (2015); Sharjah Biennial
(2015); Venice Biennale (2013); Sao Paulo Biennial (2010).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Law Offices, Mercosur III,

Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires (2013); Test Location:
Im a Piece of Atmosphere, Buenos Aires (2012); La
Laguna, Daniel Abate Galeria, Buenos Aires (2008);
Art Center Chapel, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2008);
ChildrensJail, Balin House Projects, London (2007).
Selected exhibitions (group): Sharjah Biennial (2015);
Cuenca Biennial (2014); Mercosul Biennial (2013);
Homeopathic Treatment for the Ro de la Plata, Memory
Park, Buenos Aires (2013); So Paulo Biennial (2010);
Songs From The Tree Tops, PDX Contemporary Art
Portland, OR (2009); Mercosul Biennial (2009);
Kunsthalle Bern (2008); From Confrontation to Intimacy, The American Society in New York, NY (2007).

Selected exhibitions (solo): O Grande Espiral, Espao

Cultural Marcantonio Vilaa, Brasilia (2015); TRANS,
Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2014); Tempo Para
Respirar, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
(2013); Tempo Para Respirar, Turner Contemporary,
Margate (2012); Magasin III, Stockholm (2010); Steve
Turner Contemporary Gallery, Los Angeles (2009);
Pao das Arte, So Paulo (2008).
Selected exhibitions (group): Crafted: Objects in Flux,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA (201516); International
Biennial of Contemporary Art of Cartagena de Indias
(2014); Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil,
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2014);
Brasiliana Installations from 1960 to the Present, Schirn
Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2013); Hangzhou Triennial of
Fiber Art (2013); Conect: A Gentil Carioca, IFA Institut,
Berlin (2010); Touched, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New
York, NY (2010); Toyota Museum of Contemporary Art,
Nagoya (2008); Galeria Luisa Strina, So Paulo (2007).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

235

ERNESTO NETO

HLIO OITICICA

BERNARDO OYARZN

NICANOR PARRA

Born 1964, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Born 1937, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Died 1980, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Born 1963, Llanquihue, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Born 1914, San Fabin de Alico, Chile

Lives in Las Cruces, San Antonio province, Chile

Ernesto Netos large-scale sculptural installations are

immersive and encourage multi-sensory engagements
and experiences between the viewer and artwork.
Considered one of the most influential contemporary
Brazilian artists working today, Neto draws on the work
of the earlier generation of Brazilian Neo-Concretists to
accentuate the potential for art to offer sensory interactions. Using stretchy fabrics, spices and Styrofoam
balls he constructs web-like structures and soft globular
forms that recall body parts, organic membranes or
the microscopic view of a cell. The works are designed
to be touched and climbed on, and often engage the
sense of smell with pendulous spice-filled forms. Netos
biomorphic installations create a dynamic tension, which
echoes the relationship between the modern cities of
Brazil and the primordial jungle.

Hlio Oiticicas multi-disciplinary practice created

new forms and categories for the art-object and shifted
the nature of public engagement with art. Early in
his career Oiticica worked in the field of geometric
abstraction as a member of the Frente Group (195406),
and later in his work helped form the Neo-Concrete
movement (195961). In one of his most well-know
works, Tropiclia, 1967, Oiticica drew on experiences
of the local favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro, creating
a maze-like installation in which the viewer was free
to move through an environment of sand, plants, live
parrots and Penetrables colourful spaces which could
be entered and interacted with. In the Parangols,
196369 Oiticica created mobile sculptures made of
fabric, plastic, ropes and other material, which were
worn on the body. Tropiclia is the counter culture
movement to which Oiticica belonged; an idea, a state
of mind, and a dream that the artist described as The
cry of Brazil to the world.

Bernardo Oyarzns work is linked to popular contexts,

marginal spaces and the aesthetics that emerge from
these conditions. He creates works of art which respond
to local aesthetic perceptions, empirical knowledge, and
ideas and critical views connected to specific places.
Oyarzn is interested in learning from and visualising local synergies that constitute specific cultural
formations. His work grants visibility to certain local
and indigenous practices that have been set aside as
popular art, creating a collaborative model of production where inclusion overcomes the existing division
between popular, or folk, and contemporary art.

Nicanor Parra is a Chilean poet, mathematician and

physicist whose work has had a profound influence
on Hispano-American literature. He is considered by
many critics and renowned authors to be one of the
greatest poets of the Western world. Parra describes
himself as an anti-poet due to his distaste for standard
poetic modes and is thus considered the creator of the
anti-poetry style poetry that opposes traditional
techniques or styles. One of his most important literary
works is Poemas y Antipoemas (Poems and Antipoems,
1954), and his series of visual poems titled Artefactos
(Artifacts,1972), both of which typify his use of irony
and incorporation of slang. Among other honours, he
has been awarded the National Literature Prize (1969)
and the Cervantes Prize (2011), one of the highest
distinctions in Spanish literature.

Selected exhibitions (solo): Ernesto Neto, Kunsthalle

Krems, Krems an der Donau (2015); Ernesto Neto and the
Huni Kuin | Aru Kuxipa | Sacred Secret, TBA21Augarten,
Vienna (2015); The Body that Carries Me, Guggenheim
Museum, Bilbao (2014); O ABRIGO E O TERRENO: Arte
e sociedade no Brasil, Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro
(2013); Navedenga, Museum of Modern Art, New York,
NY (2010); Ernesto Neto Mentre niente accade/While
Nothing Happens, Museo dArte Contemporanea Roma
(200809); Nh Nh Nave, Contemporary Arts Museum
in Houston, TX (1999).
Selected exhibitions (group): Dancing Museum, Museu
de Arte Moderna de So Paulo (2015); Seeking a New
Genealogy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
(2014); Permission to be Global/Prcticas Globales:
Latin American Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros
Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA (201314);
So Paulo Biennial (2013, 2010, 1998); Sharjah Biennial
(2013); Istanbul Biennial (2011); Venice Biennale (2001);
Biennale of Sydney (1998); Gwangju Biennale (1995).

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Selected exhibitions (solo): Hlio Oiticica: Propositions,

IMMA, Dublin (2015); Hlio Oiticica: Penetrables, Galeria
Lelong, New York, NY (2012); Hlio Oiticica: Museu
o Mundo, Pao Imperial and Casa Frana-Brasil, Rio de
Janeiro (2010); Hlio Oiticica: The Body of Colour, Tate
Modern, London, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
TX (2007); Information, Museum of Modern Art, New
York, NY (1970).
Selected exhibitions (group): From Revolt to Postmodernity (19621982), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofia, Madrid (2012); So Paulo Biennial (2010);
Tropiclia die 60s in Brasilien, Kunsthalle Wien,
Vienna (2010); Brazilian Constructivist Project, Museu
de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (1977); Whitechapel
Experience, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1969);
So Paulo Biennial (1965); Modern Art in Brazil, Museo
Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires (1957); National
Exhibition of Concrete Art, Museu de Arte Moderna de
So Paulo (1956).

Selected exhibitions: Pandemnium, Ciudadana y

Territorio, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende,
Santiago (2014); Nuestro Sitio, Museo de Artes
Visuales, Santiago (2012); Bienal de Montevideo
(2012); Domstica, Museo de Arte Contemporneo de
Chile (2012); Lengua izquierda, proyecto dislocacin,
Kunst Museum, Bern (2011); Bienal do Mercosur (2011);
Teleserie: secreto a voces, MDE11, Medellin (2011);
Lengua izquierda, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
(2009); Havana Biennial (2009); Trabajo forzado, Lo
spazio dell duomo Fondazione Merz, Turin (2008);
So Paulo Biennial (2007); Photo lbum, Museo
Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago (2006); Parking
Time, 19952005: Contemporary Art from Chile, Jack
S Blanton Winter of Art, Austin, TX (2005); Shanghai
Biennale (2004); Cuenca Biennial (2004); Prague
Biennial (2003); Backyard, The Americas Society
Art Gallery, New York, NY (2003); Tiera del fuego, II
Saln Internacional de Arte, SIART, Bolivia (2001).

Selected literary works: Obras completas II & algo +

(2011); Obras completas I & algo + (2006); Lear, Rey
& Mendigo (2004) (translation of King Lear); Pginas
en Blanco (2002); Talca, Chilln y Londres (1999);
Chistes para desorientar a la polica/poesa (1989);
Discursos de Sobremesa (1997); Trabajos Prcticos
(1996); Poemas para combatir la calvicie (1993); Hojas
de Parra (1985); Coplas de Navidad (1983); Poesa
poltica (1983); Ecopoemas de Nicanor Parra (1982);
Poema y Antipoema de Eduardo Frei (1982); Sermones
y prdicas del Cristo de Elqui (1977); El Quebrantahuesos and News from Nowhere (1975); Emergency
Poems (1973); Artefactos (1972); Obra gruesa (1969);
Canciones rusas (1967); Manifiesto (1963); Versos de
salon (1962); Discursos with Pablo Neruda (1962);
La cueca larga (1958); Cancionero sin nombre (1937).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

237

VIOLETA PARRA

LILIANA PORTER

ROSNGELA RENN

MIGUEL NGEL ROS

Born 1917, San Fabin de Alico, Chile

Died 1967, Santiago, Chile

Born 1941, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lives and works in New York City, USA

Born 1962, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Born 1943, Catamarca, Argentina

Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico and New York City, USA

Violeta Parra was an internationally renowned composer,

songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist, visual artist
and an advocate of Chilean folk art or arte popular.
Founder of the Nueva cancin chilena (Chilean New
Song), Parra proposed a renewal for Chilean folk music
that sought to merge Chilean music with Latin American rhythms and create lyrics with social content. She
travelled through the rural areas of Chile recording and
gathering folkloric music, discovering hidden poetry
and folkloric songs. Parra was also a painter, poetry
writer, sculptor and wove arpilleras (woven tapestries
made from jute plant). She wrote more than 100 songs
during her lifetime, some of which were discovered and
played for first time after her death. She is considered
to be one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of
the American continent, and was one of the first Latin
American artists to exhibit at the Louvre Museum in
Paris, in 1964.

Liliana Porters practice includes printmaking, painting,

installations, photography, video and public art projects. Porter moved to New York in 1964 and co-founded
the New York Graphic Workshop with Luis Camnitzer
and Jos Guillermo Castillo in 1965. The Workshop
focused on the way prints were made and distributed,
and paid attention to the mechanical and repetitive
nature of the medium, rather than traditional print
techniques and aesthetics. Her recent work, which
includes photography and installation, places small
figurines of animals and people in situations that use
scale and wit to comment on the human condition.

Over the last 20 years Brazilian artist Rosngela Renn

has explored forgotten histories through archival
material that has been lost, stolen or forgotten. Photographs and documents found in public and private
archives, and in flea markets, are transformed through
her process of salvaging and selection. Reappropriating old images of the dispossessed, or the banal and
everyday, Renn transforms the factually lost into the
fantastically retrieved. The people in Renns images
appear spectral and evoke the uncertainty of the past,
raising questions about photographys relationship
with reality.

Miguel ngel Ros moved to New York from Argentina

in the 1970s to escape the military dictatorship, which
influenced his work. Ros has a rigorously conceptual
approach to his work and looks to make visible the
violent moment in which we live. From the early 2000s,
Ros has used video to explore moments or narratives
of human experience, for example, creating films of
spinning tops or trompos which provide an allegory for
ideas of the transience of life and struggle for power.
The palpable tension as teams of black and white tops
collide and compete for dominance conjures ideas of
the European colonisation of Latin America.

Selected exhibitions (solo): Liliana Porter: To See

Gold and Other Prints, Sicardi Gallery, Houston,
TX (2015); Liliana Porter, Museo Nacional de Artes
Visuales, Montevideo (2015); Liliana Porter, Ruth
Benzacar Galera de Arte, Buenos Aires (2015); Untitled
(Shadows) (19692014), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
MA (2014); The Man With an Ax and Other Brief Situations, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires
(2013); Fragments of the Journey, 19681991, Bronx
Museum of the Arts, New York, NY (1992).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Inslidos, Cristina Guerra

Contemporary Art, Lisbon (2015); Projeto Educandaros, DAROS Latinamerica, Rio de Janeiro (2013);
Strange Fruits, Fotomuseum Winterthur (2013); Notas
de viagem do turista transcendental, Galeria da Caixa,
Curitiba (2011).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Folding Borders, Sicardi

Gallery, Houston, TX (2013); Sala de Arte Pblico
Siquerios, Mexico City (2013); Miguel ngel Ros:
Walkabout, Des Moines Art Center, IA (2012); Miguel
ngel Ros: Walkabout, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil,
Mexico City (2011); Mecha, Netherlands Instituut
voor Mediakunst, Amsterdam (2011); Miguel ngel
Ros, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires
(2009); On the Edge, Museum of Contemporary Art,
San Diego, CA (2009).

Selected discography: Las ltimas composiciones

(1966); Recordando a Chile (Una Chilena en Pars)
(1965); Carpa de La Reina (1965); Cantos de Chile
(1956); Los Parra de Chile (1962); El folklore de Chile,
vol VIII Toda Violeta Parra (1960); El folklore de Chile,
vol III La cueca presentada por Violeta Parra (1959);
El folklore de Chile, vol IV La tonada presentada por
Violeta Parra (1959); El folklore de Chile, vol II Violeta
Parra Acompandose en Guitarra (1958); El folklore
de Chile, vol I Violeta Parra, Canto y Guitarra (1957).
Selected songs: Run-Run se fue pal norte (Whirr-whirr
Up North It Went, 1966); Corazn Maldito (Cursed
Heart, 196465); Qu he sacado con quererte (What
Have I Received for Loving You, 196465); El Gaviln
(The Hawk, 195457); Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to
Life, 196465).

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SPACE TO DREAM

Selected exhibitions (group): Project Video, Sicardi

Gallery, Houston, TX (2013); Museum as Hub/The
Accords, Part II: Marcel Broodthaers and Liliana Porter:
The Incongruous Image, New Museum, New York, NY
(2011); Cosmopolitan Routes: Houston Collects Latin
American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
(2010); Beyond Geography: Forty Years of Visual Arts
at the Amricas Society, New York, NY (2005); MOMA
at El Museo: Latin American and Caribbean Art from
the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, El Museo
del Barrio, New York, NY (2004); Re-Aligning Vision:
Alternative Currents in South American Drawing, The
Archer M Huntington Art Gallery, Austin, TX (1997);
The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United
States, 19201970, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New
York, NY (1988).

Selected exhibitions (group): The Poetry in Between:

South-South, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town (2015);
Crossroads: Contemporary Art in Brazil, Wexner Center
for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2015); 140 characters,
Modern Art Museum, So Paulo (2015); Latin America
from 1960 to 2013, Fondation Cartier, Paris and Museo
Amparo, Puebla (2014); Crusaders Circuits: The Centre
Pompidou is the MAM, Modern Art Museum, So Paulo
(2013); Istanbul Biennial (2011); A Sense of Perspective,
Tate Liverpool (2011); So Paulo Biennial (2010).

Selected exhibitions (group): Project Video 2015,

Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX (2015); Pulso Alterado,
Intensidades en la coleccion del MUAC y sus colecciones
asociadas, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo,
Mexico City (2013); Desenlace: Teresa Serrano e Miguel
ngel Rios, Oi Futuro Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro (2013);
Order, Chaos, and the Space Between: Contemporary
Art from the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection, Phoenix
Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ (2013); MOVING, Norman
Foster on Art, Carre dArt, Nmes (2013); Biennale of
Sydney (2010).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

239

CARLOTA (LOTTY) ROSENFELD

JOAQUN SNCHEZ

MARTN SASTRE

MIRA SCHENDEL

Born 1943, Santiago, Chile

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Born 1977, Barrero, Paraguay

Lives and works in La Paz, Bolivia and Asuncin, Paraguay

Born 1976, Montevideo, Uruguay

Lives and works in Montevideo, Uruguay

Born 1919, Zurich, Switzerland

Died 1988, So Paulo, Brazil

Lotty Rosenfeld primarily works with installations,

photography and video. She played a key role in the
Chilean Neo-Vanguard scene, more commonly referred
to as Escena de Avanzada, which followed the Chilean
coup dtat of 1973. Together with the work she
produced under the C.A.D.A. art collective, Rosenfelds
artistic creation has focused primarily on interventions within public spaces that symbolically question
political views and institutional rigidity, specifically
under the weight of Pinochets dictatorship. Her video
recordings of these interventions poses a new form of
interpretation, utilising video art to denounce social
and political injustices.

Joaqun Snchez has always felt a profound connection

with moving images, history and folkloric art. His work
arises from an interest in conflict political, social,
cultural or personal which he then formulates into
a story. Influenced by his life experiences in Paraguay
and Bolivia, along with his Guaran (indigenous)
roots, Snchez demonstrates a particular interest in
appropriating and mixing iconography and cultural
expression of ethnic Latin American groups, granting
them new meaning as a reflection of the cultural
syncretism present in 21st-century South America. His
most recent work has focused on the theme of war and
borders, working particularly with the Paraguayan War
of 1870, the Pacific War between Chile and Bolivia in
1879 and the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay
in 193235. In his work he interweaves history with
fictitious elements. His artworks grant historical stories
and events new meaning, transforming disappearing
myths, retrieving forgotten stories and looking to the
future while learning from the past.

Martn Sastre works with popular culture and mass

media as a mechanism to express humorous and ironic
political messages. He is a filmmaker and visual artist
who combines video with sculpture, photography and
drawing. Sastre believes art should be political, and
he uses the language of popular culture to transmit a
strong political message that places Latin America at
the centre of the discussion. Among some of his most
recognised works are: the creation of the Aprende a
ser un artista Latinoamericano (Learn to Be a Latin
American artist) grant, where an artist must learn to
live and work with only 100 dollars a month; and U
from Uruguay, 2012, a conceptual work that involved
the fabrication of a perfume made of the essences of
flowers picked from the Uruguayan presidents garden.

Mira Schendel, along with Hlio Oiticica and Lygia

Clark, helped reinvent the language of modernism in
Brazil in the 1950s and 60s. Born in Zurich, Schendel
grew up in Italy, where she studied philosophy at the
University of Milan. Although raised a Catholic, the
artists Jewish heritage meant that she was stripped of
her citizenry and forced to flee Italy during the Fascist
regime. She settled with her husband in Brazil in 1949,
and went on to establish a reputation as a prominent
modernist artist, exploring language and philosophy.
Her unconventional tools of representation combined
refined, delicate mark making and geometric abstraction, and underlain with deep philosophical beliefs
examining faith and existence.

Significant public interventions and solo exhibitions

include: Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento, 1979;
Paz para Sebastin Acevedo, 1985; Cautivos, 1989;
El Empeo Latinoamericano, 1998; Mocin de Orden,
2002; Cuenta Regresiva, 2006; Estadio Chile I-II-III,
2009; Por una Potica de la Rebelda: Lotty Rosenfeld
19792013, 2013, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporneo, Seville.
Selected exhibitions (group): Venice Biennale (2015);
Documenta, Kassel (2007).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Des-tejer, CAF Corporacin

Andina de Fomento, La Paz (2014); Museo de Arte
Contemporneo Quinta Normal, Santiago (2008); Sin
culpa, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Paz (2004);
Tejidos, Museo Nacional de Etnografa y Folklore,
Autre Mestissages, La Paz (2003).
Selected exhibitions (group): Bienal SIART, Bolivia
(2013); Havana Biennial (2012); Nuestro Sitio, Museo
de Artes Visuales de Santiago/Museu de Arte Contemporneo de Niteroi, Ro de Janeiro (2012); Curitiba
Biennial (2011); Paraguay rap, Centro de Artes
Visuales Museo de Barro, Asuncin (2011); Australian
Center for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2011); Menos
tiempo que lugar, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes,
Santiago (2010); Chaco, el mundo de mis mundos,
Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Santa Cruz (2010);
Venice Biennale (2005).

240

SPACE TO DREAM

Selected exhibitions (solo): We are the world, Hayward

Gallery, London (2009); Dear Mr. Barney I walked
through fire, Momenta Art, New York, NY (2007);
Novas Utopias, Museum of Modern Art, Recife (2007);
Hola Australia!, Artspace, Sydney (2006); Aura, Gallerie
Filles du Calvaire, Paris (2006); Planet Sastre, Casa
de Amrica, Madrid (2002).
Selected exhibitions (group): Venice Biennale (2013
& 2011); Bienal de Montevideo (2012); Unresolved
Circumstances, Museum of Latin-American Art of Los
Angeles, CA (2011); For You, Daros Exhibitions, Zurich
(2009); Busans International Biennial Show, South
Korea (2008); So Paulo Biennial (2004); Playlist,
Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2004); VIII Havana Biennial
(2003); Superyo, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano,
Buenos Aires (2003); Prague Biennial (2002).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Mira Schendel: Monotypes,

Hauser & Wirth, London (2015); Mira Schendel: Pinacoteca do Estado de So Paulo (2014); Mira Schendel, Tate
Modern, London (201314); Mira Schendel: Pintora,
Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro (2011); Mira
Schendel: Avesso do Avesso, Instituto de Arte Contempornea, So Paulo (2010); Mira Schendel, Museu de
Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (1966); Mira: Exposio de
Pinturas, Museu de Arte Moderna de So Paulo (1954).
Selected exhibitions (group): Possibilities of the Object:
Experiments in Modern and Contemporary Brazilian
Art, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2015); So
Paulo Biennial (2010); Mira Schendel in Conversation
with Max Bill, Naum Gabo, Sol Lewitt, Agnes Martin,
Roman Opalka and Bridget Riley, Stephen Friedman
Gallery, London (2012); Tangled Alphabets: Len
Ferrari and Mira Schendel, Museum of Modern Art,
New York, NY (2008); Venice Biennale (1978); So
Paulo Biennial (1969); Venice Biennale (1968); Museu
de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (1966); Soundings
Two, Signals Gallery, London (1965); So Paulo Biennial (1955 & 1951).

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

241

DEMIAN SCHOPF

ALEJANDRO THORNTON

JOAQUN TORRES GARCA

Born 1975, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Lives and works in Santiago, Chile

Born 1970, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Born 1874, Montevideo, Uruguay

Died 1949, Montevideo, Uruguay

Demian Schopf works with diverse media: computer

software and hardware development, photography, video
and text. His work constantly utilises references from
the Baroque and Latin American Baroque movement,
commonly referred to as Neo-Baroque, and he has
specifically worked with the postmodern condition of
the Neo-Baroque heritage. Schopf is interested in the
syncretism of the postcolonial Andean world, which he
explores in works of art that merge different knowledge
systems such as art and religion, and different languages.
His artistic investigation has also included thinking
about the relationship that computers and technology
have with language, philosophy and informatics.

Alejandro Thorntons work draws upon a variety of

visual media to explore language and the ways in
which we communicate. He attempts to disturb the
formalisations of these and other codes of culture, and
his work takes the form of painting as well as visual
poetry, film, photography and interventions. His visual
poetry, perhaps his most well-known work, combines
image and language. In these works there is an almost
compulsive use of the letter A, which becomes cacophonous as it is scrawled across canvases. This A then
moves beyond its linguistic value as Thornton reworks
the differential relations that comprise a language.

Recognised as a canonical figure in Latin American and

modern art, Joaqun Torres Garca lived in Spain, New
York, Italy and Paris, where his theories and aesthetic
style culminated in his characteristic incorporation
of symbols located in a geometric grid based on the
golden section. With fellow Uruguayan artist Rafael
Prez Barradas, Torres Garca developed Vibrationism,
a style that combined formal elements of Cubism and
Futurism with urban imagery. These works would
become his most influential. He also developed Universalismo Constructivo (Constructive Universalism),
which sought to identify a universal structural unity
through abstraction. He was founder of Taller Torres
Garca, an avant-garde school that sought to blur hierarchical divisions between arts and crafts. Today, he is
most widely known for his incorporation of essential
elements of South American imagery and life into
the basic principles of European Constructivism and
geometric abstraction.

Selected exhibitions (solo): La Nave, Museo Nacional

de Bellas Artes, Santiago (2015); Los Tos del Diablo,
Galera Patricia Ready, Santiago (2013); Los Coros
Menores, Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Santiago
(2011); The Silent Revolution, The Berlin Institute
for Cultural Enquiry, Berlin (2010); Mquina Cndor,
Galera Gabriela Mistral, Santiago (2006); La Revolucin Silenciosa, Centro Cultural de Espaa, Buenos
Aires (2002).
Selected exhibitions (group): In other Words, Kunstraum
Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin (2012); Sin Pena ni Miedo,
MEIAC, Badajoz (2010); Las Amricas Latinas: Las
Fatigas del Querer, Spazio Oberdan, Milan (2009);
Bienal do Mercosur (2001).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Drawings, Schauraum,

Lucerne (2015); I Write/I Draw, Charno Gallery, Kansas
City, MO (2014); Overwritten, Mock Galera, Buenos
Aires (2013); Unthinkable, Pabelln 4 Arte Contemporneo, Buenos Aires (2011); Before the Words, Angel
Guido Art Project, Buenos Aires (2010); Faces, Angel
Guido Art Project, Buenos Aires (2008); Kylie, Crimson
Gallery, Madrid (2007).
Selected exhibitions (group): Summer Show, Artemisa
Gallery, New York, NY (2015); Fonlad Festival, Coimbra
(2015); Crossover KC, Western Gallery, Western
Washington University, Bellingham, WA (2015);
La mirada oculta, Rolf Art, Buenos Aires (2014);
Lecturas Abstractas, Galeria Central Newbury, Buenos
Aires (2014).

Selected exhibitions (solo): Joaqun Torres Garca: The

Arcadian Modern, Museum of Modern Art, New York,
NY (201516); Torres Garca at His Crossroads, Museu
Nacional dArt de Catalunya, Barcelona (2011); Trazos
de New York, Museo Torres Garca, Montevideo, Caixa
de Ro de Janeiro (2010); Joaqun Torres Garca: Una
vida en papel, Museu Valencia de la Illustracio i de la
Modernitat-MuVIM, Museo de Arte Contemporneo de
Madrid (2007); Torres Garca, Centro de Arte Reina
Sofa, Madrid (1991); Torres Garca: Grid-PatternSign Paris-Montevideo 19241944, Hayward Gallery,
Barbican Center, London (198586); J Torres Garca,
Galera Dau al Set, Barcelona, (1973); Joaqun Torres
Garca, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York,
NY (1971); Joaqun Torres Garca, Stedelijk Museum,
Amsterdam (1961); Joaqun Torres Garca, Muse
National dArt Moderne, Paris (1955).
Selected exhibitions (group): So Paulo Biennial (1994
& 1959); Venice Biennale (1956).

242

SPACE TO DREAM

THE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

243

Beatriz
Bustos
Oyanedel

244

Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel is an independent curator who lives and works in Santiago,
Chile. She has curated, co-curated, produced and managed cultural initiatives
for museums and cultural centres in Latin America, Asia and Europe. She carries
out her work both independently and through her consulting organisation, BBO
Desarrollo Cultural, which was founded with the aim to implement projects that
activate expression of thought with a consideration of context.
Selected exhibitions and projects as an independent curator include:
La Nave, Demian Schopf, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago (2015); Christian Boltanski en Chile, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago and Animitas, a
site-specific work in the community of Talabre, San Pedro de Atacama (201415);
Marca no registrada, Livia Marn, Espacio Oden, Bogot (2013); Coordinator of
Chilean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (201213); Nuestro Sitio: Artistas de Amrica
del Sur, Museum of Contemporary Art of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro and Museum of Visual
Arts, Santiago (2012); collaborative curator of Post Project, Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2011); Umbraculum, Jan Fabre, touring exhibition,
Museum of Modern Art, Medelln, Museum Tambo Quirquincho, La Paz and Tomie
Ohtake Institute, So Paulo (200910); Evolucin de mi obsesin, Jaime Vial, Isabel
Aninat Gallery, Santiago (2010); Founder of Cmo Vivir Juntos, implementation of a
cultural centre and programme in Tubul, Arauco (2010); Desde el Otro Sitio/Lugar
(From the Other Side/Site), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2005);
Correspondencias, with Universitt der Knste Berlin, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
(2002). Selected exhibitions as Head of Program and Curatorial Advisor at Museum
of Contemporary Art, Santiago: Passage to the Future (2008); Peppermint Candy,
National Museum of Contemporary Art of Korea (2007); Multiplication (2007);
Cobra et Cie (2007); Cmo vivir juntos, selection of the So Paulo Biennial with So
Paulo Biennial Foundation, (2007).
Bustos Oyanedels institutional roles have included International
Coordinator of Visual Arts, Photography and New Media departments for the
National Council for Culture and the Arts, Santiago (201213); Head of Program and
Curatorial Advisor for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago (200508). She is
currently a Culture, Art and Education Adviser for Fundacin Mar Adentro, Santiago
(2015ongoing); member of the advisory board of Key Performance, Sweden (since
2010); and was member of the editorial collective for Mapping South: Journeys in
SouthSouth Cultural Relations, Anthology of Contemporary Art (201113).

SPACE TO DREAM

Dr Zara
Stanhope

Dr Zara Stanhope is Principal Curator and Head of Programmes at Auckland Art

Gallery Toi o Tmaki, New Zealand, where she leads exhibitions, publishing, visitor
engagement, learning, outreach, volunteer guides and a public research library. She
is a curator, researcher and writer with interests in public and social engagement,
among other areas of contemporary art.
Selected exhibitions include: Yang Fudong: Filmscapes, with Ulanda
Blair, Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tmaki
(201415); Arthur Boyd: An Active Witness, Bundanon Trust (touring Australia
201316); John Meade: Objects to Live By, Latrobe Regional Gallery (touring Australia,
(201011); Material Ligero: Five Chilean Artists Travelling Light, Margaret Lawrence
Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne (2009); Les Kossatz: The Art of
Existence, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2008); The World in Painting,
Chiang Mai University Art Museum, Chulalongkorn University Art Center, Thailand,
Yuchengco Museum, Manila, Hanoi Fine Art Museum and Heide MoMA (200708);
TRANS VERSA: Artists from Australia and New Zealand, with Danae Mossman,
Museo de Arte Contemporneo, Galera Metropolitana, Centro Cultural Matucana,
Santiago (2006); We Know Who We Are, Gertrude Contemporary Artist Spaces,
Melbourne (2006); Three Colours: Gordon Bennett and Peter Robinson, Heide MoMA
and touring (200405); This Was the Future: Australian Sculpture of the 1950s,
60s, 70s and Today, Heide MoMA (2003); Slow Release: Recent Photography in
New Zealand, Heide MoMA (2002); Fernanda Gomes, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria
University of Wellington (2002). She has contributed to numerous catalogues and
books including Re-imagining the City: Art, Globalisation and Urban Spaces (Intellect
Books, 2013) and was the editor of Engaging Publics | Public Engagement (Auckland
Art Gallery, 2015) and Les Kossatz: The Art of Existence (Macmillan, 2008).
Stanhope is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Art and Design
at AUT University, Auckland and holds a PhD from the School of Arts and Social
Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra. Her institutional roles
have included Deputy Director and Senior Curator at Heide Museum of Modern Art,
Melbourne (200208); inaugural Director of the Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University
of Wellington, (19992002) and Assistant Director, Monash University Gallery,
Melbourne (199399). She is also an advisor for Port Journeys, an international
artist exchange network based in Yokohama, Japan. Stanhope is on the boards of
Headland Sculpture on the Gulf, Auckland, Art Monthly and St PAUL St Gallery,
AUT University.

CURATORS BIOGRAPHIES

245

Fernando Arias

List of
Works

Cantos de viaje
(Chants of a Journey) 2014
video
43:00 min
courtesy of the artist,
Colombia
Se busca donante de cenizas
(Donor of Ashes Wanted) 2009
charcoal drawing on wall,
documentation of the donation
of human ashes, video
courtesy of the artist,
Colombia
Catalina Bauer (in
collaboration with Amelia
Ibez)

Primeras palabras
(First Words) 2014
video
4:42 min
courtesy of the artist, Chile
Paulo Bruscky

Aerograma #1 (Aerogram #1)

1975
stamps, indian ink on aerogram
206 x 153 mm
courtesy of the artist
and Galeria Nara Roesler,
So Paulo, Brazil
O que arte, para o que serve?
(What Is Art? What Is It For?)
1978, 2010
photographic prints
500 x 700 mm (x 2),
700 x 500 mm (x 2)
courtesy of the artist
and Galeria Nara Roesler,
So Paulo, Brazil
Poesia Viva (Live Poetry)
1977, 2013
photographic prints
500 x 700 mm (x3)
courtesy of the artist
and Galeria Nara Roesler,
So Paulo, Brazil

246

SPACE TO DREAM

Poema sem dimenses.

Mede o paralelo dos tri
e a distancia dos avioes
(Poem without a Meter. Pure
Architecture, the Poem Gauges
the Parallel between Tracks
and the Height of Airplanes)
1967, 2013
digital print on vinyl fabric
1700 x 5000 mm
courtesy of the artist
and Galeria Nara Roesler,
So Paulo, Brazil
Sem Destino (No Destination)
197583
book, paper documents
300 x 200 mm
on loan from the Fernando
Abdalla collection,
So Paulo, Brazil
Atitude do artista /Atitude
do museu (Attitude of the
Artist / Attitude of the
Museum) 1978
framed photographic prints
770 x 470 mm
on loan from the Camilla e
Eduardo Barella collection,
So Paulo, Brazil

Luis Camnitzer

The Discovery of Geometry

1978, 2008
silver gelatin print
279 x 356 mm
courtesy of the artist and
Alexander Gray Associates
Gallery, New York
Landscape As an Attitude 1979
silver gelatin print
287 x 363 mm
courtesy of the artist and
Alexander Gray Associates
Gallery, New York
Juan Castillo

Huacheras 201516
video
courtesy of the artist, Chile
Carlos Castro

El que no sufre no vive

(That Which Does Not Suffer
Does Not Live) 2009
HD Video
5:09 min
courtesy of the artist,
Colombia

C.A.D.A.
Lygia Clark

Ay Sudamrica ! (Oh South

America) 1982
video, photographs, flyer
4:35 min, 385 x 280 mm (x 2),
220 x 150 mm
on loan from Museo Nacional
de Bellas Artes, Santiago,
Chile

Baba Antropofgica 1973, 2012

film (DVD)
9:00 min
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)

NO+ (No More) 198389

video (colour and black and
white, sound), photographic
prints
5:51 min, 385 x 280 mm
on loan from Museo Nacional
de Bellas Artes, Santiago,
Chile

Bicho Em Si (Creature
In Itself) 1960, 2016
aluminium
330 x 500 x 420 mm (variable)
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Bicho (Creature) 1960, 2016
aluminium
430 x 250 x 600 mm (variable)
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)

Bicho (Creature) 1960, 2016

aluminium
480 x 800 x 480 mm (variable)
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Lygia Clark em Nova York
(Lygia Clark in New York) 2014
film (DVD)
26:00 min
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Mascara Sensorial
(Sensorial Mask) 1967, 2016
shell, plastic, fabric
650 x 500 x 50 mm
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Mascara Sensorial
(Sensorial Mask) 1967, 2016
aluminium, marbles, loofah,
plastic, fabric
650 x 500 x 50 mm
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Mascara Sensorial
(Sensorial Mask) 1967, 2016
aluminium, mirror, fabric
650 x 500 x 60 mm
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Mascara Sensorial
(Sensorial Mask) 1967, 2016
gourd, guitar string, metal,
polystyrene, fabric
650 x 500 x 60 mm
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)

Mascara Sensorial
(Sensorial Mask) 1967, 2016
steel wool, fabric
650 x 500 x 70 mm
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Mascaras Sensorial
(Sensorial Mask) 1967, 2016
gauze, fabric, glass
650 x 500 x 20 mm
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
O Eu e o Tu (The I and the You)
1967, 2016
Acrilon, industrial rubber,
foam, fabric, vinyl, zipper,
plastic brush, horsehair,
plastic
1700 x 680 x 80 mm each
on loan from the Cultural
Association of The World of
Lygia Clark (Associao
Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark)
Mximo Corvaln

Proyecto ADN (DNA Project)

2012
resin (bones), electrical
connections, fluorescent
tubes, pool, water pump,
water taps
dimensions variable
courtesy of the artist, Chile

Lenora de Barros, Walter

Silveira (Director), Cid
Campos (Sound)

Homenagem a George Segal

(Homage to George Segal) 1984
video performance
1:04 min
courtesy of the artist,
So Paulo, Brazil
Lenora de Barros

Pregao (Nail Action) 2016

performance
courtesy of the artist,
So Paulo, Brazil
Eugenio Dittborn

Flores (Flowers) 1998

mixed media
700 x 500 mm
on loan from Museo de Artes
Visuales, Santiago, Chile

Nimbo Oxal (Nimbus Oxal)

2004
DVD format NTSC
3:05 min
courtesy of the artist,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Juan Manuel Echavarra

Serie Silencios
(Silence Series) 201015
colour photographic prints
410 x 610 mm (x40)
courtesy of the artist and
Galera Nueveochenta, Bogot,
Colombia
Virginia Errzuriz

Restos (Remains) 1998

mixed media
700 x 500 mm
on loan from Museo de Artes
Visuales, Santiago, Chile

Documents, materials and

objects 19602010
mixed media
courtesy of the artist, Chile
Photo: Maya Errzuriz

Poesa, costura,
proxenetismo y caligrafa
(Poetry, Needlework,
Procuration and Calligraphy)
1979
mixed media
570 x 880 mm
on loan from Museo de Artes
Visuales, Santiago, Chile

Len Ferrari

Jonathas de Andrade

40 nego bom 1 real (40 Black

Candies Is R$1) 2013
silk print on wood, acrylic
engraved board, riso print on
paper, laser print on paper
variable
courtesy of the artist and
Galeria Vermelho, So Paulo,
Brazil

Ronald Duarte
Fogo Cruzado (Crossfire) 2002
DVD format NTSC
4:39 min
courtesy of the artist,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Viajar II (Travel II) 1989

silkscreen
690 x 645 mm
on loan from Museo de Artes
Visuales, Santiago, Chile
Juan Downey

LOsservatore Romano 2007

offset picture collage with
Nazi Swastikas in the Sun,
1935, Hulton Getty Archive
on LOsservatore Romano
newspaper, p 11, 24/11/2000
420 x 298 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art,
artist donation through
Ncleo Contemporneo, MAM,
So Paulo, Brazil (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de
So Paulo, doao artista
por intermdio do Ncleo
Contemporneo MAM-SP)

The Laughing Alligator 1979

single-channel digital video
transferred from Portapack,
colour and black and white,
sound
27:00 min
courtesy of the Juan Downey
Foundation, New York

LIST OF WORKS

247

LOsservatore Romano 2007

offset picture collage of
a detail of the book And
the Fifth Angel Poured
Out His Coup leaf BI 129
on LOsservatore Romano
newspaper, p 12, 12/01/2001
420 x 298 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art,
artist donation through
Ncleo Contemporneo, MAM,
So Paulo, Brazil (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de
So Paulo, doao artista
por intermdio do Ncleo
Contemporneo MAM-SP)

LOsservatore Romano 2007

offset picture collage of
a miniature from the 13th
century, National Library
of Paris, on LOsservatore
newspaper, p 5, 27/10/2000
430 x 298 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art,
artist donation through
Ncleo Contemporneo, MAM,
So Paulo, Brazil (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de
So Paulo, doao artista
por intermdio do Ncleo
Contemporneo MAM-SP)

Juan Fernando Herrn

Marcos Lpez

Nave Central (Central Aisle)

2008
inkjet print
1080 x 1630 mm
courtesy of the artist
and Galera Nueveochenta,
Bogot, Colombia

Cementerio. Iquitos, Per

(Iquitos Cemetery, Per) 2012
digital photographic print
700 x 1000 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Argentina

Itinerarios 2 (Itineraries 2)
2008
inkjet print
1630 x 1080 mm
courtesy of the artist
and Galera Nueveochenta,
Bogot, Colombia

Ignacio Gumucio

LOsservatore Romano 2007

offset picture collage of
the book Demon by Drer and
Hell Summoning Witches,
Anonymous, on LOsservatore
Romano newspaper, p 3,
26/01/2001.
430 x 298 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art,
artist donation through
Ncleo Contemporneo, MAM,
So Paulo, Brazil (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de
So Paulo, doao artista
por intermdio do Ncleo
Contemporneo MAM-SP)
LOsservatore Romano 2007
offset picture collage of
The Expulsion from Paradise
by Drer on LOsservatore
Romano newspaper, p 14,
15/12/2000
430 x 298 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art,
artist donation through
Ncleo Contemporneo, MAM,
So Paulo, Brazil (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de
So Paulo, doao artista
por intermdio do Ncleo
Contemporneo MAM-SP)

248

Site-specific mural painting

2016
mixed media
courtesy of the artist, Chile

Bifurcacin (Junction) 2008

inkjet print
1080 x 1630 mm
courtesy of the artist
and Galera Nueveochenta,
Bogot, Colombia

Patrick Hamilton

Intersecciones
(Intersections) 2014
copper-plated spike wall
protectors
2800 x 5600 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Madrid

Terraza. So Paulo, Brasil

(Terrace. So Paulo, Brazil)
2012
digital photographic print
1000 x 1860 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Argentina

Sem represso h ordem

(Without Repression There
Is Order) 1968
newspaper matrix with high
and low reliefs (paste)
and ink
482 x 370 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art, Credit
Suisse donation (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de So
Paulo, doao Credit Suisse)

Kevin Mancera

Trnsitos (Transits) 2008

inkjet print
1080 x 1630 mm
courtesy of the artist
and Galera Nueveochenta,
Bogot, Colombia
Alfredo Jaar

Traba Volante #1
(Wheel Lock #1) 2014
copper
150 x 550 x 130 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Madrid

Times Square, April 1987:

A Logo For America 1987
video (MacMini)
10:25 min
courtesy the artist,
New York

Traba Volante #3
(Wheel Lock #3) 2014
copper
80 x 520 x 115 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Madrid

A Logo For America 1987

pigment prints mounted on
Dibond
965 x 965 mm, 915 x 915 mm
courtesy Galerie Lelong and
the artist, New York

Traba Volante #4
(Wheel Lock #4) 2014
copper
100 x 550 x 90 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Madrid

Cristbal Len,
Joaqun Cocia

SPACE TO DREAM

Reina. Iquitos, Per

(Iquitos Queen, Per) 2012
digital photographic print
700 x 1200 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Argentina

Contra represso (Against

Repression) 1968
newspaper matrix with high
and low reliefs (paste)
and ink
525 x 371 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art, Credit
Suisse donation (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de So
Paulo, doao Credit Suisse)

Los Andes (The Andes) 2012

stop-motion animation
4:02 min
courtesy of Upstream
Gallery, Amsterdam

From the series La Felicidad

(Happiness) 2012
photographs, ink on paper
variable
courtesy of Fundacin
MISOL and Galera
Nueveochenta, Bogat,
Columbia
Antonio Manuel

Guerra do consumo/
Vampiro insacivel (War
of Consumption/Insatiable
Vampire) 1975
newspaper matrix with high
and low reliefs (paste)
and ink
542 x 383 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art, Credit
Suisse donation (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de So
Paulo, doao Credit Suisse)

Clero define situao

(Clergy Defines the
Situation) 1968
newspaper matrix with high
and low reliefs (paste)
and ink
470 x 377 mm
Collection of So Paulo
Museum of Modern Art, Credit
Suisse donation (Coleo
Museu de Arte Moderna de So
Paulo, doao Credit Suisse)
Cinthia Marcelle,
Tiago Mata Machado

O sculo (The Century) 2011

video
8:36 min
courtesy of the artist and
Galeria Vermelho, So Paulo,
Brazil
Cinthia Marcelle

Cruzada (Crusade) 2010

video
9:27 min
courtesy of the artist and
Galeria Vermelho, So Paulo,
Brazil

Eduardo Navarro

Monuments 2016
bronze
45 x 35 mm, 50 x 40 mm, 60 x 45 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Argentina
Maria Nepomuceno

Grande Boca (Big Mouth) 2013

ropes, beads, fiberglass,
resin, plates, wooden paint
brushes, acrylic, ceramic
6000 x 5000 x 7200 mm
courtesy the artist and
Victoria Miro, London
Image courtesy of the artist
and Victoria Miro, London
Maria Nepomuceno
Ernesto Neto

Just like drops in time,

nothing 2002
textile, spices
dimensions variable
Collection: Art Gallery of
New South Wales Purchased
with assistance from Clayton
Utz 2002
Hlio Oiticica

Parangol P12 Capa 8 Capa

da liberdade com Rubens
Gerchman (Parangol P12
Cape 8 Case of Freedom with
Rubens Gerchman) 1966, 1986
acrylic on courvin
685 x 588 mm
Collection of Museum of
Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro.
Gift of Hlio Oiticica
Project. Exhibition copies
held 2014.( Museu de Arte
Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
Collection. Gift of Projecto
Hlio Oiticica. Exhibition
copies held 2014.)

Parangol Eu sou pedra 90

(Parangol Im 90 Stone)
1960, 1986
ink, plastic on fabric
670 x 735 mm
Collection of Museum of Modern
Art, Rio de Janeiro. Gift
of Hlio Oiticica Project.
Exhibition copies held 2014.
( Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio
de Janeiro Collection. Gift
of Projecto Hlio Oiticica.
Exhibition copies held 2014.)

Bernardo Oyarzn

Parangol Rouge
(ParangolRouge) 1979, 1986
plastic
2920 x 680 mm
Collection of Museum of Modern
Art, Rio de Janeiro. Gift
of Hlio Oiticica Project.
Exhibition copies held 2014.
( Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio
de Janeiro Collection. Gift
of Projecto Hlio Oiticica.
Exhibition copies held 2014.)

Documentary material,
ephemera

Parangol Noblau 1979, 1986

plastic
2900 x 694 mm
Collection of Museum of Modern
Art, Rio de Janeiro. Gift
of Hlio Oiticica Project.
Exhibition copies held 2014.
( Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio
de Janeiro Collection. Gift
of Projecto Hlio Oiticica.
Exhibition copies held 2014.)
Parangol Contra-blide
(Parangol Counter-bolide)
1980, 1986
fabric
970 x 1020 mm
Collection of Museum of Modern
Art, Rio de Janeiro. Gift
of Hlio Oiticica Project.
Exhibition copies held 2014.
( Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio
de Janeiro Collection. Gift
of Projecto Hlio Oiticica.
Exhibition copies held 2014.)

LIST OF WORKS

Ekeko 2014
mixed media
2140 x 1800 x 1900 mm
courtesy of the artist, Chile
Nicanor Parra
Documentary material and
publications
Violeta Parra

Liliana Porter

The Task 2015

figurine on wooden base
(full of holes)
95 x 152 x 102 mm
courtesy of the artist, New York
Tennis Player III 2015
figurine on wooden sphere
64 mm
courtesy of the artist, New York
To Hold a String 2015
metal figurine, wooden sphere
and black string
127 x 57 x 57 mm, 1016 mm
courtesy of the artist, New York
Man Drawing 2015
metal figurine on wooden cube,
pencil scribble on wall
76 x 38 x 38 mm
courtesy of the artist, New York
Man with Pickaxe 2012
figurine on white wooden
shelf, marks on the wall
and debris
51 x 152 x 57 mm
courtesy of the artist, New York
To See It 2015
painted resin figurine on
white wooden cube, black ink
mark on wall
102 x 70 x 51 mm
courtesy of the artist, New York

249

Rosngela Renn

Boots 19962000
from: Srie Vermelha
(Militares) (Red Series)
(lightjet) on Fuji Crystal
archive paper, laminated
1800 x 1000 mm
on loan from Marcio Lobo,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Untitled [Little Balls]
19962000
from: Srie Vermelha
(Militares) (Red Series)
digital lightjet print on
Fuji crystal, archive paper,
laminated
1800 x 1000 mm
on loan from Pedro Barbosa,
So Paulo, Brazil
Miguel ngel Ros

Crudo 2007
video
3:31 min
courtesy of the artist and
Noire Gallery, Torino, Italy
Lotty Rosenfeld

Una milla de cruces sobre

el pavimento (4) (A Mile of
Crosses on the Pavement [4])
198389
photographic print
385 x 280 mm
on loan from Museo Nacional
de Bellas Artes, Santiago
Registro de cruces (Register
of Crosses) 1987
photographic prints
515 x 615 mm, 500 x 600 mm
on loan from Museo de Artes
Visuales, Santiago, Chile
Joaqun Snchez

Jiwasa (Us) 2009

video
2:55 min
courtesy of the artist,
Bolivia
Lnea de agua (Line of Water)
2010
video
5:37 min
courtesy of the artist,
Bolivia
Margarita 2009
video
5:43 min
courtesy of the artist,
Bolivia
Martn Sastre

U from Uruguay 2012

video
2:28 min
courtesy of the artist,
Uruguay
Mira Schendel

Ondas paradas de
probabilidade (Still Waves
of Probability) 1969
nylon thread, wall text on
acrylic sheet
Mira Schendel Estate,
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Demian Schopf

La Nave (Chuta Mariachi) (The

Nave (Chuta Mariachi)) 2015
digital photographic print
1100 x 1650 mm
courtesy of the artist, Chile
La Nave (Moreno) (The Nave
(Moreno)) 2015
digital photographic print
1100 x 1650 mm
courtesy of the artist, Chile

Chaco 2012
photograph on cotton with
embroided anduti
9866 x 3000 mm
courtesy of the artist,
Bolivia

La Nave (Rey Moreno) (The

Nave (King Moreno)) 2015
digital photographic print
1100 x 1650 mm
courtesy of the artist, Chile

250

SPACE TO DREAM

Alejandro Thornton,
Paula Pellejero

Eva Rebelde (Rebel Eva) 2012

video
5:06 min
courtesy of the artist and
Mock Galeria, Buenos Aires,
Argentina