Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Memorias Del Subdesarrollo Memories of Underdevelopment PDF
Memorias Del Subdesarrollo Memories of Underdevelopment PDF
Memories of Underdevelopment
Julieta González
Sharon Lerner
Jacopo Crivelli Visconti
Andrea Giunta
Julieta González
Sharon Lerner
Jacopo Crivelli Visconti
Andrea Giunta
Shifting the Focus: Underdevelopment and the “Popular” 103 119 Desplazando el enfoque: el subdesarrollo y lo “popular”
in the Peruvian Avant-garde, 1967–1981 en la vanguardia peruana, 1967–1981
sharon lerner
Momentarily Outside: Notes on New Poetry and 143 153 El afuera momentáneo: notas sobre la Nueva Poesía y
Postal Art in the 1960s and 1970s el arte postal en las décadas de 1960 y 1970
Jacopo Crivelli Visconti
Index 248
Memories of Underdevelopment: Art and the Decolonial Turn in Latin America, 1960–
1985 examines the ways in which Latin American artists from the 1960s through
the 1980s responded to the unraveling of the utopian promise of modernization. In
the immediate post–World War II period, artists had eagerly embraced the “transi-
tion to modernity,” creating a new abstract geometric language meant to capture
modernism’s idealistic possibilities of progress, reason, industrialization, and eco-
nomic growth. As modernization failed in Latin America, and political oppression
and brutal military dictatorships set in, avant-garde artists increasingly abandoned
abstraction and sought new ways to connect with the public, engaging directly with
communities and often incorporating popular strategies from film, theater, and
architecture into their work. Memories of Underdevelopment is the first significant
survey of these crucial decades, highlighting the work of well-known artists such as
Lina Bo Bardi, Hélio Oiticica, and Lygia Pape as well as lesser-known artists from
Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay.
Sharing its title with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s 1968 film, Memories of Under-
development features artists and collectives that sought to mark a critical distance
from the narratives and visual vocabularies of the Western avant-garde. Many art-
ists, some even formerly affiliated to the modernist movements in their respec-
tive countries, experimented with practices that combined avant-garde strategies
with social concerns and popular forms. The works in this exhibition demonstrate
a structural commitment on the part of these artists to the incorporation of indig-
enous forms and techniques, familiar everyday objects, and folk expressions, often
presented in unexpected and complex ways. Many artists engaged directly with
local communities, going beyond the individual experience of the artist or even the
artist group, making a point of including the audience, and thus society, in action.
This time period, from the beginning of the 1960s through the 1980s, was a potent
artistic moment, globally. The Museum’s contribution to the Getty Foundation’s
first Pacific Standard Time initiative in 2011, Phenomenal: California Light, Space,
Surface, examined roughly the same period. Over the past two decades, an intense
process of revision has taken place in the study of Latin American art, largely
aimed to dissect the different practices that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, follow-
ing the renewal and transformation of the constructive tradition in Latin America
between the 1930s and 1950s. While this has yielded invaluable results, these critical
6
reappraisals have not yet addressed the role of underdevelopment or the desire to
decolonize from imposed cultural models as key factors in the artistic production
of the period.
Memories of Underdevelopment considers how artists incorporated popular tra-
ditions into avant-garde practices, redefined an avant-garde in the peripheries,
and expressed an “experimental exercise of freedom”—to use a phrase from critic
Mário Pedrosa—related to the alternative modes of address that emerged from this
epistemic break from the modern. Ultimately, the exhibition revolves around loose
themes that cross regional distinctions and media specificity. Conceptual under-
pinnings in the works reflect an interest in embracing local materials, traditions,
and referents; engaging with mass media; activating public spaces; embracing
pedagogical formats; and mobilizing the populace—all to advance an alternative
avant-garde, strategies of decolonization, and challenges to the developmentalist
and modernist propositions.
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego was founded in 1941 and has
been devoted to contemporary art since the late 1960s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the
Museum dramatically expanded its programmatic connection to Latin America.
Begun under the leadership of Director Emeritus Hugh Davies, this project is
yet another example of MCASD’s longstanding commitment to Latin American
and Latino art, including an early series of border-related exhibitions, followed
by the multi-year Dos Ciudades/Two Cities initiative that culminated with the
landmark exhibition La Frontera/The Border: Art About the Mexico/United States
Border Experience (1993–1994). That exhibition, too, was a collaborative endeavor,
between MCASD and the Centro Cultural de la Raza, San Diego’s nonprofit institu-
tion devoted to Chicano art and culture. Like the equally groundbreaking Strange
New World: Art and Design from Tijuana (2007), the exhibition presented a close-up
focus on work being made in this border region. Before that, the Museum presented
Ultra Baroque: Aspects of Post Latin American Art (2001), a wide-ranging exhibition
that connected disparate artists through their varied bond with the Baroque.
While MCASD is devoted to building on its expertise and commitment to
Latin American art, it is ultimately formed from a US vantage point. Memories
of Underdevelopment is a model of cross-institutional collaboration, connecting
MCASD to two leading contemporary museums based in Latin America, the Museo
Jumex in Mexico City, Mexico, and the Museo de Arte de Lima in Peru (MALI). The
scholarship for this exhibition was led by Julieta González, Artistic Director, Museo
Jumex, and was supported by Sharon Lerner, Curator of Contemporary Art, MALI;
Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, an independent curator in Brazil; and myself. This curato-
rial team conceived of and researched the many aspects of this project, reflecting
the exhibition’s own premise of localities and regional agency. This curatorial strat-
egy has aimed to eschew a colonial approach by placing Latin American curatorial
voices at the forefront of the research for this exhibition.
Planning for this project first began in 2013, when the directors and curators of
the partner institutions and a roster of advisors convened in Southern California.
As the project developed, the curatorial team and institutional partnerships solidi-
fied between Museo Jumex, MALI, and MCASD. In developing the exhibition, the
partners convened for five research and planning meetings in Southern California;
Sao Paulo, Brazil; Lima, Peru; and Mexico City, Mexico. Through these meetings,
the group established the themes of Memories of Underdevelopment by traveling
to meet with artists, emerging and accomplished scholars, and curators of Latin
American exhibitions.
With Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an ambitious region-wide initiative to
explore Latin American and Latino art, the Getty Foundation has spurred scholar-
ship, encouraged collaboration, and birthed exhibitions. We are grateful for their
grants, which prompted our institutional partnership and provided the resources to
conduct the study and travel needed to prepare this exhibition, and we are indebted
to their leadership. We particularly thank Director Deborah Marrow, Deputy
Director Joan Weinstein, and Program Officer Heather MacDonald. Memories of
Underdevelopment was also supported by a grant from the National Endowment
of the Arts and funds from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.
Memories of Underdevelopment was initiated at MCASD under the directorship
of Hugh M. Davies, whose commitment to Latin American art remains a hallmark
of his distinguished tenure. We are thankful to him and the dedicated leadership at
our partnering institutions. Director Natalia Majluf of the Museo de Arte de Lima
has been instrumental in fostering the collaboration and lending curatorial per-
spective, and we are grateful to Museo Jumex President Eugenio López Alonso for
his ready embrace of this international effort.
Research for this exhibition and publication was aided by the input and expertise
of many artists and colleagues at numerous museums, archives, research insti-
tutes, and galleries, as well as by collectors and independent colleagues. On behalf of
the curatorial team, we offer heartfelt thanks to them all, including: Mariella Agois;
Carolyn Alexander, Alexander and Bonin; Pedro Alonzo; Adrián Arias, Familia
Arias Vera; Elizabeth Armstrong; Pedro Barbosa; Jacques Bedel; Fernando Bedoya;
Luciana Brito; Francisco Brugnoli; Gustavo Buntinx; Teresa Burga; Luiz Camillo
Osorio; Alina Canziani; Carmen Cuenca; Augusto del Valle; Soledad García, cura-
tor, Centro de Documentacion de las Artes Visuales; Paula Codocedo; Laura Coll
de Deisler; Antonio Dias; Marilys Downey; Virginia Errázuriz; Fernando Escobar;
Jorge Forero; Bernardita Mandiola, director, Fundación AMA; Gloria Gerace; José
Darío Gutiérrez, Fundación Proyecto Bachué; Catalina Casas and Claudia Ramirez,
Galería Casas Riegner; Luisa Strina, Marli Matsumoto, and María Quiroga, Galeria
Luisa Strina; Nara Roesler, Daniel Roesler, and Alexandra Garcia Waldman, Galeria
Nara Roesler; Barbara Thumm and Nici Wegener, Galerie Barbara Thumm; Anna
Bella Geiger; Carlos Ginzburg; Andrea Giunta; Nydia Gutiérrez; Henrique Faria,
Eugenia Sucre, and Alexandra Schoolman, Henrique Faría Fine Art; Ximena
Iommi; Julia Kovensky; Miguel López; Mauricio Maillé; Antonio Manuel; Francisco
Mariotti; Marta Mestre; Mijail Mitrovic; Pedro Montes; Ana María Yaconi, director,
Museo de Artes Visuales; Raúl Naón; Rosario Noriega; Luis Ospina; Sergio Parra;
Luis Pazos; César Oiticica Filho, Projeto Hélio Oiticica; Paula Pape and Antonio Leal,
Projeto Lygia Pape, Rio de Janeiro; Ramón Ponce; Selene Preciado; Héctor Puppo;
Rodrigo Quijano; Horacio Ramos, research assistant, MALI; Herbert Rodríguez;
Osvaldo Romberg; Juan Carlos Romero; Jesús Ruiz Durand; Vera Salazar; Lucía
Sanromán; Jorge Villacorta; Armando Williams; Juan Yarur Torres; and Horacio
Zabala. Indeed, we thank all the exhibiting artists and artists’ estates, whose names
are listed in the catalogue; it is an honor to present their works in this context.
The objects on view are drawn from public and private collections across North
and South America, as well as Europe; many items are borrowed directly from
the artists. Since much of the featured art was originally ephemeral or performa-
tive, many objects are represented through archival documentation or have been
recreated for the occasion of this exhibition. We recognize those who have lent
artworks and those who have helped us realize their display in this exhibition:
Archivo Histórico José Vial Armstrong, Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño, Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile; Jacques Bedel; Antonio Caro; Cinemateca
Brasileira; Paula Codocedo; Collection of Hecilda y Sérgio Fadel; Collection of
Banco de la República, Colombia; Antonio Dias; Juraci Dórea; Marilys Downey;
Diamela Eltit; Eugenio Espinoza; Collection of Alexis Fabry, Paris; Thomaz Farkas
Estate; Jorge Forero; Fundação Athos Bulcão; Fundação de Serralves Museu de
Arte Contemporânea; Fundación Augusto y León Ferrari; Fundación Proyecto
Bachué; Galeria Millan; Galerie Barbara Thumm; Anna Bella Geiger; Henrique
Faria Fine Art; Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi; Instituto Moreira Salles; Instituto
Paulo Freire, São Paulo; Ximena Iommi; Alfredo Jaar; Fundación Leo Matiz, Mexico
City; Antonio Manuel; Collection of Pedro Montes; coleção moraes-barbosa; Museo
de Arte de Lima; Museo de Artes Visuales; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina
Sofia, Madrid; Collection of Raúl Naón; Isabel Soler Parra; Luis Pazos; Projeto Hélio
Oiticica; Projeto Lygia Pape; University of Iowa Libraries; and Collection of Juan
Yarur Torres, Santiago, Chile.
We would like to acknowledge present and past MCASD staff for their indispens-
able professional contributions to this exhibition and publication. We thank the
entire curatorial staff, led by Director of Curatorial Affairs Jenna Jacobs, for their
contributions to this show. Jacobs skillfully maintained complex schedules and
budgets throughout the project’s duration, and Assistant Curator Anthony Graham
tracked texts and secured images for the catalogue and coordinated loans with
precision. Registrar Tom Callas, with Assistant Registrar Karin Zonis-Sawrey and
former Assistant Registrar Nilofar Babazadeh, assured safe travel of the many bor-
rowed artworks. Lead Preparator Jeremy Woodall, Assistant Preparator Nicholas
O’Dell, Gallery Preparator Max Daily, and their team ably installed this full and
complex exhibition. Director of Education and Engagement Cris Scorza, with her
colleagues, developed a rich context of public programs. Advancement Director
Elizabeth Yang-Hellewell shouldered the fundraising effort with crucial assistance
from Institutional Giving Manager Jana Holsenbeck. We are grateful to former
Gustavo Buntinx, Teresa Burga, Luiz Camillo Osorio, Alina Canziani, Carmen
Cuenca, Augusto del Valle, Soledad García, curadora; Centro de Documentacion de
las Artes Visuales, Paula Codocedo, Laura Coll de Deisler, Antonio Dias, Marilys
Downey, Virginia Errázuriz, Fernando Escobar, Jorge Forero, Bernardita Mandiola,
directora de la Fundación AMA; Gloria Gerace, José Darío Gutiérrez, Fundación
Proyecto Bachué; Catalina Casas y Claudia Ramirez, Galería Casas Riegner; Luisa
Strina, Marli Matsumoto y María Quiroga, Galería Luisa Strina; Nara Roesler, Daniel
Roesler y Alexandra Garcia Waldman, Galería Nara Roesler; Barbara Thumm y Nici
Wegener, Galería Barbara Thumm; Anna Bella Geiger, Carlos Ginzburg, Andrea
Giunta, Nydia Gutiérrez, Henrique Faria, Eugenia Sucre y Alexandra Schoolman,
Henrique Faria Fine Art; Ximena Iommi, Julia Kovensky, Miguel López, Mauricio
Maillé, Antonio Manuel, Francisco Mariotti, Marta Mestre, Mijail Mitrovic, Pedro
Montes, Ana María Yaconi, directora del Museo de Artes Visuales; Raúl Naón,
Rosario Noriega, Luis Ospina, Sergio Parra, Luis Pazos, César Oiticica Filho,
Projeto Hélio Oiticica; Paula Pape y Antonio Leal, Projeto Lygia Pape, Río de Janeiro;
Ramón Ponce, Selene Preciado, Héctor Puppo, Rodrigo Quijano, Horacio Ramos,
asistente de investigación del MALI; Herbert Rodríguez, Osvaldo Romberg, Juan
Carlos Romero, Jesús Ruiz Durand, Vera Salazar, Lucía Sanromán, Jorge Villacorta,
Armando Williams, Juan Yarur Torres y Horacio Zabala. Agradecemos a todos los
artistas y administradores que participaron, cuyos nombres aparecen en el catálogo,
es un honor presentar sus obras dentro de este contexto.
Los objetos exhibidos provienen de colecciones públicas y privadas a lo largo de
Norteamérica y Sudamérica, además de Europa; muchos objetos son prestados
directamente de los artistas. Como mucho del arte presentado fue originalmente
efímero o performance, muchos objetos están representados por la documentación
archivística o han sido recreados para la presente exhibición. Agradecemos a los que
han prestado obras de arte y a los que nos han ayudado a realizar su presentación
en esta exhibición: Archivo Histórico José Vial Armstrong, Escuela de Arquitectura y
Diseño, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile; Jacques Bedel, Antonio
Caro, Cinemateca Brasileira, Paula Codocedo, Colección de Hecilda y Sérgio Fadel,
Colección del Banco de la República, Colombia; Antonio Dias, Juraci Dórea, Estate
of Juan Downey, Nueva York; Diamela Eltit, Eugenio Espinoza, Colección de Alexis
Fabry, París; Heredad de Thomaz Farkas, Jorge Forero, Fundação Athos Bulcão,
Fundação de Serralves Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Fundación Augusto y León
Ferrari, Fundación Proyecto Bachué, Galería Millan, Galerie Barbara Thumm,
Anna Bella Geiger, Henrique Faria Fine Art, Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi, Instituto
Moreira Salles, Instituto Paulo Freire, São Paulo, Ximena Iommi, Alfredo Jaar,
Fundación Leo Matiz, Ciudad de México; Antonio Manuel, Colección de Pedro
Montes, coleção moraes-barbosa, Museo de Arte de Lima, Museo de Artes Visuales,
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Colección de Raúl Naón, Isabel
Soler Parra, Luis Pazos, Projeto Hélio Oiticica, Projeto Lygia Pape, University of
Iowa Libraries y Colección de Juan Yarur Torres, Santiago, Chile.
Senior Art and Grants Writer Robert Pincus and former Grant Writer Juliana Morse
for their early contributions to the project. Appreciation to Communications and
Marketing Manager Leah Straub for helping to bring the exhibition to its fullest
audience, and thanks to Deputy Director and CFO Charles Castle and his adminis-
trative staff for their steady support.
Kathryn Kanjo
Th e Davi d C. Copley Di rector and CEO
Queremos reconocer al personal anterior y al presente del MCASD por sus con-
tribuciones profesionales indispensables para esta exhibición y presentación.
Agradecemos a todo el personal curatorial, conducidos por la directora de asun-
tos curatoriales Jenna Jacobs, por sus contribuciones para esta exposición. Jacobs
mantuvo hábilmente los calendarios y presupuestos durante el proyecto, y Anthony
Graham, su curador asistente, rastreó textos y aseguró imágenes para el catálogo,
además de coordinar los préstamos con precisión. El jefe de registro Tom Callas,
la asistente de registro Karin Zonis-Sawrey y el ex asistente de registro Nilofar
Babazadeh, aseguraron el transporte seguro de las múltiples obras prestadas. El
jefe de montaje Nicholas O’Dell, el encargado de montaje Max Daily y su equipo ins-
talaron hábilmente esta completa y compleja exhibición. La directora de pedagogía
e integración, Cris Scorza junto con sus colegas, desarrolló un amplio contexto de
programas públicos. La directora de desarrollo, Elizabeth Yang-Hellewell se res-
ponsabilizó del esfuerzo de recaudar fondos con la asistencia crucial del gerente
institucional de contribuciones, Jana Holsenbeck. Agradecemos a Robert Pincus y a
Juliana Morse, anteriormente del departamento de solicitud de becas por sus con-
tribuciones tempranas al proyecto. Agradecemos a la gerente de comunicaciones y
mercadeo Leah Straub por su ayuda al difundir la exhibición y lograr gran asisten-
cia, y gracias al director adjunto y director de finanzas Charles Castle y a su personal
administrativo por su apoyo constante.
K at h ry n Ka njo
T h e Dav id C. Copl ey Dire ctor and CEO
16
17
18
19
21
22
Our path is another one, because we have been and are the “other-face” of moder- F ig. 9
nity. It is a “transmodern,” “metamodern,” project that must embrace the modern Hélio Oiticica, Nildo of Mangueira with P16
Parangolé capa 11, Eu incorporo a revolta (P16
rational nucleus but must know how to critique it and, in doing so, overcome it.
Parangolé Cape 12, I Embody Revolt), 1967.
—E n r iqu e Du s s e l , Filosofía de la liberación (1977) Photo: Claudio Oiticica. Courtesy of César and
Claudio Oiticica.
Ultramodernisms and their progress, usually shaped by the American template, are
Hélio Oiticica, Nildo de Mangueira con P16
fundamentally tied to our favelas and shantytowns. The paradox is that these don’t
Parangolé capa 11, Eu incorporo a revolta (P16
change, as neither do misery, hunger, poverty, huts, and ruins. But that is where the Parangolé capa 12 Yo incorporo la revuelta),
future passes by. Here is the option of the Third World: an open future or eternal 1967. Foto: Claudio Oiticica. Cortesía de César
misery. . . . The creative task of humanity begins to move to other latitudes and and Claudio Oiticica.
advances to the widest and most disperse areas of the Third World.
The Third World must build its own path to development—one that is decidedly
different from the one taken by the world of the rich from the northern hemisphere.
The cultural history of the Third World will no longer be a repetition en raccourci of
the recent history of the United States, West Germany, France, etc. It must cast
from its heart the “developmentalist” mentality that is the bar that supports the
colonialist spirit.
—m Á r io P e dro sa , “Discurso aos Tupiniquins ou Nambás” (1975)
Memories of Underdevelopment: Art and the Decolonial Turn in Latin America, 1960–
1985 is set within a particular historical moment that takes as a starting point the
height of the modern project in Latin America and its unraveling in the follow-
ing decades. The exhibition examines a major paradigm shift in culture and the
visual arts, characterized by the articulation of a counter-narrative to the rhetoric
of developmentalism that resulted in early instances of decolonial thought in the
artistic practices and discourses produced in the region between the early 1960s and
the mid-1980s. This was a period during which the problem of underdevelopment
was at the forefront of social, economic, political, and cultural concerns throughout
Latin America, most notably through the contributions of dependency theory, which
essentially posited underdevelopment as part and parcel of the modern capitalist
world-system that, far from being eliminated by the implementation of develop-
mentalist models, would only be perpetuated and maintained by them. 25
Andre Gunder Frank, one of the major exponents of dependency theory, devoted
the first chapter of his book Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution pre-
cisely to this problem, titling it “The Development of Underdevelopment”:
A critical reappraisal of this paradigm shift today entails considering, as part of its
referential framework, the body of theory produced since the early 1990s by cul-
tural theorists associated with the Modernity/Coloniality/Decoloniality group.2 The
concept of “coloniality,” initially formulated by Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano,
provides an invaluable theoretical tool for understanding the problem of modernity
in Latin America. It proposes the colonial as the obverse but also constitutive side
of the European modern/rational project, which was not only bound to but also
economically sustained by the colonial enterprise that began with the conquest of
the New World in the 1500s. Essentially, by equating modernity to the colonial enter-
prise, the concept of coloniality poses serious questions about the modern project’s
validity in Latin America. Quijano reprises the ideas advanced by the earlier depen-
dency theory, pointing to the unviability of the projects of modernity and develop-
ment in the region, given their perpetuation of colonial structures of exploitation
and domination.3
This contemporary theoretical framework in the expanded field of cultural stud-
ies addresses the concerns voiced by political economists in the 1960s and 1970s
through dependency theory (or theory of underdevelopment), this time at an epis-
temological level; for Walter Mignolo “the concept of coloniality has opened up the
reconstruction and the restitution of histories, subjectivities, knowledges, and lan-
guages silenced, repressed, and subalternized by the Totality depicted under the
names of modernity and rationality.”4 Beyond identifying coloniality as the correlate
of the global modernist project, the Modernity/Coloniality/Decoloniality framework
has offered theoretical and cultural alternatives through decolonizing strategies.
The decolonial option or delinking, mostly in the form of what has been described as
1 Andre Gunder Frank, América Latina: subdesa 3 Quijano, in fact, worked for the Comisión
rrollo o revolución (Ediciones Era: Mexico City, Económica para América Latina y el Caribe
1973). (CEPAL, or Economic Commission for Latin
2 Though not in essence a group, this interdisci- America and the Caribbean) in the 1960s, where
plinary body of theory has been developed in he published important works in this direction
the past two decades by sociologists Aníbal such as Dependencia, urbanización y cambio
Quijano, Edgardo Lander, Ramón Grosfoguel, social en América Latina (Dependency, Urban-
semiotician Walter Mignolo, pedagogue Cath- ization, and Social Change in Latin America)
erine Walsh, anthropologists Arturo Escobar and Imperialismo y marginalidad en América
and Fernando Coronil, and philosophers Latina (Imperialism and Marginality in Latin
Enrique Dussel and Nelson Maldonado Torres, America).
among others. 4 Walter D. Mignolo, “Delinking: The Rhetoric of
Modernity, the Logic of Coloniality and the
the coordinates of didactics and liberation, a 9 CAyC stands for Centro de Arte y Comuni-
subject that he traces to the writings and ideas cación, the organization founded by Jorge Glus-
of nineteenth-century figure Simón Rodríguez— berg in 1969.
anti-colonialist thinker, educator, and tutor of 10 Notable examples in the first half of the twenti-
Simón Bolívar—whom he posits as the first eth century include Joaquín Torres García’s
conceptual artist in Latin America. Escuela del Sur, and his constructive universal-
ism which simultaneously promoted abstrac-
tion as a universal language and recuperated
More often than not, these contrasting positions intersected, coinciding in their
desire to produce experimental, autonomous, and autochthonous forms of art that
radically broke with tradition. The modern, for the avant-gardes of the first half of
the twentieth century in Latin America, was, however, still an imported and distant
experience, enabled by study trips to Europe or the sporadic visits of European art-
ists, architects, and writers to the region. Social, economic, and political structures
in most of the region were still dominated by a landowner class, remnants from the
not-too-distant colonial past that persisted despite the independence struggles of
the early nineteenth century.11
The modern only appeared on the horizon as the possibility of a concrete and local
experience in the period between the late 1940s and the mid-to-late 1960s, charac-
terized by intensive industrialization, urban growth, and the exodus of rural popula- F ig. 1 0
Marcel Gautherot, Esplanada dos Ministérios em
tion to urban centers. Metropolises such as Mexico City, Caracas, Bogotá, São Paulo,
construção, Brasília, DF (The Monumental Axis
Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Santiago de Chile grew exponentially (fig. XX). A in Construction, Brasília, Federal District), 1959.
gleaming new city, Brasília, rose from the central plateau of Brazil, built by a devel- Inkjet print with mineral pigments on 100%
opmentalist government that promised to fast-forward the country “fifty years in cotton paper, 393⁄8 × 39 3⁄8 in. (100 × 100 cm).
Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo Instituto
five.”12 This period not only saw the apparent decline of the hegemony of the land-
Moreira Salles.
owner class, but also the possibility of a new social, economic and political order,
embodied in the rhetoric of desarrollismo mostly engineered by a team of political Marcel Gautherot, Esplanada dos Ministérios em
economists at the Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL, construção, Brasília, DF (Esplanada de los
ministerios en construcción, Brasilia, DF), 1959.
or Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) (figs. 13 and 14).
Impresión de inyección de tinta con pigmentos
Thus, for the cultural avant-gardes of this period, the modern existed within a set of minerales sobre papel 100% algodón, 393⁄8 ×
coordinates that substantially differed from those of their predecessors in the early 39 3⁄8 in. (100 × 100 cm). Coleção Marcel
decades of the twentieth century. While the constructive tradition associated to the Gautherot / Acervo Instituto Moreira Salles.
modernist canon prevailed in the 1940s and 1950s, reflecting the region’s steadfast
advance towards modernity, the prior debates around local forms of knowledge as
equally constitutive of the vocabulary of the avant-garde resurfaced in the 1960s,
this time against a very different backdrop.
During this period, the majority of countries in Latin America were undergoing a
process of rapid industrialization, key to their entry into modernity; they were also
actively taking part in discussions that cast them into the much wider context of the
non-industrialized, underdeveloped countries, which included Latin America and
the former European colonies in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The concurrent
decolonization processes in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East had generated debates
indigenous imaginaries, proclaiming “nuestro 12 To attain “fifty years of progress in five years”
norte es el sur” (our North is the South); Pedro was the slogan of Juscelino Kubitschek’s devel-
Figari’s concept of critical regionalism; José opmentalist program for Brazil in the 1950s,
Carlos Mariátegui’s Amauta literary journal; and laid out in the Plano de metas (Goal Plan) of
Oswald de Andrade’s Revista de Antropofagia, 1956.
among others.
11 José Carlos Mariátegui, for example, in his 1929
Punto de vista antiimperialista (Anti-imperialist
Point of View), described Peru and other Latin
American republics as semicolonial and
semifeudal.
around the legacies of colonialism in the modern world and its effects on what came
to be known in the early 1950s as the Third World. The 1955 conference of non-
aligned countries in Bandung, Indonesia, was a key event that aimed to counter the
polarization of Cold War geopolitics and introduced a third factor: a Third World
that stood between a violent colonial past and the promise of a modernity that it
had never been prepared to undertake. Additionally, the anticolonialist writings of
Caribbean and African thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Léopold
Senghor, among others, were instrumental to understanding the problems faced by
Third World countries in the twentieth century, and particularly relevant to coun-
tries in Latin America with large populations of African descent.13 In this context,
F ig . 11 a new critical framework was necessary to address these processes that implied an
Emilio Duhart, United Nations CEPAL Building, ideological shift both in terms of discourse and action for many within the fields of
1960–1966. View on the axis of the avenue on
political economy, sociology, and culture, and it is thus possible to identify the emer-
the water, panoramic façade. Color photograph,
6 8⁄9 × 7 7⁄8 in. (17.5 × 20 cm). Archivo de gence of what has been recently defined as decolonial thought during this period of
Originales, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y geopolitical transformation throughout the non-Western world.
Estudios Urbanos, Universidad Católica de In Latin America, the region’s intricate and contradictory “transition to moder-
Chile.
nity” had been closely scrutinized by sociologists and political economists in the
Emilio Duhart, Edificio de las Naciones Unidas 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, many of them affiliated with CEPAL. The organization’s
CEPAL, 1960–1966. Vista en el eje de la avenida objective was to cooperate with governments of the region, providing research
sobre el agua, panorámica de fachada. and analysis in order to aid in the process of the social and economic development
Fotografía en color, 6 8⁄9 × 7 7⁄8 in. (17.5 × 20 cm).
of Latin American nations. The rhetoric of developmentalism was largely articu-
Archivo de Originales, Facultad de Arquitectura,
Diseño y Estudios Urbanos, Universidad lated and implemented from CEPAL with the economic reforms that were applied
Católica de Chile throughout Latin America during the 1950s and 1960s. Among the theoretical
influences guiding the developmentalist theories proposed by CEPAL were those
of John Maynard Keynes. Nevertheless, dissenting perspectives emerged from its
very core during the 1960s. In the framework of the world-systems approach devel-
oped by U.S. sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein,14 CEPAL affiliates, such as Argen-
tine economist Raúl Prebisch, one of the first executive secretaries of the CEPAL,
Celso Furtado, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Aníbal Pinto oriented their analy-
ses towards what U.S. Marxist economist Andre Gunder Frank and Brazilian Ruy
Mauro Marini would later define and consolidate as the theory of underdevelop-
ment, or dependency theory. Based on the important precedent of a study published
by Prebisch in 1950 entitled The Economic Development of Latin America and its
Principal Problems,15 which outlined the imbalance between center and periphery,
dependency theory further identified the persistence of colonial social and economic
13 Frantz Fanon’s ideas were not only influential 14 Wallerstein’s world-systems approach, none-
for many at the time (from Glauber Rocha to theless, opposed the notion of the Third World
Paulo Freire, to name a few) but have been also in favor of a single world-system composed of
reexamined by theorists working within the core countries, periphery, and semi-periphery
Modernity/Coloniality/Decoloniality framework. countries, bound by a dynamic of economic
Césaire, Senghor, and Léon Damas were the exchanges in which the core strives to maintain
founders of the Négritude movement, which a relation of dependency with the peripheries
was instrumental in the development and dis- for its own benefit.
semination of anticolonialist thought around 15 CEPAL, The Economic Development of Latin
the world. America and its Principal Problems (United
Nations, Department of Economic Affairs: Lake and Epistemic Disobedience,” Transversal (Sep-
Success, New York, 1950). See http://archivo tember 2011), accessed March 29, 2017, http://
.cepal.org/pdfs/cdPrebisch/002.pdf eipcp.net/transversal/0112/mignolo/en
16 The European epistème has constructed 17 Walter D. Mignolo, “Epistemic Disobedience,
two subject positions: humanitas, those who Independent Thought, and De-colonial Free-
possess knowledge, and anthropos, who are dom,” Theory, Culture & Society 26, no. 7–8
the subjects of study. According to Mignolo, (2009): 159–81, http://waltermignolo
“the anthropos stands for the concept of the .com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03
‘other’ in most contemporary debates about /epistemicdisobedience-2.pdf
alterity—the ’other,’ however, doesn’t exist
ontologically. It is a discursive invention.” See
Walter Mignolo, “Geopolitics of Sensing and
Knowing. On (De)Coloniality, Border Thinking,
18 The term factography was first employed by visible without interference of mediation.”
artists affiliated with the 1920s Russian avant- He quotes Alfred Barr’s description of this type
garde to signal a departure from abstraction of language as conforming to an “objective,
and the non-objective form in the pursuit of self-styled journalistic ideal of art.” See Benja-
forms of artistic expression that provided a min Buchloh, “From Faktura to Factography,”
direct relation to reality. Benjamin Buchloh has October 30 (Autumn 1984): 82–119. Moreover in
extensively analyzed the Russian paradigm shift a later essay, he identifies Hans Haacke’s brand
in his essay “From Faktura to Factography,” of conceptualism as inscribed in the facto-
where he stresses the centrality of the photo- graphic tradition. See Buchloh, Neo-Avantgarde
graphic medium, directly or through strategies and Culture Industry: Essays on European and
of photo-montage and photo-collage, which for American Art from 1955 to 1975 (Cambridge,
these artists rendered “aspects of reality MA: October Books, MIT Press, 2000), 240.
progress?” This was the question asked by Hélio Oiticica in 1967.19 In 1969, Ferreira
Gullar asked a question along the same lines: “Is a concept of aesthetic avant-garde
in Europe or the United States equally applicable in an underdeveloped country such
as Brazil?”20 While these problems were being posed elsewhere in Latin America,
particularly by Peruvian critic Juan Acha, who wrote an essay entitled Vanguardismo
y subdesarrollo (Avant-gardism and underdevelopment) in 1970, echoing the title
of Gullar’s 1969 book, the issues raised by Gullar and Oiticica in 1960s Brazil are
perhaps more relevant to the present discussion in terms of a departure from the
formal language of the constructive tradition that was easily identifiable, by virtue of
its imperatives of technics and geometrical rationality, with the modernizing project
laid out by Kubitschek’s plano de metas and the construction of Brasília.21
The interrogation by figures such as Gullar and Oiticica of the language of the
modern, and the avant-garde’s place in a country mired in dependency (in the con-
text of the first years of the military dictatorship installed after the coup that ousted
president João Goulart in 1964), are symptomatic of a process that had been taking
place over that decade in Brazil. Roughly starting in the early 1960s, many artists
and intellectuals, some of whom had experimented extensively with the language of
geometric abstraction in the 1950s and the critics who had closely accompanied the
developments of concretism—from Grupo Frente to the Neo-Concrete movement
in Rio, and Ruptura in São Paulo—began to turn towards local forms of knowledge
and cultural production, identifying another set of epistemologies endemic to the
underdeveloped Third World.
Beyond the confines of culture and the arts, the early 1960s in Brazil were a time
of rude awakenings from the exhilaration of an instant modernity promised by the
country’s accelerated march toward progress—one that produced an economic
boom but nonetheless resulted in inflation and debt. The political and economic
crisis that ensued during Jânio Quadros’s brief presidency and subsequent resigna-
tion brought João Goulart to power in 1961. Goulart undertook a series of reforms,
which he called reformas de base (basic reforms), that attempted to curb the practice
of latifundismo (concentration of landownership in a few hands) with a fair redistri-
bution of the land, taxed individuals in proportion to their earnings, aimed to end
situations of exclusion by granting the right to vote to illiterates and the low-ranking
military, and more importantly addressed the problem of illiteracy by making edu-
cation a priority.
19 Hélio Oiticica, “Esquema geral da nova objetivi- essay on Brasília, Mário Pedrosa states that Editor: This is the first
dade,” in Nova objetividade brasileira (Rio de Brazilians are “condemned to the modern,” an translation of a title that
Janeiro: Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de affirmation that would also seem to apply to the
Janeiro [MAM-RJ], 1967), 4–18. development of concrete art movements in is citation only. I think it
20 Ferreira Gullar, Vanguarda e Subdesenvolvi Brazil during the 1950s (even if the genealogies is unnecessary, but that
mento (Avant-garde and underdevelopment), of concretism in Brazil are much more complex
2nd ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Civilização and take root in Pedrosa’s theories on the affec- the others that are more
Brasileira, 1978). tive nature of form of the late 1940s, a discus- descriptive, can be kept?
21 In his essay “Reflexões em torno da nova capi- sion that lies outside the scope of this essay).
tal” (Reflections on the New Capital), his critical —A Graham
Between 1961 and 1964, marked by the social and economic reforms of João Gou-
lart, this epistemic break began to take form, accompanied more often than not by
Gullar’s critical voice. Several social and cultural organizations emerged that reacted
to the developmentalist rhetoric and its translation into the visible realms of archi-
tecture and the visual arts. One of the most notable organizations was the polemical
Centro Popular de Cultura (CPC, or Center for Popular Culture), the origin of which
is closely linked to the Teatro de Arena in São Paulo, as well as to the playwright
Gianfrancesco Guarnieri; theatre director Augusto Boal; filmmakers Leon Hirsz-
man, Carlos Diegues, and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade (affiliated with the Cinema
Novo movement); art critic and poet Gullar; and poet Reynaldo Jardim, among many
others. Gullar’s involvement with the CPC led him to mark a critical distance from
the modernist avant-gardes of Rio and São Paulo and the formal vocabulary of geo-
metric abstraction, in favor of an espousal of local and popular forms of culture
that, in his consideration, not only responded to the national situation but were also
legible to an uninstructed population.22 Prior to the publication of Vanguarda e sub-
desenvolvimento in 1969, Gullar had published a book titled Cultura posta em questão
(Culture under Interrogation) in 1963, in which he explained his political engage-
ment with the cultural left under the organization of the CPC, expressing his align-
ment with an art that desired to become an instrument of critical consciousness and
hence social transformation. There he established the parameters of an engagement
with popular culture as instrumental to the CPC’s undertaking: “Popular culture, is
. . . the wake up call of the Brazilian reality. Popular culture is to understand that the
problem of illiteracy . . . is not unrelated to the conditions of misery of the peasant
or to the imperialist domination over the country’s economy. . . . Popular culture is,
consequently, and above anything else, revolutionary consciousness.”23
The terms of engagement of Brazilian artists in the 1960s with the popular are far
more complex than Gullar’s radicalized views seemed to suggest. Despite his open
disavowal of the Brazilian concrete movements during his years with the CPC, the
ideas he advanced in the Manifiesto Neo-concreto (Neo-concrete Manifesto, 1959)
and the Teoria do não-objeto (Theory of the Non-Object, 1959) greatly informed the
double-sided break with the constructive tradition that took place in Brazil, in par-
ticular his concept of the non-object, which did away with the frame and the ped-
estal, and of the work of art as quasi-corpus, neither “machine” nor “object” but a
“being whose reality does not exhaust itself in the exterior relations of its elements
. . . that can only fully exist by a phenomenological, direct, approach.”24 Among the
artists whose work would take the formal investigations of Brazilian concretism
22 In a sense, the CPC and Gullar’s position vis à disapproved of his radical departure from the
vis modern art could seem to mirror socialist ideas he had so fervently espoused a few years
realism’s suppression of the constructivist earlier.
movement in the Soviet Union during the 1930s 23 Ferreira Gullar, Cultura posta em questão (Rio
by citing the elite character of the non-objective de Janeiro: Editora Universitária da UNE, 1963).
form that, for the advocates of socialist realism, 24 Ferreira Gullar, “Manifiesto Neo-concreto,”
resulted in its incomprehension by a large part Jornal do Brasil, Suplemento Dominical, Rio de
of the population. In fact, many of his peers Janeiro, December 19–20, 1959, 1.
into new and radical directions while remaining faithful to its parameters of formal
experimentation, Oiticica and Lygia Pape are exemplary in this regard, particularly
in their approximation to the popular in the 1960s.25 Close to Gullar, they shared the
engagement with popular forms of knowledge and cultural production that char-
acterized a good part of the Brazilian avant-garde at that moment, but at the same
time, their commitment to what Oiticica would continually refer to as the vontade
construtiva (constructive will) and its imperatives of invention and emancipation
through the non-objective form still continued to occupy an important place in their
artistic pursuits, accompanying and informing their investigations of popular imag-
inaries and visual vocabularies.
Pape had been an active member of the Frente and Neo-Concrete groups in the
1950s, and her work, like that of many of her peers, was concerned with the spatial
and perceptual possibilities of the non-objective form. In the mid-1950s, her Tece-
lares woodcut series, with its rough, visibly handmade lines, already signaled a ten-
sion with the “mechanic and technical” investments of modern art handed down
from the concept of faktura in Russian Constructivism. Her use of the technique was
unorthodox to say the least. As Paulo Herkenhoff notes, “Pape’s Tecelares resorted to
handcrafting at the height of a movement that, in search for industrial paradigms,
had been reduced to painting and sculpture.”26 Moreover, and despite the fact that in
Brazil there were artists working with the medium, though not aligned in any way
with geometric abstraction, such as Oswaldo Goeldi and Fayga Ostrower,27 it was
a technique that was highly identified with the vernacular and handicraft forms of
image making in the backlands of Northeast Brazil.
The Tecelares, though, were part of Pape’s explorations into the possibilities of
light, produced by the dark or empty spaces engraved in the wood. In an inter-
view conducted by Anna Bella Geiger and Fernando Cocchiarale, she stated, “Once
I had made an entirely white woodcut, I stopped. I had arrived at the light. There I
stopped, and started to make film.”28 After the dissolution of the Neo-Concrete group
in 1963, Pape, in fact, turned her attention to film and the then-nascent Cinema
Novo movement. In her text, “Cinema Marginal,” she speaks retrospectively of her
involvement with Cinema Novo as part of this interest. For her, Cinema Novo was
“sheer visuality—bright, free flowing images” that prompted her to build “chiar-
oscuro structures, like paintings” in her imagination.29 It also exposed her to a more
militant dimension of filmmaking, and to the subject-matter of the films she worked
25 Lygia Clark is not mentioned here as her explo- 27 Pape was an admirer of Goeldi’s work and, with
rations took her in another direction, one that her husband, collected his work in depth. At
equally envisioned a political role for the body, MAM-Rio in the 1950s she had been
but that did not directly engage with the vocab- a student of Fayga Ostrower.
ulary of the popular in the same way that Oiti- 28 Anna Bella Geiger and Fernando Cocchiarale,
cica and Pape’s works did. eds., Abstracionismo, geométrico e informal: a
26 Paulo Herkenhoff, “Lygia Pape: The Art of Pas- vanguarda brasileira nos anos cinquenta (Rio
sage,” in Lygia Pape. Magnetized Spaces, eds. de Janeiro: FUNARTE, 1987), 160.
Maria Luisa Blano, Manuel J. Borja-Villel, and 29 Lygia Pape, “Cinema Marginal,” in Lygia Pape.
Teresa Velásquez (Madrid: Museo Nacional Magnetized Space, 326–29.
Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2011).
on, as a designer of credit sequences and posters, as she “carved alphabets on wood-
blocks and printed all the title art, letter by letter, on . . . Japanese paper that let the
texture of the wood emerge, as in the string-bound cordel booklets of northeastern
Brazil.”30 In this period, she collaborated professionally with filmmakers, design-
ing posters and/or film credit sequences for their films, most notably, Mandacaru
Vermelho (Red Cactus, 1961) and Vidas Secas (Barren Lives, 1963) by Nelson Pereira
dos Santos, Ganga Zumba (1962–65) by Carlos Diegues, Maioria Absoluta (Absolute
Majority, 1964) by Leon Hirszman, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (Black God, White
Devil, 1964) by Glauber Rocha, and Memoria do Cangaço (Memory of the Cangaço,
1965) by Paulo Gil Soares (fig. XX) Many of these films dealt with social issues such as
poverty, illiteracy, and exploitation in the context of a country that aimed to achieve
fifty years of progress in five years; most of them focused on the arid backlands of
Northeast Brazil, a region ravaged by drought and mismanagement that had histori-
cally been the site of uprisings such as the Canudos War of the 1890s and the actions
of the armed groups of the cangaço, which subsisted until 1938, even coinciding with
the period of intense industrialization in cities such as São Paulo.
After a pause of several years, Pape produced some of her most groundbreaking
works in 1967 and 1968. Her practice took a radical turn, visibly transformed by the
experiences with film and the popular and also by the increasingly difficult political
situation of Brazil under the dictatorship. Like her peers Oiticica and Lygia Clark,
Pape began to explore the body in a more substantial way, engaging in what Paulo
Herkenhoff has described as plurisensoriality, something that she had mobilized in
her earlier Ballets Neoconcretos (1958).31 This was made manifest in works such as
Roda dos prazeres (Wheel of Pleasures, 1967), O ovo (The Egg, 1968), Trio do embalo
maluco (Crazy Rocking Trio, 1968, fig. XX), and Divisor (1968, fig. XX), works that
“reached the viewers more freely.” Speaking of O ovo, but referring generally to the
participatory aspect of these works, Pape stated: “Anyone could repeat the Ovo expe-
rience, for example, without needing my author’s actions each time. The first Ovo
. . . triggered the entire process of anonymous creativity. Anyone, using the given
model—in this case, Ovo—could immediately build his/her own experiment and
experience.”32 This idea is precisely illustrated in Trio do embalo maluco, the first
presentation of O ovo presented at Apocalipopótese, an event organized by Oiticica
and Rogerio Duarte in the Aterro do Flamengo (Flamengo Park) in 1968. Here Pape
presented three cubes, one red, one blue, and one white, from which the bodies
of three samba performers emerged, dancing and playing their instruments. In
her writings she had usually compared O ovo to the experience of birth. Rupturing
and emerging from these fragile cubes, as if animated by a desire to break with the
rationality of the concrete form, Trio do embalo maluco is emblematic of the force
of the popular that could be born from a constructive past and actually be enabled
by it. The democratic potential designated by Pape in the above-quoted text also
represents her desire to empower the Other through active participation, a common
denominator for all of these works produced between 1967 and 1978, including Roda
dos prazeres (Wheel of Pleasures, 1968) and Divisor (Divider, 1968).
Like Pape, Oiticica had been active in the Concrete and Neo-Concrete movements
in the 1950s, and in the 1960s his work took off in a direction that implied a rethink-
ing of the body in relation to the social space. Though not particularly engaged with
the militant discourse of the CPC, Oiticica fashioned his own form of delinking, F ig. 1 4
one that followed his personal path of invention. The transformation of the non- Hélio Oiticica, Group of people in Mangueira
objective form in the spatial-bodily construction of the Parangolé capes (1964–69, Hill with Parangolés during the shooting of the
film HO by Ivan Cardoso. Photo: Andreas
fig. XX) is exemplary in this regard, and raised not only epistemic questions but,
Valentin. Courtesy of César and Claudio
in an equally important way, questions of class and race related to the body politic, Oiticica.
that he developed between 1964 and 1967, the year in which he co-organized Nova
Objetividade Brasileira (New Brazilian Objectivity) at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Hélio Oiticica, Grupo de personas en el Cerro
de la Mangueira con Parangolés durante el
Rio de Janeiro (MAM-RJ).
rodaje de la película HO por Ivan Cardoso. Foto:
Presented for the first time in the exhibition Opinião 65 (Opinion 65) at MAM-RJ, Andreas Valentin. Cortesía de César and
the Parangolés displayed their performative and popular dimension, worn by samba Claudio Oiticica.
dancers from the favela of Mangueira who were denied entry into the museum,
evidencing the tensions caused by the presence of the marginal and the poor among
the country’s cultural elites.33 Described as a “transobject” in an earlier text from
1964, the Parangolé was inscribed within Oiticica’s environmental program, which
he progressively conceptualized throughout the 1960s.34 Oiticica’s definition of the
Parangolé reveals the twofold complexity of his approach, and how it enabled an
incorporation of the popular via his chromatic and spatial investigations. For Oiti-
cica, the Parangolé was a “crucial point” in his investigations into “structure-color
in space” and not merely a “fusion of folklore to [his] experience.”35 Moreover, the
Parangolé was “more than anything a structural-basic quest in the constitution of
the world of objects, a quest for the roots of the objective origin of the work . . . hence
this interest in the popular constructive primitivism that occurs in the urban, sub-
urban, and rural landscapes . . . works that reveal a primary constructive nucleus . . .
a totality. . . . It was the discovery of a cultural totality, of a defined spatial sense.”36
33 The Parangolés spoke the bodily and sweaty 35 Oiticica’s affinity with Brazilian popular culture
language of samba and of the Mangueira, the was in no way an appropriation of the folkloric.
favela that Oiticica frequented and whose Rather, it seemed to have a political orientation.
inhabitants he befriended. Moreover, they Oiticica acted out of the conviction that the
implied a rethinking of the social body centered effectiveness of his practice resided in its plural
on forms of collective participation and lived reception, one that addressed every level of
vivência (experience) that in 1967, three years Brazilian society. The expressions of the povo
into the dictatorship, could not be seen as (the people) became an integral part of his
anything other than a provocation. position and program, not a gesture of solidar-
34 Hélio Oiticica, “Bases fundamentais para uma ity or a paternalistic concession to the
definição de ‘Parangolé,’” typed from original disenfranchised.
manuscript, Programa Hélio Oiticica, inventory 36 Hélio Oiticica, ibid.
number 0035/64 (1964). See: http://54.232.114
.233/extranet/enciclopedia/ho/index.cfm?
fuseaction=documentos&cod=49&tipo=2
Oiticica frequented the favela of Mangueira in Rio de Janeiro some time before,
where he became a passista (lead dancer) in the Estação Primeria de Mangueira.37
The experience of the favela, and its cultural manifestations, was decidedly a turn-
ing point in his thought and work, crucial to an understanding of his particular
transit from the formal pursuits of geometric abstraction to the political agency
inscribed in the Parangolé and other works. In 1967 he presented the “environment”
Tropicália (fig. XX) in the Nova Objetividade Brasileira exhibition, an immersive
installation that evoked the spatial and sensorial qualities of the favela. Born out
of the concerns he expressed in the “Esquema geral da nova objetividade” (General
scheme for the new objectivity), it aimed to “contribute to the objectivation of a
total Brazilian image, and to the dismantling of the universalist myth of Brazilian
culture.”38
Both the Parangolés and Tropicália embody the principles Oiticica laid out in his
text published in the exhibition’s catalogue:
37 The samba school of the Mangueira favela. whereas [the ideology of developmentalism]
38 Typed statement on Tropicália, in Programa conceived of modernization as the linear pro-
Hélio Oiticica, document number 0128/68 cess by which to overcome economic underde-
(1968). See, http://54.232.114.233/extranet velopment, the folded frame demonstrates the
/enciclopedia/ho/index.cfm?fuseaction= contrary: modernity is the means by which
documentos&cod=150&tipo=2 underdevelopment is produced and main-
39 In relation to the subsistence of the “construc- tained.” Irene V. Small, Hélio Oiticica: Folding the
tive will,” in her recent book on Oiticica, Irene Frame (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
Small proposes a groundbreaking analysis of 2016), 13.
Oiticica’s work based on the idea of “the fold,” 40 According to Oiticica’s “Esquema geral da nova
which makes it possible to reconcile two seem- objetividade,” Rubens Gerchman convinced him
ingly contradictory positions (the constructive to produce these protest capes with their text
will and an ideological undertaking that component, which was a first in Oiticica’s
responded to the conditions of production in an Parangolés.
underdeveloped country), as she states: “But
41 Despite the obvious fissures in the develop- research phase of this exhibition, he was not
mentalist project which were already becoming entirely sure, as he was in Europe at the time,
evident by the 1970s, during that decade Ven- and recalls that everything was organized in a
ezuela experienced a resurgence of develop- very informal way. MAM-Rio has files on the
mentalist policies, fueled by the high prices of exhibition with very little information aside
oil, and accompanied this time by unbridled from the publication and press clippings. In his
corruption. text for Nova Objetividade, Oiticica makes spe-
42 There are doubts as to the precise work by cial mention of Nota sobre a morte imprevista
Antonio Dias included in Nova Objetividade. without confirming its presence in the
Sources point to Os restos do herói, others to exhibition.
Nota sobre a morte imprevista (1965). In an
interview conducted with the artist during the
the language proper to the kind of discourse they aimed to undermine or call into
question. As Mário Pedrosa stated in his article “Do Pop Americano ao Sertanejo
Dias” (From American Pop to Dias, the Sertanejo) (1967), speaking of both Gerchman
and Dias’s recourse to the language of Pop and their choice of social and political
themes as subject matter against the encroachment of what they perceived as a
form of culture disseminated by US imperialism: They “do not do things with the
advertising satisfaction of consumerism for the sake of consumerism in mind. The
F ig . 16 difference is that the ‘Popists’ of underdevelopment . . . choose for whom to produce
Photograph of Grupo CAyC, c. 1980. Gelatin their work.”43 Beyond their subversion of the communication codes imposed by the
silver print, 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Courtesy
language of Pop, the formal and conceptual approach of these artists was, for Oiti-
of Institute for Studies on Latin American Art
(ISLAA) cica, a “turning point” in this “process taking place in the pictorial-plastic-structural
field,” as works such as Dias’s merge profound problems of a ethical-social nature
Fotografía de Grupo CAyC, c. 1980. Impresión with those of a pictorial-structural one, making the work an example of “antipaint-
de plata de gelatina, 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm).
ing,” constituting “a real revolution in this new approach to the object.”44 Both Os
Cortesía de Institute for Studies on Latin
American Art (ISLAA). restos do herói and A Bela Lindonéia relied on the language of Pop to similar con-
ceptual ends but different formal results. Dias’s work is much more complex in his
fragmentation of the image that seems to suggest the freeze-frames of television,
and the inclusion of three-dimensional elements such as flesh-like forms and the
dark box also seem to allude to the television apparatus, pointing to the redefinition
of the object proposed by Oiticica in his “Esquema geral da nova objetividade.”45
One of the key directions for Brazilian art to emerge from Nova Objetividade was
the identification of information and mass communications as important fields of
action, as evidenced in the work made during the 1970s by artists such as Cildo
Meireles, Antonio Manuel, and Paulo Bruscky, who capitalized on the circulation
afforded by mass media, and even mass production (as in Cildo Meireles’s Inserções
em Circuitos Ideológicos (Insertions into Ideological Circuits, fig. 56), and actively
engaged in the intervention of these circuits through the use of advertising space in
newspapers (Bruscky and Meireles), or even clandestine “guerrilla” interventions
such as Manuel’s Clandestinas (Clandestines, 1973, fig. 7). This is perhaps the com-
mon ground where the contemporaneous practices throughout the region, which
reflected on the political, economic, social, and cultural realities of a dependent and
underdeveloped Latin America, converged in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.
A common ground that encompassed the aforementioned Brazilian artists working
with information technologies and mass media, the activities of the Centro de Arte y
Comunicación (CAyC) in Argentina (fig. 17) and beyond, as well as the mail art circuits
that had different localities, including Montevideo, Caracas, and Recife as hubs.46
43 Mário Pedrosa, “Do Pop Americano ao Ser- Tropicália movement, as Caetano Veloso and
tanejo Dias,” in Acadêmicos e Modernos. Textos Gilberto Gil wrote a song inspired by the story
escolhidos (III), Mário Pedrosa, ed. Otilia Arantes of the disappearance of this woman from the
(São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São marginal peripheries of Rio, whose plight is
Paulo, 2004). perhaps that of many from the poor strata of
44 Oiticica, “Esquema geral da nova objetividade.” society considered expendable by the elites,
45 Though much simpler in terms of its “pictorial- especially in times of the dictatorship.
structural” proposal, to use Oiticica’s terms, 46 This text does not address mail art, as it is the
iconographically A Bela Lindonéia did strike a main subject of another essay in this catalogue
chord and went on to become an icon of the by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti. Though not covered
During the mid-1960s, artists in Argentina began working with information and
mass communication media, most notably the Grupo Arte de los medios de comu-
nicación de masas (Eduardo Costa, Roberto Jacoby, and Raúl Escari) and artists such
as David Lamelas.47 Their concerns were very different from that of their Brazilian
peers, as they did not revolve around a reflection on the pictorial-plastic-structural
field or the invention of a new role for the object. Instead, their dematerialized prac-
tices, in accordance with their use of information as medium, were invested in the
creation of situations that could be mobilized through the use of mass media.
Such was the backdrop against which the CAyC was established in 1968, first as
the Centro de Estudios de Arte y Comunicación, operating upon their predeces-
sor’s legacies in terms of ideological praxis and the use of communicational tac-
tics afforded by information technologies.48 Perhaps one of the most emblematic
exhibitions organized by CAyC, the seminal 1972 exhibition Hacia un perfil del arte
latinoamericano (Toward a Profile of Latin American Art, fig. 32), laid the ground-
work for its subsequent decade of effervescent activity in Latin America and the rest
of the world. Beyond identifying a common “Latin American problem,” Glusberg,
in his introductory text for the exhibition, makes explicit its ideological orienta-
tion and its focus on language and communications. He pointed toward the lan-
guage of conceptualism as the one best suited to CAyC’s semiotic concerns, that
as “an ideology, as a system of collective representations, is nothing other than a
in his essay, artists such as Anna Bella Geiger removed from the ideological and political
and Regina Silveira made extensive use of the imperatives of the avant-garde movements
postcard and its mail-distribution in their analyzed here.
works, as evidenced in Silveira’s Brazil Today 48 This exhibition makes special emphasis on the
series, where she overlays drawings that sug- contributions of CAyC to articulating a counter-
gest chaos and organization on the postcards’ rhetoric to developmentalism in the 1970s,
familiar images of Brazilian urban and natural given their explicit approach to this issue in
landscapes. These were not distributed by mail their writings and exhibitions. Jorge Glusberg
but rather used to make books, however as has been criticized for cultivating relationships
Tadeu Chiarelli suggests, she makes visible “the with the different dictatorial regimes that con-
material culture created by the post-office.” trolled Argentina between 1966 and 1983, espe-
Similarly, Geiger’s O Pão Nosso de cada dia (Our cially after 1976, when he was suspected of
Daily Bread, 1978) and Brasil nativo/Brasil aliení using these alliances to gain contracts for
gena (Native Brazil/Alien Brazil, 1976–1977) Modulor, his lighting infrastructure company.
made use of the postcard. Interestingly, the Nestor García Canclini mentions CAyC in his
postcards of indigenous Amazonian tribes that Culturas Híbridas as an organization that “man-
circulated widely as tourist images in Brazil aged to have an astonishing continuity in a
(and also Venezuela, it must be said in the case country where only one government was able to
of the Yanomami and Ye’kuana tribes of Venezu- finish its constitutional period in a period of
elan Amazonia), show up in the work of Lygia four decades,” describing it as a one-man oper-
Pape (the film Our Parents “Fossilis” from 1974, ation funded and run by Glusberg, who created
Geiger’s Brasil nativo/Brasil alienígena), and a network of alliances that cemented his power
Silveira’s aforementioned work. and guaranteed the continuity of CAyC. He had
47 In Buenos Aires, many of these activities took many detractors over the years, including art-
place at the Centro de Artes Visuales of the ists who were affiliated with CAyC, the Grupo
Instituto Torcuato di Tella, and the experimental de los Trece, who worked closely with him. In
program undertaken there by its director Jorge interviews conducted with surviving members
Romero Brest. But as many critics have argued of the Grupo de los Trece as part of the
(including Andrea Giunta and Inés Katzenstein, research for this exhibition, many, even the
among others), the di Tella was guided by an ones most critical of his personality and ties to
agenda of modernization, cosmopolitanism, economic elites and the government, conceded
and internationalism that was somewhat that despite the mobster traits they all
described, he was an indefatigable force behind can representation included Luis Benedit,
CAyC. In this sense, the focus on CAyC goes Antonio Berni, Elda Cerrato, Jaime Davidovich,
beyond Glusberg to concentrate on its collec- Guillermo Deisler, Juan Downey, Carlos Gins-
tive nature (including the Grupo de los Trece) burg, Rafael Hastings, Jorge González Mir, Lea
and the network of collaborations it was able to Lublin, Marie Orensanz, Luis Pazos, Alfredo
build in the 1970s and well into the 1980s. Portillos, Alejandro Puente, Juan Carlos Romero,
49 The exhibition, though presenting a “profile of Osvaldo Romberg, Clorindo Testa, Nicolás
Latin American art,” included the work of artists García Uriburu, Bernardo Salcedo, and Horacio
from Europe and the United States, figures Zabala, among others.
such as Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Agnes Denes, 50 Jacques Bedel, “Latin American Art and the
Ken Friedman, Jochen Gerz, Guerrilla Art Action Argentinean Model,” in CAYC Group at the Bank
Group, Dick Higgins, Auro Lecci, Maurizio Nan- of Ireland, Dublin (Buenos Aires: Ed. Centro de
nucci, and Constantin Xenakis. The Latin Ameri- Arte y Comunicación, 1980).
currency in the terrain of political economy as well as other fields. Gunder Frank,
for example, traveled around Latin America from 1962 to 1973, living and teaching
in Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. Being close to the social and economic realities of the
region prompted him to take a more militant turn but also to identify the persis-
tence of colonial structures as the main obstacles in the region’s path towards social
equality. In his book América Latina: subdesarrollo o revolución (Latin America:
Underdevelopment or Revolution, 1969), he not only states that the aim of the pub-
lication is “to contribute to the revolution in Latin America and the world,” pointing
to his ideological affiliation with the revolutionary movements in Latin America
at the time (from the guerrilla movements in Colombia and Bolivian foquismo to
the Cuban revolution), but he also equals underdevelopment to the colonial, stat-
ing that “Latin America suffers from a colonial underdevelopment, that makes its
peoples, economically, politically, and culturally dependent . . . on foreign metro-
politan power.”51
The ideological terms upon which Frank recognized a persisting colonial condi-
tion from which to seek liberation were taken up by many artists and critics work-
ing during this period. Many specifically alluded to the legacies of colonialism in
Latin America, and some of them explicitly manifested similar arguments to those
made by dependency theory. In his text for the CAyC presentation at the XIV Bienal
de São Paulo, Glusberg revisits the subject of ideology to explain the “rhetoric of
Latin American art,” stating that by “ideology” he refers to “discourses, instances
of conduct, ritual and concrete ways of behavior taken as a whole, which operate in
a certain socio-cultural context” which means that “the artistic work always comes
to light as a result of certain ideological conditions of its own production.”52 This
phenomenon was also observed by foreign critics, such as Italian Gillo Dorfles, who
in a text published in a CAyC leaflet, identified a “crucial difference” between Latin
American conceptualism and that of Europe or the United States in the former’s
“ideological content,” stating that while European artists had “given importance
to the political element in their work, there remained an appreciable difference
between the expressions of the First World and those of the Third World: the intel-
lectual and elitist aspect of the first, and the highly social aspect of the second.” For
Dorfles, Latin American conceptualism offered “the spectator a direct and effective
image of its will to denounce social injustices and to fight against the economic and
political difficulties that affected almost every country in Latin America.”53
51 Frank, América Latina: subdesarrollo o revolu Celso Furtado to the military coup of 1964, in
ción. In chapter 16, he reprises José Carlos “O Brasil Sertanejo,” in O Povo Brasileiro. A
Mariátegui’s views when critiquing develop- formação e o sentido do Brasil, 2nd ed. (São
mentalist agrarian reforms that fail to address Paulo: Companhia das letras, 1995), 339–63.
the underlying problem of latifundismo and its 52 The Group of Thirteen at the XIV Bienal de São
colonial origins. These aid programs would Paulo, exh. cat. (Buenos Aires: Centro de Arte y
finally only benefit the landowners, perpetuat- Comunicación, 1977). Original publication in
ing a vicious cycle of exploitation, illiteracy, and English.
poverty, also described by Darcy Ribeiro in his 53 Gillo Dorfles, “CAyC: Juan Carlos Romero; del
analysis of the clientelist nature of Brazilian Grupo de los Trece (GT-216)” (typed statement,
developmentalist policies in the Brazilian Buenos Aires: Centro de Arte y Comunicación
Northeast and the subsequent demise of the (CAyC), April 11, 1973).
dependency theory–oriented SUDENE under
Decolonial Geo-historiographies
For artists working within the ideological matrix that informed the critiques of
dependency and development, it was crucial to cast a retrospective gaze and address
colonial histories; issues such as the power of the church, of the letrados who main-
tained the bureaucratic organization of the European monarchies in the colonies,
and the survival of these power structures into the twentieth century surfaced
in many works from this period. Filmmaker Glauber Rocha is exemplary in this
regard. His film Terra em transe (Entranced Earth, 1967), set in the fictional republic
54 The artists from Rosario, Grupo de Arte de rio artist Juan Pablo Renzi wrote a manifesto
Vanguardia de Rosario (which organized the against what he called “cultura mermelada,” in
Ciclo de Arte Experimental de Rosario in 1968), reference to Argentina’s increasingly bourgeois
were critical of the di Tella’s inherently bour- art world. In 1968, Renzi, along with a group of
geois character (it was a private institution artists from Rosario, assaulted a lecture being
funded by industrialist Torcuato di Tella). given by Romero Brest, stating that as avant-
Despite its experimental program, it was seen garde artists they denounced the “mechanism
as catering only to an elite that looked to of the bourgeoisie that absorbs, distorts and
Europe and the United States for aesthetic aborts all creative work.” See Listen, Here, Now!:
validation. Moreover, its ties to commercial Argentine Art of the 1960s: Writings of the
interests such as the Bonino gallery under- Avant-garde, ed. Inés Katzenstein (New York:
scored its bourgeois affiliations. In 1966, Rosa- Museum of Modern Art, 2004).
thesis of the myths of the Third World” are deeply embedded in Rocha’s entire
Glauber Rocha, Terra em transe
oeuvre. Films such as Der leone have sept cabeças (The Lion Has Seven Heads, 1970),
filmed in Congo Brazzaville, Cabeças cortadas (Cutting Heads, 1970), and História do
Brasil (History of Brazil, 1972–74) are representative of what he defined as Tricon-
——TK——
tinental cinema, a project that reflected his involvement with the Third World and
the problem of underdevelopment. Moreover, he actively sought to align his writings
and films with the concerns laid out by dependency theorists and their counterparts
in the cultural field. In his 1965 manifesto “Eztetyka da fome” (Aesthetics of Hun-
ger), he clearly evidences his understanding of the problems laid out by theorists in
the field of political economy:
For the European observer, the process of artistic creation in the underdeveloped
world is of interest in so far as it satisfies his nostalgia for primitivism . . . generally
presented as a hybrid form, disguised under the belated heritage of the “civilized”
world, and poorly understood since it is imposed by colonial conditioning. Unde-
niably, Latin America remains a colony. What distinguishes yesterday’s colonial-
ism from today’s is merely the more refined forms employed by the contemporary
colonizer. . . . The problem facing Latin America in international terms is still that
of merely exchanging colonizers. Thus, our possible liberation is always a function
of a new dependency.55
55 Roberto Schwarz defined the “culture of favor” absorbs and dislocates them, originating a
as the long-lasting legacy of colonialism in particular model. . . . Favor practices the depen-
Brazil and the Americas. In “As idéias fora do dency of the person, the exception of the rule, a
lugar” (Misplaced ideas), the first chapter of his culture of interests, remuneration and personal
1977 book Ao vencedor as batatas. Forma services. Nevertheless, we were not to Europe
literária e processo social nos inícios do romance what feudalism was to capitalism; on the con-
brasileiro (To the winner, the potatoes. Literary trary, we were its tributaries in every sense. . . .
Form and Social Process in the Early Stages of Colonization is a fact of commercial capital. . . .
the Brazilian Novel), Schwarz analyzes the Thus methodically, independence was attrib-
“disparities between a slave-owning society uted to dependency, utility to caprice, univer-
and the ideas of European liberalism,” and the sality to exceptions, merit to kinship, equality to
resulting “culture of favor” that served as the privilege.” (Author’s translation.) Roberto
flawed foundation upon which the discourses of Schwarz, Ao vencedor as batatas. Forma literária
development, progress, and modernity in the e processo social nos inícios do romance
Americas were built. His text resonates with the brasileiro (São Paulo: Livraria Duas Cidades,
later concept of coloniality and the arguments 1977), 17–19.
laid out by dependency theory. For Schwarz, 56 Glauber Rocha, “Eztetyka da fome,” in
“Slavery denies liberal ideas; but, insidiously, Revolução do Cinema Novo. Glauber Rocha (São
favor, as incompatible with them as the former, Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2004), 63–67.
In an interview for the magazine Cine Cubano (Cuban Cinema) in 1974, Rocha spoke
about the research for his film História do Brasil, citing references that included
authors that range from Euclides da Cunha (author of Os Sertões [Rebellion in the
Backlands]), modern historians Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and Gilberto Freyre,
sociologist Darcy Ribeiro, as well as political economists affiliated to CEPAL Celso
Furtado and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, declaring that his film was able to pro-
duce a study of all aspects of Brazilian history that had only been partially addressed
by these authors.57 Rocha’s films, even if taking documentary form, as is the case of
História do Brasil, did not rigorously follow the genre, but are rather the product of
a highly estheticized and personal cinematographic language (that ultimately tran-
scended ideological boundaries).58 Moreover, they reflected what Brazilian film critic
Ismail Xavier described as “Cinema Novo’s search for a mode of production able to
overcome economic underdevelopment.” For Rocha and his peers of the Cinema
Novo movement, “to make a legitimate film” all one needed was “a camera in the
hand and ideas in the head.” 59
Rocha’s filmography and writings resonate with the concerns of a generation of
artists working under and responding to the conditions of underdevelopment. The
moving image was a powerful means to voice these critiques, as it was able to trans-
late them into the audiovisual languages of cinema and video, adding a compelling
narrative to what otherwise would have remained in the field of political economy,
accessible to specialized professionals. In a similar vein but using the rhetoric of
a militant activist cinema, La hora de los hornos (The Hour of the Furnaces), the
1968 film by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, equates the rise of the military
dictatorship in Argentina with the return to power of the landowning elites and the
instauration of a neocolonialist regime. Juan Downey’s video Chicago Boys (1982–83,
fig. 98) explores the application of Milton Friedman’s neoliberal economic theories
in Chile by a team of Chilean free-market economists during the Pinochet military
dictatorship. In it, images of the landscape and maps are interspersed with inter-
views and social documentary to assess the effects that these measures have had on
local economies.
It is interesting to note how maps and landscapes feature prominently in the pro-
duction of artists addressing the problem of dependency from an ideological stand-
point. The map becomes a tool for many artists who drafted, through their work, a
geopolitics of development and dependency. Cartographic representation forms part
57 História do Brasil opens with an account of the in the mid-1970s he declared his support of the
discovery and colonization of Brazil, stating that military dictatorship in Brazil, a position that
the Portuguese dominion of the trade routes to distanced friends and collaborators, such as
Asia established the basis for modern colonial- Darcy Ribeiro, from him.
ism. It also touches on the issue of cartography 59 Ismail Xavier, Allegories of Underdevelopment,
as a defining element of the colonial endeavor, Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Brazilian Cin
citing the Treaty of Tordesillas, which marked a ema (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
line across South America to divide the Spanish Press, 1997), 88.
and Portuguese colonies.
58 Rocha oscillated between ideological positions.
While aligned to the Cuban Revolution and the
more radical factions of the left in the 1960s,
of the “creation of a world” and its imaginaries by imperial and colonial powers, and
artists capitalized on the visual and representational aspects of the map to articu-
late their critiques of neocolonial power structures. Artists such as Horacio Zabala,
Elda Cerrato, Anna Bella Geiger, and Juan Downey anticipate the relation between
globalization, territory, and capital in their repertoire of cartographic explorations,
establishing a complex relation with this kind of representation. The deformations
in size of actual landmasses inherent in the different types of map projections are
resignified through different operations. Horacio Zabala’s map works, for instance,
imagine worlds where landmasses, and thus power structures, appear and disap-
pear, or are defaced by different means (burnt or blotted out with ink) to signal
censorship and repression in the region at the time as well as the land divisions
established by colonial powers in the past (fig. 63).
In this sense, the term “geo-historiography,” employed recurrently by Elda Cer-
rato to suggest the relation between history and geography in her map works from
the early 1970s, is particularly relevant. Like many of the artists affiliated with CAyC,
with whom she often collaborated, her work was driven by an understanding of the
current context and the call for militancy implied by an ideological art practice,
which in her particular case could be addressed through the inscription of these
disciplines in her work. Her maps suggest the role of the multitude in the redesign F ig. 1 9
Elda Cerrato, The People’s Hour, 1975. Acrylic on
of imperial cartographies—the transformation of the people into an empowered
linen, 59 1⁄16 × 37 3⁄8 in. (150 × 95 cm). Private
multitude that could potentially constitute an alternative political organization of Collection, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New
global flows and exchanges (figs. 20, 88, and 94). York & Buenos Aires.
In her different series of maps made in the 1970s, Anna Bella Geiger takes on a
Elda Cerrato, La Hora de los Pueblos, 1975.
sociological approach that relates not only to an interest in the representational
Acrílico sobre lienzo, 59 1⁄16 × 37 3⁄8 in. (150 ×
potential of the map but also to the construction of the concept of a nation-state tied 95 cm). Colección privada, cortesía de Henrique
to the representation of territory. The work Variáveis (Variables, 1976/2010, fig. 5) is Faria, New York & Buenos Aires.
particularly emblematic of this type of operation. Geiger makes four maps that rep-
resent different world orders—o mundo (the world), the world of oil, desenvolvido e
subdesenvolvido (developed and underdeveloped), and de dominio cultural ocidental
(under the cultural dominion of the West)—giving the land masses a proportion that
corresponds to each “order.” In this way, “the world” is the conventional representa-
tion of the world (which is nonetheless deformed); in “the world of oil” we see the
oil-producing countries enlarged so that Saudi Arabia, for example, appears larger
than the US, and Africa appears much larger than its actual size; in “desenvolvido
e subdesenvolvido,” the underdeveloped world is dwarfed by the developed world,
with Africa and India almost disappearing from the map; “de dominio cultural oci-
dental” shows the landmasses in relation to their cultural dependency on the West.
Geiger’s conceptual operations offer an insightful commentary into the discourse of
F ig. 2 0
cartographic representation and its role in instrumentalizing the power of the West. Anna Bella Geiger, Amuleto (Amulet), 1977.
They depict the location of vast resources in underdeveloped regions that are almost Graphite and color pencil on paper, 19 3⁄4 ×
exclusively exploited by the First World, highlighting the relations of dependency 25 3⁄8 in. (50.2 × 64.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
between First and Third Worlds. Ultimately, they offer the option to delink by also
Anna Bella Geiger, Amuleto, 1977. Grafito y lápiz
showing that a great part of the world is not culturally dependent on the West, thus de colores sobre papel, 19 3⁄4 × 25 3⁄8 in. (50.2 ×
64.5 cm). Cortesía de la artista.
presenting us with the possibility to rethink the world order imposed by the West
and its erasure of forms of knowledge as a strategy of colonization and control.
Downey’s use of maps is extensive throughout his entire production, and Ana-
conda Map of Chile (1973, fig. 30) clearly establishes the relation between the ter-
ritory to be colonized and exploited and the representative function of the map. A
snake lies inside a box covered with the standard map of Chile that was present in
all school classrooms, which also included Pedro Lira’s 1889 painting depicting con-
quistador Pedro de Valdivia’s foundation of Santiago de Chile following the defeat of
the native Mapuche Indians of the Araucania region. Downey made this work with
F ig . 21
a very specific context in mind, as he was to present it in an exhibition organized
Osvaldo Romberg, Landscape as Idea, 1970.
Lithograph with acrylic and Mylar, 15 1⁄2 ×
at the Center for Inter-American Relations (CIAR) in New York (today known as
19 5⁄16 in. (39.4 × 49.1 cm). Courtesy of the artist Americas Society), an organization funded by the Rockefeller family.60 The snake
and Henrique Faria, New York & Buenos Aires. and title of the work were a direct reference to the Anaconda Mining Company,
owned by the Rockefeller family and which, since the mid-nineteenth century, had
Osvaldo Romberg, El paisaje como idea, 1970.
Litografía con acrílico y Mylar, 15 1⁄2 × 19 5⁄16 in.
led the exploitation of copper in Chile.
(39.4 × 49.1 cm). Cortesía del artista y Henrique While maps offer a symbolic representation of space, the image of the landscape
Faria, New York & Buenos Aires. enters the realm of place, depicting the physical characteristics of territory and its
natural resources, principal sources of wealth for colonial and neo-colonial enter-
prises. Osvaldo Romberg’s El paisaje como idea (Landscape as Idea, figs. 22 and 110)
series from 1970 is emblematic of this type of approach; in these works he under-
takes a systematic dissection of a Tucumán landscape of ancient Incan ruins. By
imposing a graphic organization on the photographs, he “attempts to make a model,
through different variables, that reveals the structures of a reality that hides behind
the images.”61 Jacques Bedel’s Ciudades de plata (Cities of Silver) allude to ancient
pre-Hispanic cities and to the myth of cities of gold and silver that guided the expe-
ditions of conquest in the Americas. Víctor Hugo Codocedo’s La Bandera (The Flag,
1979–81) series examines the connection between landscape and the symbolic con-
struction of the nation-state.
The relation between land and the prospective wealth to be extracted from it,
highlighted by artists who employed the map and the landscape to address the
exploitation of resources by the colonial enterprise from the conquest of the Ameri-
cas to what they perceived to be a present-day form of neocolonialism, was also
taken up in another form by artists who dealt explicitly with the asymmetrical rela-
tion between poverty in Latin America and its abundance of natural resources and
raw material. This imbalance is one of the primary concerns of dependency theory,
which finds at the root of “underdevelopment” a situation of historical dependency
that harks back to the relation that metropolitan centers imposed on the colonies
as purveyors of raw material and cheap labor, renewed in the modern world by
trade agreements and monopolies that prevent peripheral markets to engage in fair
60 In what he took as an act of censorship by the 61 Jorge Glusberg, Tipología del espacio, paisajes
institution, Downey was asked to remove the como idea, serigrafías, estructuras y proyectos.
snake on the day of the opening of the Osvaldo Romberg (Buenos Aires: Centro de Arte
exhibition. y Comunicación, 1972).
competition with the centers, mostly forcing them to buy back the products of their
raw material and their low-cost labor at high prices. Dependency theory argued
that to provide solutions to the ensuing problems of social inequality and poverty,
natural and agricultural resources should be exploited for domestic consumption.
This disparity in the distribution of resources and the ensuing perpetual cycle of
poverty was a common denominator among many militant and ideologically ori-
ented works in the 1970s. Taller 4 Rojo’s militant graphics, reminiscent of Cuban
revolutionary posters in Colombia 72, highlighted the problems faced by peasant
societies in Colombia (fig. 29); Guillermo Deisler used the collage technique to mate-
rialize social inequality and the problem of hunger (fig. 23); while Anna Bella Geiger
employed the map once again, this time bitten off a bread loaf in O Pão Nosso de
cada dia (Our Daily Bread, 1978, fig. 24). Juan Downey’s Make Chile Rich (fig. 51)
originally produced in the CAyC blueprint format for Hacia un perfil del arte lati- F ig. 2 2
noamericano (1972), promoted the use of Chilean nitrate of soda potash as fertil- Guillermo Deisler, It’s Ironic. . . , 1973. Collage
on paper, 8 1⁄4 × 7 11⁄16 in. (21 × 19.5 cm). coleção
izer, revealing a complex network of relations between food supply, agriculture,
moraes-barbosa, São Paulo, Brazil.
and the role of transnational corporations that aimed to substitute the naturally and
abundantly occurring sodium nitrate in Chile. Victor Grippo’s Analogía 1 (Analogy I, Guillermo Deisler, Es una ironía. . . , 1973.
1970–71, fig. 64) highlighted the economic and cultural role that the potato played in Collage sobre papel, 8 1⁄4 × 7 11⁄16 in. (21 ×
19.5 cm). coleção moraes-barbosa, São Paulo,
Incan civilization and, after the colonization of the Americas, in Europe, and related
Brazil.
to the problem of consciousness also raised by his peers of the Grupo de los Trece
in their manifesto on an art of consciousness, making an analogy between food
(potato), energy, conscience, and freedom of conscience as the “right of each citizen
to think as he pleases in the realm of religion.”
Grippo’s allusion to freedom of consciousness and religion in the context of a cri-
tique of colonial structures is echoed in works that address the relationship between
the colonial enterprise and the spread of Christianity in the Americas. In the name
of religion, native peoples were subjugated and enslaved under the labor structure
of the encomienda, a feudal system of serfdom (which gave way to the latifundio)
by which the encomendero would receive land and labor and in return see to the
spiritual well-being of his subjects through their conversion to Christianity. The
power structure of the church not only survived into the twentieth century but was
also invigorated by the right-wing dictatorships that spread through South America
in the 1960s and 1970s. This subject was directly addressed by León Ferrari who,
throughout different bodies of work, questioned the state apparatus of the church,
critiquing its conservative position in regard to sexuality and social mores as well as
its intolerance of difference (fig. 66). Catalina Parra points to the role of the church F ig. 2 3
in the creation of the economic structures leading to the situation of dependency Anna Bella Geiger, O Pão Nosso de cada dia (Our
Daily Bread), 1978. Bread bag and six postcards,
that ultimately engulfed all of Latin America into the foreign debt crisis of the 1980s,
limited edition, 24 1⁄2 × 28 7⁄16 in. (62.2 ×
in La deuda e(x)terna (The e(x)ternal debt, 1987, fig. 70). The Becerro de oro (Golden 72.3 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Calf, fig. 43) procession organized by Fernando “Coco” Bedoya in Peru during the
Contacta Festival in 1979 takes into the public sphere the tensions between indig- Anna Bella Geiger, O Pão Nosso de cada dia (El
Pan Nuestro de cada día), 1978. Bolsa de papel
enous (Quechua and Aymara) popular traditions and the imposition of Catholic reli-
para pan y seis postales, edición limitada, 24 1⁄2
gion in the Americas by the Spanish colonial power, merging the biblical account of × 28 7⁄16 in. (62.2 × 72.3 cm). Cortesía de la
the Golden Calf with the effigy of the Torito de Pucará (a symbol of fertility among artista.
62 In a 1956 speech, Mao Zedong stated that U.S. 65 Though not included in the exhibition, a collab-
imperialism was a paper tiger, “outwardly a orative work by Luis Pazos, Héctor Puppo, and
tiger, made of paper, unable to withstand the Jorge de Luján Gutiérrez, La cultura de la felici
wind and the rain.” He urged Latin American dad (The Culture of Happiness, 1971) is
countries to unite with their indigenous popula- emblematic of this consciousness-raising,
tions in order to oppose U.S. imperialism. ideologically inflected praxis. The artists dis-
63 In Spanish, “la concientización del presente” tributed cardboard masks with happy faces
differs from the English “awareness,” as it also with the caveat that it was compulsory to use
entails a process of consciousness-raising. them. The mask bore instructions for its use
64 CAyC: El arte como conciencia en la Argentina; and warned the user that the full weight of the
Luís Pazos y Juan Carlos Romero; Charla a law would be applied to those who did not
propósito de la muestra Hacia un perfil del arte follow the instructions. This project is clearly
latinoamericano (GT-138), (Buenos Aires: Centro rooted in Pazos’s call for a culture of conscious-
de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC), June 22, 1972). ness; art would only be effective by creating
this collective consciousness, and raising
awareness about the surrounding reality. in 1934. Artists such as Rubem Valentim and
Alfredo Jaar’s Estudios sobre la felicidad (Studies Mestre Didi were very important figures in the
on Happiness, 1979–81) billboards installed in cultural and artistic Afro-Brazilian movements,
different public spaces with the question: “¿es which gained more visibility in the 1960s.
usted feliz?” (are you happy?) operated in a 67 Frederico Morais, A arte popular e sertaneja de
similar way, this time in the context of the Pino- Juraci Dórea: uma utopia? (Salvador, Bahia:
chet dictatorship in Chile. Edições Cordel, 1987).
66 In this context, it is also important to mention 68 The SUDENE (Superintendência de Desenvolvi-
the renewed interest in cultural connections mento do Nordeste, or Superintendency for the
between Africa and Brazil in the context of the Development of the Northeast) was created in
Third World, decades after Gilberto Freyre had 1959 by Celso Furtado, at the request of Presi-
organized the first First Afro-Brazilian Congress dent Juscelino Kubitschek, to address the situa-
Paulo Freire’s diafilmes, used to teach his phonemic method.68 Indeed, many revo-
lutionary battles of the 1960s in Latin America were waged on the cultural front,
where intellectuals and artists acknowledged the relationship between illiteracy and
social and economic exclusion with the perpetuation of exploitative colonial modes
of production. The first of several strategies to address these failures was to combat
illiteracy.69
The figure of Paulo Freire is central to this endeavor, in the particular context of
Brazil and of Latin America, where he was very active after leaving his country in
exile after the military coup of 1964. It is possible to identify in his teaching method
an instance of “epistemic disobedience,” as it is based on a profound assessment
of the situations of exclusion, maintained in place by the rhetoric of development,
and it is only from an acknowledgment of underdevelopment that the process of
conscientização (critical consciousness) can be fully and effectively carried out. His
method was deployed within the coordinates of “the preferential option for the
poor”70; a dialogic approach, which meant the facilitator of education would undergo
a transformative experience, learning from the “students” and becoming solidary
with their plight; and the militancy implied by the struggle to overcome the struc-
tures of oppression. Freire’s method aims to liberate the oppressed via critical con-
sciousness. It is an internal liberation that comes from the act of becoming aware
of a condition (in the particular case of Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, that of
oppression), and through this awareness to become empowered and act upon these
situations. Critical consciousness also enables individuals to act from their specific
conditions, be it material poverty or situations of exclusion, and to think of solutions
in their own terms, because it is achieved through a transversal and dialogic method
based on problem-posing, which he opposed to the traditional top-down pedagogical
model which he described as “banking education”71:
tion of extreme poverty and inequality in the objectivized, intellectual, and plastic or visual
Northeast, aggravated by the dry climate of the expression. Henceforth, the survivors would
region and its frequent droughts. It also recog- have no other modes of intellectual and plastic
nized the importance of culture in the effort to or visual formalized and objectivized expres-
solve the many problems in that region. Despite sions, but through the cultural patterns of the
its alignment with the developmentalist rheto- rulers. . . . Latin America is, without doubt, the
ric, during the government of João Goulart most extreme case of cultural colonization by
SUDENE recruited Paulo Freire in 1963 to Europe.” See “Coloniality Modernity/Rational-
implement his educational method in the ity,” Cultural Studies 21, no. 2 (2007), 170.
region, through the intervention of the then- 70 Though the phrase is used by Gustavo Gutiérrez
Minister of Education Darcy Ribeiro. It was in in his 1971 Liberation Theology, it is possible to
this context that, through the Alliance for Prog- identify Freire’s earlier undertakings as operat-
ress, Freire initiated his landmark pedagogic ing within the same principle.
experience at Angicos in the Northeast. 71 Freire makes the distinction between a problem-
69 The situation of illiteracy is at the forefront of posing education and a “banking “conception of
Aníbal Quijano’s essay “Coloniality Modernity/ education, in which the pivotal dialogic aspect
Rationality”: “The cultural repression and the is missing. A banking conception of education is
massive genocide together turned the previous based on an opposition between subject and
high cultures of America into illiterate, peasant object where the teacher is the subject, who
subcultures condemned to orality; that is, possesses knowledge and power, and the
deprived of their own patterns of formalized, student is the object who will be the passive
maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of
consciousness and critical intervention in reality. . . . In problem-posing education,
people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with
which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static
reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation.72
r eceptor of the education “deposited” by the the popular, is analyzed in depth by Sharon
system. “Problem-posing education . . . breaks Lerner in her essay for this catalogue, so it is
with the vertical patterns characteristic of not addressed here. Nevertheless it is interest-
banking education. . . . Through dialogue, the ing to point out Durand’s active involvement
teacher-of-the-students and the students-of- with ALFIN, in terms of this particular argument
the-teacher cease to exist and a new term on the extended reach of Freire’s pedagogical
emerges: teacher-student with students- philosophy in the region during this period. The
teachers.” Interestingly Quijano makes an anal- avant-garde’s embrace of the popular in Peru,
ogous observation on the nature of cultural and initiatives such as ALFIN, are set against
colonialism, positing “the relation between the backdrop of what Lerner describes as a de
European culture and the other cultures” as one facto left, the Velasco Alvarado dictatorship, a
that has been “established and . . . maintained, complex situation that was ideologically and
as a relation between ‘subject’ and ‘object’.” See politically problematic, as the repression instru-
Quijano, “Coloniality Modernity/Rationality,” mentalized by the right-wing dictatorships in
168–78, 206. Moreover, Freire’s definition of a Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay was in effect
banking education is contemporaneous with replicated in Peru but on the opposite side of
Louis Althusser’s similar definition of education the ideological spectrum.
as an ideological state apparatus. Both Althuss- 74 Oiticica and Pape wrote on the spatial qualities
er’s Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses of the favela, Bo Bardi wrote of rural architec-
and Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed were ture and solutions born out of necessity in
published in 1970. Habitat magazine. The favela in fact makes its
72 Paulo Freire, Pedagogia do oprimido (São Paulo: entrance into the museum space with Oiticica’s
Paz e Terra, 2010). Tropicália and is also present in Lygia Pape’s
73 Jesús Ruiz Durand’s work, as well as that of Favela da Maré.
other Peruvian artists working in the context of
popular throughout her trajectory (including her constructive works from the 1950s)
and her affinity with the ideas of Mário Pedrosa.75 In it she acknowledges her indebt-
edness to the object lessons of the popular: “We recognize a constructive tropism
in Brazilian art that easily refers to indigenous and African origins in the recycled
objects of the Northeast, in the permanence of geometric elements of carnival, in the
patchwork blankets of Minas, in popular ceramics, in the spontaneous architecture
of the seaside, etc., etc.”76 Her 1959 Livro da criação (Book of Creation, fig. 35, which
can be considered exemplary of Gullar’s concept of the non-object) is a book without
words whose narrative can only be performed by the body. In her 1967 Super 8 film
of the same title, the book is literally animated. It comes extraordinarily close to the
simplicity and effectiveness of Freire’s phonemic method in its construction of a
narrative based on abstract forms and their interplay with the body. A voiceover nar-
rates the myth of creation through these abstract forms, in a language that speaks to
the very basic conditions of existence (hunter-gathering, farming, houses on stilts,
the elements, water, earth, and light) which make for universal readability, but also
one that could appeal to those who could not read or write and for whom the situa-
tions described were familiar and everyday.77
Rocha’s avant-garde film aesthetic placed the disenfranchised majority, that
multitude of colonial and subaltern subjects, at the center of cinematography and
writings. In Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol and Antonio das mortes, Rocha revisits
the pivotal role of the disenfranchised in the conflictive history of the Brazilian
backlands of the Nordeste (northeast), focusing on the war of Canudos in the late
nineteenth century and the cangaceiros, bandits who roamed the region in the 1920s
and 1930s. For Rocha it was not only a subject matter but also a language, which he
borrowed as these films take on the narrative structure of literatura de cordel, popu-
lar poems that recounted the exploits of Antonio Conselheiro, Padre Cícero, and the
75 Pedrosa was very active on this front as well, the mute), and “Nós, os bugres” (We the sav-
though, unlike Gullar, he never formed part of ages), not only identify the silencing of subal-
the CPC. He published two books in 1966, A tern and indigenous voices by the imposition of
opção brasileira (The Brazilian Option) and A Western culture, which nonetheless find signifi-
opção imperialista (The Imperialist Option), cant means of expression in the popular, but
where he essentially outlined his anti- also point to misery as the catalyzing agent of
developmentalist views at the dawn of the creation and invention: “Misery (the common
dictatorship in Brazil. These books are rarely, denominator of these peoples) will be the trig-
if ever, considered within art-historical studies gering element of the creative process.” See
as, being focused on economy and politics, Pape, Catiti Catiti, 60.
they do not address the subject of art. In the 77 “In the beginning it was all water / after, the
1970s, several of his essays, such as “Discurso waters went down, and down, and down / man
aos Tupiniquins ou Nambás” (Speech to the began to mark time / man discovered fire / man
Tupiniquim or Nambás Peoples) (1975) and Arte was a nomad and a hunter / in the forest / man
culta e arte popular, reiterate his ideological was gregarious and sowed the earth / and the
position vis à vis developmentalism, and the earth flourished / man invented the wheel /
expectations he deposited on the options that man discovered that the sun was the center of
were open to the Third World if it chose to take the planetary system / that the Earth was
the path of decolonization. round and rotated on its own axis / man built
76 Lygia Pape, Catiti Catiti, na terra dos Brasis over the water: the house on stilts / submarine:
(master’s thesis, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciên- the empty was the full over water / the keel
cias Sociais, Universidade Federal do Rio de navigating in time / light—plain light.” (Author’s
Janeiro, 1980), 22. Furthermore, the final two translation from the original in Portuguese)
chapters, “A fala dos mudos” (The speech of
cangaceiros of the northeast, and were often recited orally as songs by repentistas
(troubadour-like figures). In his films, the figures of the marginal and the outlaw
appear as symbolic of a violence generated by hunger: “The precise behavior of
the famished is violence, and the violence of the hungry is not primitivism. . . .
An aesthetics of violence is revolutionary rather than primitive, it is the starting
point for the colonizer to understand the existence of the colonized; only by rais-
ing consciousness (conscientizando) around [the colonial subject’s] only possibility,
violence, can the colonizer understand, through horror, the force of the culture that
he exploits.”78
Rocha’s anticolonialist discourse on hunger, poverty, and marginality was echoed
in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s by artists from different parts of the region, giv-
ing continuity to the consciousness-raising endeavor laid out in Eztétyka da fome.
Oiticica’s homage to the favela outlaw Cara de Cavalo, Parangolé estandarte (Seja
Marginal Seja Héroi); Grupo Cada’s Para no morir de hambre en el arte (Not to Die of F ig. 2 5
Lina Bo Bardi, Logo design for the SESC Fábrica
Hunger in Art, 1979); Diamela Eltit’s Zona de dolor II/El beso (Zone of Pain II/The
da Pompeia, 1977–1988. Hydrophraphic print,
Kiss, 1981, fig. 67); Eugenio Dittborn’s Todas las de la ley (Fair and Square, 1980, gouache, graphite, nanquim, and Letraset on
fig. 68); and the Colombian pornomiseria films of Luis Ospina and Carlos Mayolo cardstock. Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi
operate on this very register (fig. 69), pointing to marginality as one of the persistent archive.
F ig. 2 6
78 Glauber Rocha, “Eztetyka da fome,” in Revo cifically in relation to underdevelopment in Nordeste exhibition brochure, Museu de Arte
lução do Cinema Novo. Glauber Rocha (São Quem não tem cão caça com gato (Those who Popular do Unhão, Salvador, Bahia, 1963.
Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2004), 63–67. do not have dogs, hunt with cats), included in Brochure, 8 9⁄16 × 6 5⁄16 in. (21.7 × 16 cm).
79 I have written extensively on Bo Bardi’s relation the catalogue of A mão do povo brasileiro 1969–
Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive.
to the popular, in different essays: The Architec 2016 (São Paulo: MASP, 2016). Please refer to
ture of Playgrounds: from the Logic of Space to the English version of this essay at https://
the Logic of Place (São Paulo: MASP, 2016), www.academia.edu/33058640/A_mão_do Folleto del exposición Nordeste, Museu de Arte
where I analyze her bottom-up approach and _povo_brasileiro_Quem_não_tem_cão_caça Popular do Unhão, Salvador, Bahia, 1963.
affinity with the ideas of Aldo van Eyck and _com_gato_new_JG_chgs_accptd_for Folleto, 8 9⁄16 × 6 5⁄16 in. (21.7 × 16 cm). Instituto
Team 10 (bilingual publication); and more spe- _publication.docx)
Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive.
the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), and the later SESC Pompéia (figs. 27, 34,
and 89), as well as the exhibitions she had organized since 1959 (Bahia no Ibirapuera
[Bahia in Ibirapuera Park], Nordeste at MAM, Bahia in 1963 (fig. 28); the seminal A
mão do povo brasileiro [The Hand of the Brazilian People] at MASP in 1969 [fig. 33],
and Design no Brasil: história e realidade [Design in Brazil: History and Reality] in
1982), among many others, are particularly emblematic of her investment in eradi-
cating these forms of exclusion through an architecture of deinstitutionalization,
participation, vivência (lived experience), and todos juntos (being together). Capital-
izing on architecture’s inherent capacity to foster modes of simultaneous collective
reception, Bo Bardi’s architectural designs for MASP and SESC Pompéia created
community and consequently opened a way for collective forms of empowerment
that, through her buildings, remain active today.
80 Frantz Fanon, Black Skin/White Masks (London: object. The colonized subject is an object of
Pluto Press, 1986), 231. study, and objectification subjects it to domina-
81 Clarival do Prado Valladares, Artesanato tion and exploitation. The decolonial option
Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro: FUNARTE, 1978), 11. thus offers a way out for the colonial subject,
82 In “The Coloniality of Power,” Aníbal Quijano and more specifically through the agency of the
describes colonial domination as one based on body.
the mind-body duality, where the reason/sub-
ject is the European and the Other is the body/
practices concerned with the geographic, social, economic, political, and cultural
consequences of the implementation of developmentalist policies in the region. The
fluidity of this state of being together is invoked by Andrea Giunta in her essay for
this publication, where she differentiates the people (el pueblo, o povo) from the mass
and the multitude, but also notes that the people can potentially (and temporarily)
become mass and multitude, reorganizing itself once again into the forms of rec-
ognition that grant it legitimacy as the people. In the context of this discussion, this
being together is both represented and mobilized.
Its representation is not just iconographic but is also constitutive of an agenda
to reevaluate popular culture in order to re-inscribe it in the imaginaries and epis-
temologies produced by a continent seeking to delink from the models imposed by
developmentalist rhetoric. It is also present in the alternative geo-historiographies
that offer the possibility to redesign the cartographies of power, delineated by met-
ropolitan powers since the dawn of modernity. A geography that for more recent
theorists of the multitude, such as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, “is still waiting
to be written—or really . . . is being written today by the resistances, struggles and
desires of the multitude.”
Its mobilization takes form in the privileged position occupied by the body in
these artistic practices, pointing toward a rethinking of its role in decolonial aesthet-
ics as one that performs epistemic disobedience.82 The multitude takes center stage
in a series of practices where the objectified body, on which the colonial wound has
been impinged for centuries, acquires agency: the bodies of the favela inhabitants
making Oiticica’s Parangolés come alive; the bodies whose individual movements in
unison sustain a collective endeavor in Lygia Pape’s Divisor, or those espaços iman-
tados (magnetized spaces) where bodies converge in public space to form a magnetic
force field; the bodies coming together to manifest in the free span below MASP, or
moving in leisure and participation in the construction of temporary communities
in SESC Pompéia (fig. 36).
The artistic practices produced in Latin America, in reaction to the rhetoric of
developmentalism, laid the groundwork for rethinking the modern in the continent,
questioning the validity of the modern project in the context of a colonial past and a
neo-colonial present. Their reinstatement of the people as a producer of knowledge,
one that relied on the body and the sensorium, stemmed from a conviction that
other epistemologies were necessary in order to bring about social change.
To identify a paradigm shift in these early instances of a decolonial turn in the
art produced in Latin America offers perhaps the possibility to reevaluate today the
questions posed decades ago, not only for artists but for those who work in the fields
of art history and museums. Particularly when the past fifteen years in Latin Amer-
ica have been witness to successive waves of populist de facto regimes to the left,
and more recently to the right, and to all kinds of cultural misdemeanors commit-
ted in the name of the people. An informed inscription of the popular, in the terms
discussed above, within a wider epistemological framework is perhaps the task at
hand for museums in Latin America today, and for those abroad who seek to gain
a better understanding of the art produced in the region in the twentieth century.
Nuestro camino es otro, porque hemos sido y somos la “otra cara” de la moderni- F ig. 2 7
dad. Se trata de un proyecto “transmoderno”, “metamoderno”, que debe asumir el Taller 4 Rojo, Peasant Signboard, ca. 1972.
Silkscreen on paper, 12 panels, 403⁄16 × 28 3⁄8 ×
núcleo racional moderno, pero debe saber criticarlo superándolo.
1 9⁄16 in. (102 × 72 × 4 cm) overall. Collection of
—E n r iqu e Du s s e l , Filosofía de la liberación (1977) Proyecto Bachué.
Los ultramodernismos y algunos de sus progresos, de molde comúnmente ameri- Taller 4 Rojo, Valla Campesina, ca. 1972.
Serigrafía sobre papel, 12 paneles, 403⁄16 ×
cano, están umbilicalmente vinculados a nuestras favelas y barriadas. La paradoja
28 3⁄8 × 1 9⁄16 in. (102 × 72 × 4 cm). Colección de
es que éstas no son las que cambian, como no cambian la miseria, el hambre, la Proyecto Bachué.
pobreza, las chozas y las ruinas. Sin embargo, por ahí pasa el futuro. Aquí está la
opción por el Tercer Mundo: un futuro abierto o la miseria eterna. . . . La tarea crea-
tiva de la humanidad comienza a cambiar de latitud. Avanza ahora hacia las áreas
más amplias y distantes del Tercer Mundo.
del capitalismo que, lejos de ser eliminado por la implementación de modelos desa-
rrollistas, sólo sería perpetuado y mantenido por éstos.
Andre Gunder Frank, uno de los grandes exponentes de la teoría de la dependen-
cia, dedicó el primer capítulo de su libro América Latina: subdesarrollo o revolución
precisamente a este problema, dándole el título El desarrollo del subdesarrollo:
Hoy en día una reevaluación crítica de este cambio de paradigma implica considerar,
como parte de su marco referencial, el cuerpo teórico producido desde principios
de la década de 1990 por los teóricos culturales asociados con el grupo Modernidad/
Colonialidad/Descolonialidad.2 El concepto de colonialidad, inicialmente formu-
lado por el sociólogo peruano Aníbal Quijano, aporta una valiosa herramienta crítica
para entender el problema de la modernidad en América Latina. Propone lo colo-
nial como el lado anverso pero también constitutivo del proyecto moderno/racional
europeo, el cual es sostenido económicamente por la empresa colonial que comenzó
con la conquista del Nuevo Mundo en el siglo XVI. Esencialmente, al equiparar la
modernidad a la empresa colonial, el concepto de colonialidad plantea serias inte-
rrogantes sobre la validez del proyecto moderno en América Latina. Quijano retoma
las ideas avanzadas por la teoría de la dependencia, señalando la inviabilidad de los
proyectos moderno y desarrollista en la región al estar sustentados sobre la perpe-
tuación de estructuras coloniales de explotación y dominio.3
El marco teórico propuesto desde los años noventa por el grupo Modernidad/
Colonialidad/Descolonialidad en el campo expandido de los estudios culturales
se aproxima a las preocupaciones expresadas por los economistas políticos en las
décadas de 1960 y 1970 a través de la teoría de la dependencia (o la teoría del sub-
desarrollo), esta vez a nivel epistemológico. Para Walter Mignolo, “el concepto de
colonialidad ha facilitado la reconstrucción y la restitución de historias, subjetivi-
dades, conocimientos y lenguajes silenciados, reprimidos y subalternizados por la
idea de totalidad definida bajo los nombres de modernidad y racionalidad”.4 Más
1. Andre Gunder Frank, América Latina: subdesa 3. Quijano, de hecho, trabajó para la CEPAL
rrollo o revolución (Ediciones Era: Ciudad de (Comisión Económica para América Latina el
México, 1973). Caribe) en la década de 1960, donde publicó
2. Aunque no pertenezca en realidad a ningún importantes obras en esta trayectoria como
grupo, este corpus interdisciplinario de teoría Dependencia, urbanización y cambio social en
ha sido desarrollado durante las últimas dos América Latina e Imperialismo y marginalidad en
décadas por los sociólogos Aníbal Quijano, América Latina.
Edgardo Lander, Ramón Grosfoguel, el semió- 4. Walter D. Mignolo, “Delinking: The Rhetoric of
tico Walter Mignolo, la pedagoga Catherine Modernity, the Logic of Coloniality and the
Walsh, los antropólogos Arturo Escobar y Fer- Grammar of De-coloniality” Cultural Studies, 21,
nando Coronil y los filósofos Enrique Dussel y no. 2 (2007): 449–514, consultado 29 Marzo
Nelson Maldonado Torres, entre otros.
8. El libro posterior de Luis Camnitzer Conceptua Bolívar, como originador de este tipo de pensa-
lism in Latin American art: didactics of Liberation miento y a quien postula como el primer artista
(El conceptualismo en el arte latinoamericano: conceptual de América Latina.
una didáctica de la liberación, 2007), ubica 9. CAyC significa Centro de Arte y Comunicación,
correctamente el desarrollo de prácticas con- la organización fundada por Jorge Glusberg en
ceptualistas entre las coordenadas de la didác 1969.
tica y de la liberación, posicionando a la figura
decimonónica Simón Rodríguez—pensador
anticolonialista, pedagogo y maestro de Simón
10. Ejemplos notables de la primera mitad del s. XX 11. José Carlos Mariátegui, por ejemplo, en su
incluyen la Escuela del Sur de Joaquín Torres Punto de vista antiimperialista de 1929, descri-
García, y su universalismo constructivo que bió Perú y otras repúblicas latinoamericanas
simultáneamente promovía la abstracción como semi-coloniales y semi-feudales.
como un lenguaje universal y recuperaba los 12. Lograr cincuenta años de progreso en cinco
imaginarios indígenas, proclamado que “nues- años fue el lema del programa desarrollista de
tro norte es el sur”; el concepto del regiona- Juscelino Kubitschek para Brasil en la década de
lismo crítico de Pedro Figari; la revista literaria 1950, establecido en el Plano de metas (Plan de
Amauta de José Carlos Mariátegui; la Revista de metas) en 1956.
Antropofagia de Oswald de Andrade, entre
otros.
13. Las ideas de Frantz Fanon no sólo influenciaron Césaire, Senghor y Léon Damas fueron los
a muchos durante este período (desde Glauber fundadores del movimiento de la Négritude, el
Rocha a Paulo Freire, para nombrar algunos) cual fue crucial en el desarrollo y difusión de
sino que también han sido reexaminadas por pensamiento anticolonialista alrededor del
teóricos trabajando dentro del marco de la mundo.
Modernidad/Colonialidad/Descolonialidad.
14. La aproximación de Wallerstein en su teoría de 15. Comisión Económica para América Latina
sistema-mundo, sin embargo, se oponía a la (CEPAL o ECLAC), The Economic Development
noción del Tercer Mundo, a favor de un sistema of Latin America and its Principle Problems (El
mundial compuesto por países de centro, peri- desarrollo económico de América Latina y sus
feria y semi-periferia, unidos por una dinámica problemas principales, United Nations, Depart-
de intercambios económicos en los que el cen- ment of Economic Affairs: Lake Success, Nueva
tro intenta mantener una relación de dependen- York, 1950). Véase http://archivo.cepal.org/
cia con las periferias para beneficio propio. pdfs/cdPrebisch/002.pdf
16. La episteme europea ha construido dos posicio- desobediencia epistémica), Transversal (sep-
nes para el sujeto: humanitas, aquellos que tiembre 2011), consultado 29 marzo 2017,
poseen conocimiento, y anthropos, quienes son http://eipcp.net/transversal/0112/mignolo/en
los sujetos de estudio. Según Mignolo, “el 17. Walter D. Mignolo, “Epistemic Disobedience,
anthropos representa el concepto del ‘otro’ en Independent Thought, and De-colonial Free-
la mayoría de los debates contemporáneos dom” (Desobediencia epistémica, pensamiento
sobre la alteridad—el ‘otro’, sin embargo, no independiente y libertad descolonial), Theory,
existe ontológicamente. Es una invención dis- Culture & Society 26, no. 7-8 (2009): 159–81,
cursiva”. Véase Walter Mignolo, “Geopolitics of http://waltermignolo.com/wp-content/
Sensing and Knowing. On (De)Coloniality, Bor- uploads/2013/03/epistemicdisobedience-2.pdf
der Thinking, and Epistemic Disobedience” 18. El término factografía fue empleado primero
(Geopolítica del sentir y saber. Sobre la (de) por artistas afiliados a la vanguardia rusa de la
colonialidad, el pensamiento fronterizo y la década de 1920 para señalar una divergencia de
Es necesario señalar que, en muchos casos, este quiebre epistémico se dio a través
de la incorporación estructural del vocabulario de lo popular en las prácticas van-
guardistas, generando formas de colectivización de la experiencia que fomentaron
la conciencia social mediante modos discursivos y espaciales de percepción y parti-
cipación. En su conjunto, estas múltiples manifestaciones, producidas en América
Latina durante un período de aproximadamente veinticinco años, pueden ser enten-
didas hoy como constitutivas de un importante cambio de paradigma después de
aquel que significó la experimentación con la abstracción geométrica característica
de los movimientos modernos en América Latina.
la abstracción y la forma no-objetiva en busca 1955 a 1975, Cambridge, MA, Londres, Inglate-
de formas de expresión artística que proporcio- rra: October Books, MIT Press, 2000), 240.
naran una relación directa con la realidad. Ben- 19. Hélio Oiticica, “Esquema geral da nova objetivi-
jamin Buchloh ha analizado a profundidad este dade,” en Nova objetividade brasileira (Río de
cambio de paradigma en su ensayo From Fak Janeiro: Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de
tura to Factography (De la faktura a la factogra- Janeiro, 1967), 4–18.
fía), donde enfatiza la centralidad del medio 20. Ferreira Gullar, Vanguarda e Subdesenvolvi
fotográfico, directamente o mediante estrate- mento (Vanguardia y subdesarrollo), 2ª ed. (Río
gias de foto-montaje y foto-collage, que para de Janeiro: Editora Civilização Brasileira, 1978).
estos artistas hizo “visibles aspectos de la 21. En su ensayo “Reflexões em torno da nova
realidad sin interferencia ni mediaciones”. Cita capital” (Reflexiones en torno a la nueva capi-
la descripción de Alfred Barr de este tipo de tal), su ensayo crítico sobre Brasília, Mário
lenguaje como la conformación a un “ideal del Pedrosa declara que los brasileños están “con-
arte objetivo, auto-estilizado y periodístico”. denados a lo moderno”, una afirmación que
Véase Benjamin Buchloh, “From Faktura to también parecería aplicable al desarrollo de los
Factography,” October 30 (otoño 1984): 82–119. movimientos del arte concrete en Brasil
Además, en un ensayo posterior, inscribe la durante la década de 1950 (aunque las genealo-
práctica conceptualista de Hans Haacke en la gías del concretismo en Brasil son mucho más
tradición factográfica. Véase Buchloh, complejas y están arraigadas en las teorías de
Neo-avantgarde and Culture Industry: Essays on Pedrosa sobre la naturaleza afectiva de la forma
European and American Art from 1955 to 1975 a finales de la década de 1940, una discusión
(La neo-vanguardia y la industria cultural: ensa- que escapa de los límites del presente análisis.
yos sobre arte europeo y norteamericano de
contexto de los primeros años de la dictadura militar instalada tras el golpe que des-
tituyó al presidente João Goulart en 1964), son sintomáticos de un proceso que tuvo
lugar durante aquella década en Brasil. Comenzando aproximadamente a principios
de la década de 1960, muchos artistas e intelectuales, algunos de los cuales habían
experimentado extensivamente con el lenguaje de la abstracción geométrica durante
la década de 1950 junto con los críticos que habían acompañado de cerca al desarro-
llo del concretismo—desde el Grupo Frente hasta el movimiento Neo-concretista en
Río, y Ruptura en San Pablo—comenzaron a girar hacia formas de conocimiento y
producción cultural locales, identificando otro conjunto de epistemologías endémico
al Tercer Mundo subdesarrollado.
Más allá del universo cultural y artístico, los primeros años de la década de 1960
en Brasil representaron el fin de la euforia de una modernidad instantánea prome-
tida por la marcha acelerada del país hacia el progreso—una época que produjo un
boom económico pero que sin embargo resultó en inflación y deuda. La crisis polí-
tica y económica que sucedió durante la breve presidencia y consiguiente renuncia
de Jânio Quadros llevó a João Goulart al poder en 1961. Goulart emprendió una serie
de reformas, las cuales llamó reformas de base, que intentaron poner fin a la práctica
del latifundismo con una redistribución justa de las tierras; aplicaban impuestos a
individuos en proporción a sus ganancias; pretendían poner fin a situaciones de
exclusión concediendo el derecho de voto a analfabetas y militares de bajo rango y
abordaron el problema del analfabetismo al priorizar la educación.
Entre 1961 y 1964, marcado por las reformas sociales y económicas de João Gou-
lart, este cambio de paradigma comenzó a tomar forma, acompañado en gran
medida por la voz crítica de Ferreira Gullar. Varias organizaciones sociales y cul-
turales surgieron como respuesta a la retórica desarrollista y su traducción en las
esferas visibles de la arquitectura y las artes plásticas. Una de las organizaciones
más notables fue el polémico Centro Popular de Cultura (CPC), el origen del cual
está estrechamente ligado al Teatro de Arena en San Pablo, como también al drama-
turgo Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, el director de teatro Augusto Boal, los cineastas Leon
Hirszman, Carlos Diegues y Joaquim Pedro de Andrade (afiliados al movimiento del
Cinema Novo), el crítico de arte y poeta Ferreira Gullar y el poeta Reynaldo Jardim,
entre muchos otros. La participación de Gullar con el CPC lo condujo a desvincu-
larse de las vanguardias modernistas de Río y San Pablo y del vocabulario formal
de la abstracción geométrica, a favor de una adopción de formas de cultura locales
y populares que, desde su perspectiva, no sólo respondían a la situación nacional
sino que también eran legibles para una población no informada.22 Antes de publicar
Vanguarda e subdesenvolvimento en 1969, Ferreira Gullar publicó un libro titulado
Cultura posta em questão (Cultura puesta en cuestión) en 1963, en el cual explicaba su
22. En un sentido el CPC y la posición de Ferreira para los proponentes del realismo socialista,
Gullar frente al arte moderno parecería reflejar resultaba en la incomprensión para gran parte
la supresión del movimiento constructivista en de la población. De hecho, muchos de sus pares
la Unión Soviética durante la década de 1930 en cuestionaron la divergencia radical de Ferreira
nombre del realismo socialista, citando el Gullar de las ideas que había apoyado con tanto
carácter elitista de la forma no-objetiva que, fervor unos pocos años antes.
compromiso político con la izquierda cultural bajo la organización del CPC, expre-
sando su afiliación con un arte que deseaba volverse un instrumento de conciencia
crítica y por ende de transformación social. Fue allí que estableció los parámetros
de un compromiso con la cultura popular instrumental para los proyectos del CPC:
“La cultura popular es . . . el llamado de atención a la realidad brasileña. La cultura
popular es comprender que el problema del analfabetismo . . . que está relacionado
con las condiciones de la miseria del campesino o el dominio imperialista sobre
la economía nacional. . . . La cultura popular es, por lo consiguiente, y sobre todo,
conciencia revolucionaria.”23
Los términos del compromiso de los artistas brasileños en la década de 1960 con
lo popular son mucho más complejos de lo que la visión radicalizada de Ferreira
Gullar parece sugerir. A pesar de su negación abierta de la tradición concretista
brasileña durante sus años con el CPC, las ideas que avanzó en el Manifiesto neo-
concreto y la Teoría del no-objeto visibilizaron considerablemente las dos dimensio-
nes de la ruptura con la tradición constructiva que tuvo lugar en Brasil, en particular
su concepto del no-objeto, que se deshizo del marco y el pedestal, y de la obra de
arte como un quasi-corpus, ni “máquina” ni “objeto” sino un “ser cuya realidad no
se agota en las relaciones exteriores de sus elementos . . . que sólo puede existir en
su plenitud mediante un acercamiento fenomenológico, directo.”24 Entre los artis-
tas cuyas obras llevarían las investigaciones formales del concretismo brasileño
en direcciones nuevas y radicales, manteniéndose fieles a sus parámetros de expe-
rimentación formal, Hélio Oiticica y Lygia Pape son ejemplares: particularmente
en su aproximación a lo popular en la década de 1960.25 Estrechamente relaciona-
dos con Ferreira Gullar, compartían un compromiso con formas de conocimiento
y producción cultural populares que caracterizaba a buena parte de la vanguardia
brasileña en aquel momento, pero a la vez, estaban comprometidos con lo que Oiti-
cica constantemente caracterizó como “voluntad constructiva” y sus imperativos de
invención y emancipación mediante la forma no-objetiva, los cuales permanecieron
constantes en sus prácticas artísticas, acompañando e informando sus investigacio-
nes de los imaginarios populares y los vocabularios visuales.
Lygia Pape había sido integrante activa de los grupos Frente y Neo-concreto en la
década de 1950, y su obra, como la de muchos de sus contemporáneos, se enfocaba
en las posibilidades espaciales y perceptivas de la forma no-objetiva. A mediados de
23. Ferreira Gullar, Cultura posta em questão (Río en la que también visualizaba un papel político
de Janeiro: Editora Universitária da UNE, 1963). para el cuerpo, pero que no entró en un diálogo
24. Ferreira Gullar, “Manifiesto Neoconcreto,” directo con el vocabulario de lo popular de la
Suplemento Dominical do Jornal do Brasil (21–22 misma manera en que lo hicieron las obras de
marzo 1959), 1. Oiticica y Pape.
25. No se menciona a Lygia Clark aquí porque sus
exploraciones la llevaron en otra dirección, una
la década de 1950, su serie de grabados en madera Tecelares, con sus líneas irregu-
lares, visiblemente hechas a mano, ya señalaban una tensión con los imperativos
“mecánicos y técnicos” del arte moderno heredados del concepto de faktura en el
constructivismo ruso. Su uso de esta técnica fue poco ortodoxo. Como observa Paulo
Herkenhoff, “los Tecelares de Pape recurren a la artesanía durante el auge de un
movimiento que, en busca de paradigmas industriales, había sido reducido a la pin-
tura y la escultura”.26 Además, y a pesar del hecho de que en Brasil sí hubo artistas
trabajando en este medio, aunque no estuvieran afiliados de ninguna manera con
la abstracción geométrica, tales como Oswaldo Goeldi y Fayga Ostrower,27 fue una
técnica altamente identificada con las formas vernáculas y artesanales de fabricar
imágenes en las áreas remotas del noreste brasileño.
Los Tecelares, sin embargo, formaban parte de la exploración de Pape en torno
a las posibilidades de la luz producida por los espacios oscuros o vacíos grabados
en la madera. En una entrevista con Anna Bella Geiger y Fernando Cocchiarale,
declaró, “Una vez que hice un grabado en madera totalmente blanco, ahí me detuve.
Había llegado a la luz. Entonces lo dejé, y comencé a hacer cine.”28 Después de la
disolución del grupo Neo-concreto en 1963, Pape, de hecho, se volcó hacia el cine y
el entonces naciente movimiento del Cinema Novo. En un texto sin fecha, Cinema
Marginal, habla retrospectivamente de su participación en dicho movimiento como
parte de este interés. Para ella, el Cinema Novo era “pura visualidad—imágenes
brillantes, fluidas” que la incitaban a construir “estructuras de claroscuro, como
pinturas” en su imaginación.29 También la expuso a una dimensión más militante de
la producción cinematográfica, y al contenido de las películas en las que trabajaba,
como diseñadora de secuencias de créditos y carteles, mientras que ella “tallaba
alfabetos sobre bloques de madera e hizo impresiones de todo el arte para los títu-
los, letra por letra, sobre . . . papel japonés que revelaba la textura de la madera,
como en las libretas atadas a mano de la literatura de cordel del noreste de Brasil”.30
Durante este período, colaboró profesionalmente con cineastas, diseñando carteles
o secuencias de créditos para sus películas, más notablemente, Mandacaru Vermelho
(1961) y Vidas Secas (1963) de Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Ganga Zumba (1962–65) de
Carlos Diegues, Maioria Absoluta (1964) de Leon Hirszman, Deus e o Diabo na Terra
do Sol (1964) de Glauber Rocha y Memoria do Cangaço (1965) de Paulo Gil Soares.
Muchas de estas películas se enfrentaron a asuntos sociales como la pobreza, el
analfabetismo y la explotación en el contexto de un país que intentaba lograr cin-
cuenta años de progreso en cinco años; la mayoría de ellas se enfocaba en el Sertão,
la árida zona del noreste de Brasil, una región asolada por sequía y mala gestión que
26. Paulo Herkenhoff, “Lygia Pape: The Art of Pas- 28. Anna Bella Geiger y Fernando Cocchiarale, eds.
sage” (Lygia Pape: el arte del pasaje) en Lygia Abstracionismo, geométrico e informal: a van
Pape. Magnetized Spaces (Madrid: Museo guarda brasileira nos anos cinquenta (Rio de
Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2011). Janeiro: FUNARTE, 1987), 160.
27. Pape era admiradora de los grabados de Goeldi 29. Lygia Pape, “Cinema Marginal,” en Lygia Pape.
y, junto con su marido, coleccionó su obra a Magnetized Spaces, 326–29.
profundidad. En el MAM-RJ en la década de 30. Ibid.
1950 había sido estudiante de Fayg Ostrower
31. Herkenhoff, “Lygia Pape: The Art of Passage.” 33. Los Parangolés hablaban la lengua corporal y
32. Lygia Pape, “Quarenta gravuras neoconcretas” sudorosa de la samba y de Mangueira, la favela
(Cuarenta grabados neoconcretos), en Lygia que Oiticica frecuentaba y con cuyos habitantes
Pape. Magnetized Spaces, 88–90. formó amistad. Además, estas obras implica-
ban una reconsideración del cuerpo social 35. La afinidad de Oiticica con la cultura popular
centrado en formas de participación colectiva y brasileña no es de ninguna manera una apropia-
la vivencia que en 1967, a tres años del inicio de ción de lo folclórico. Más bien, tenía una orien-
la dictadura, no podían ser vistas sino como una tación política. Podríamos pensar que Oiticica
provocación. estaba convencido de que la eficacia de su
34. Hélio Oiticica, “Bases fundamentais para uma práctica residía en su recepción plural, empla-
definição de ‘Parangolé,’” escrito a máquina a zando a todos los niveles de la sociedad brasi-
partir del manuscrito original, Programa Hélio leña. Las expresiones del pueblo se convirtieron
Oiticica, número de inventorio 0035/64 (1964). en un componente integral de su posición y
Véase: http://54.232.114.233/extranet/enciclo- programa, no un gesto de solidaridad ni una
pedia/ho/index. concesión paternalista a los marginalizados.
cfm?fuseaction=documentos&cod=49&tipo=2 36. Hélio Oiticica, ibid.
37. La escuela de samba de la favela Mangueira.
subvirtiendo la retícula
Un caso aislado en términos de una ruptura con las búsquedas formalistas de la abs-
tracción geométrica, y respondiendo a un contexto social, político y económico muy
distinto, es la obra del artista venezolano Eugenio Espinoza. Reaccionando igual-
mente al predominio casi sofocante del idioma constructivo personificado en el arte
cinético venezolano, que se convirtió en el lenguaje oficial y autorizado de la retórica
desarrollista en el país durante las décadas de 1960 y 1970, Espinoza emprendió un
despliegue espacial de la cuadrícula que pretendía literalmente cancelar los impe-
rativos sensoriales y participativos de obras como los Penetrables de Jesús Soto con
38. Declaración escrita a máquina sobre Tropicália, llismo] concebía la modernización como un
en Programa Hélio Oiticica, número de docu- proceso linear para superar el subdesarrollo, el
mento 0128/68 (1968). Véase, http://54.232.114 marco plegado muestra lo contrario: la moder-
.233/extranet/enciclopedia/ho/index.cfm nidad es el medio que permite la producción y
?fuseaction=documentos&cod=150&tipo=2 el mantenimiento del subdesarrollo”. Irene V.
39. En relación a la subsistencia de la “voluntad Small, Hélio Oiticica: Folding the Frame (Hélio
constructiva”, en su libro reciente sobre Oiti- Oiticica: plegando el marco, Chicago/Londres:
cica, Irene Small propone un análisis innovador University of Chicago Press, 2016), 13.
de la obra de Oiticica a partir de la idea del 40. De acuerdo con el “Esquema geral da nova
“pliegue”, la cual hace posible reconciliar dos objetividade” de Oiticica, Rubens Gerchman le
posiciones aparentemente contradictorias (la convenció a producir estas capas de protesta
voluntad constructiva y la práctica ideológica con su componente textual, sin precedentes
que respondía a las condiciones de producción hasta ese momento en los Parangolés de
en un país subdesarrollado). Según explica Oiticica.
Small: “mientras que [la ideología del desarro-
su Impenetrable de 1971. Con esta obra como punto de partida, produjo otras piezas
en las que la cuadrícula se convertía en un elemento conceptual y discursivo para
articular una crítica de lo moderno. Su transformación de la tela cuadriculada en
una suerte de hamaca que sostiene unos cocos, Circunstancial (12 cocos) (1971), es
ejemplar en este sentido, al yuxtaponer el imaginario del trópico con el de la moder-
nidad racional,como también la serie de Localizaciones en las que la tela cuadricu-
lada adquiere una dimensión performativa en el espacio público cuando es ubicada
en distintos escenarios urbanos y rurales o llevado por la gente en la calle.41
41. A pesar de las fisuras aparentes en el proyecto ción y recuerda que todo fue organizado de
desarrollista que ya se hacían evidentes para la manera muy informal. Los archivos del MAM-RJ
década de 1970, durante esa década Venezuela sobre la exhibición contienen poca información
experimentó un resurgimiento de las políticas aparte de la publicación y los recortes de
desarrollistas, alimentado por los altos precios prensa. En su texto para Nova Objetividade
del petróleo, y acompañado por una corrupción Oiticica hace mención especial de Nota sobre a
desenfrenada. morte imprevista sin confirmar su presencia en
42. Hay dudas sobre cuál obra precisa de Antonio la exhibición.
Dias fue incluida en Nova Objetividade. Algunas 43. Mário Pedrosa, “Do Pop Americano ao Serta-
fuentes indican Os restos do herói, mientras nejo Dias,” en Acadêmicos e Modernos. Textos
otras identifican Nota sobre a morte imprevista escolhidos (III), Mário Pedrosa, ed. Otilia Arantes
(1965). En una entrevista con el artista durante (San Pablo: Editora da Universidade de São
la fase de investigación para esta exhibición, no Paulo, 2004).
estaba completamente seguro, ya que se
encontraba en Europa al momento de la exposi-
44. Oiticica, “Esquema geral da nova objetividade.” presente ensayo, artistas como Anna Bella
45. Aunque mucho más sencillo en términos de su Geiger y Regina Silveira usaron extensamente
propuesta “plástica-estructural”, para usar la las postales y su distribución por correo en sus
terminología de Oiticica, iconográficamente obras, como evidencia la serie Brazil Today de
Lindonéia sí tocó una fibra sensible y se volvió Silveira, donde interviene postales de imágenes
un ícono del movimiento Tropicália, después de conocidas de paisajes urbanos y rurales de
que Caetano Veloso y Gilberto Gil escribieran Brasil con dibujos que sugieren de manera
una canción inspirada en la historia de la desa- alterna caos y organización. Éstos no fueron
parición de esta mujer de las perifierias margi- distribuidos por correo sino usados para hacer
nales de Río, cuyo trágico destino es quizás libros, pero como sugiere Tadeu Chiarelli, Sil-
compartido por estrato más pobre de la socie- veira hace visible “la cultura material creada por
dad, considerados prescindibles por las élites, la oficina de correos”. De manera similar, O pão
fenómeno particularmente intensificado en nosso de cada dia (1978) y Brasil nativo/Brasil
tiempos de dictadura. alienígena (1977) de Geiger utilizaron la postal.
46. El presente texto no aborda el arte correo, ya Interesantmenente, las postales de tribus indí-
que es el tema principal de otro ensayo en este genas amazónicas que circulaban ampliamente
catálogo escrito por Jacopo Crivelli Visconti. como imágenes turísticas en Brasil (y también
Aunque no se aborda detalladamente en el en Venezuela, en el caso de las etnias Yano-
49. La exhibición, a pesar de presentar un “perfil de Rafael Hastings, Jorge González Mir, Lea Lublin,
arte latinoamericano”, incluía la obra de artistas Marie Orensanz, Luis Pazos, Alfredo Portillos,
de Europa y Estados Unidos, figuras como Juan Alejandro Puente, Juan Carlos Romero, Osvaldo
Navarro Baldeweg, Agnes Denes, Ken Fried- Romberg, Clorindo Testa, Nicolás García Uri-
man, Jochen Gerz, Guerrilla Art Action Group, buru, Bernardo Salcedo y Horacio Zabala, entre
Dick Higgins, Auro Lecci, Maurizio Nannucci y otros.
Constantin Xenakis. La representación latinoa- 50. Latin American Art and the Argentinean Model
mericana contaba con Luis Benedit, Antonio in CAYC GROUP in Ireland, at ROSC’80. English
Berni, Elda Cerrato, Jaime Davidovich, Gui- catalogue.
llermo Deisler, Juan Downey, Carlos Ginsburg,
que la identificación del proyecto moderno con la empresa colonial comenzó a ser
reconocida en el terreno de la economía política, como también en otros campos.
Gunder Frank, por ejemplo, viajó por América Latina entre 1962 y 1973, viviendo y
dando clases en Brasil, México y Chile. Conocer de cerca de las realidades sociales
y económicas de la región lo instó a tomar un giro más militante pero también a
identificar la persistencia de las estructuras coloniales como uno de los obstáculos
principales en el camino hacia la igualdad social en la región. En su libro Amé-
rica Latina: subdesarrollo o revolución (1969), no sólo declara que el objetivo de la
publicación es “contribuir a la revolución en América Latina y el mundo”, señalando
su afiliación ideológica con los movimientos revolucionarios en América Latina en
esta época (desde los movimientos guerrilleros de Colombia y el foquismo boliviano
hasta la Revolución Cubana), sino que también equipara el subdesarrollo a lo colo-
nial, declarando que “América Latina sufre de un subdesarrollo colonial, que hace a
sus pueblos económica, política y culturalmente dependientes . . . del poder metro-
politano extranjero”.51
Los términos ideológicos en los que Gunder Frank reconoció una condición colo-
nial persistente de la cual era preciso liberarse fueron retomados por muchos artis-
tas y críticos trabajando durante este período. Muchos aludieron específicamente
a los legados del colonialismo en América Latina, y algunos de ellos explícitamente
esgrimieron argumentos semejantes a los formulados por la teoría de la dependen-
cia. En su texto para la presentación de CAyC en el XIV Bienal de San Pablo, Glusberg
vuelve al tema de la ideología para explicar la “retórica del arte latinoamericano”,
explicando que por “ideología” quiere decir “discursos, momentos de conducta, for-
mas de comportamiento rituales y concretas consideradas como una totalidad, que
opera dentro de un contexto socio-cultural específico”, lo cual quiere decir que “la
obra artística siempre sale a la luz como resultado de ciertas condiciones ideológi-
cas de su propia producción”.52 Este fenómeno también fue observado por críticos
extranjeros, como el crítico italiano Gillo Dorfles, que en un texto publicado en un
panfleto del CAyC, identificó una “diferencia crucial” entre el conceptualismo lati-
noamericano y el de Europa o Estados Unidos en el “contenido ideológico” de aquél,
diciendo que mientras los artistas europeos habían “dado mucha importancia al
elemento político, subsiste una apreciable diferencia entre las expresiones del Pri-
mer Mundo y las del Tercer Mundo: el aspecto intelectual y elitista las primeras, y lo
altamente social de las segundas.” Para Dorfles, el conceptualismo latinoamericano
51. Gunder Frank, América Latina: subdesarrollo o la subsiguiente desaparición, luego del golpe
revolución. En el capítulo 16, retoma las pers- militar de 1964, de la SUDENE cuya orientación
pectivas de José Carlos Mariátegui en su crítica bajo Celso Furtado fue cercana a los postulados
de las reformas agrarias desarrollistas que de la teoría de la dependencia, en “O Brasil
dejaron de lado el problema subyacente del Sertanejo” en O Povo Brasileiro. A formação e o
latifundismo y sos orígenes coloniales. Estos sentido do Brasil, 2ª ed. (San Pablo: Companhia
programas de asistencia terminarían benefi- das letras, 1995), 339–63.
ciando sólo a los terratenientes, perpetuando 52. The Group of Thirteen at the XIV Bienal de São
un ciclo vicioso de explotación, analfabetismo y Paulo (El Grupo de los Trece en el XIV Bienal de
pobreza, también descrito por Darcy Ribeiro en São Paulo), cat. de exh. (Buenos Aires: Centro
su análisis de la naturaleza clientelista de las de Arte y Comunicación, 1977). Publicación
políticas desarrollistas en el Noreste brasileño y original en inglés.
ofrecía “al espectador una imagen directa y eficaz de su voluntad para denunciar las
injusticias sociales en su patria y luchar contra las dificultades económico-políticas
en las cuales se debaten casi todos los países de América Latina”.53
El sentido de urgencia en torno a estos problemas fue un denominador común en
las obras y escritos de artistas en toda la región, particularmente tras el auge de las
dictaduras militares en Brasil y Argentina a mediados de la década de 1960 (seguidos
por Chile y Uruguay a principios de la década de 1970). Un precedente importante
de las actividades del CAyC de la década de 1970 fue Tucumán Arde, organizado en
1969 por el Grupo de Rosario junto con artistas asociados a los movimientos van-
guardistas de Buenos Aires. En aquel año, con la elevación de tensiones políticas y
económicas en Argentina, Tucumán Arde tenía como objetivo la denuncia abierta
de la crisis social y económica en Tucumán, una provincia “sometida a una larga
tradición de subdesarrollo y opresión económica”, provocadas por “una nefasta polí-
tica colonizante”. Esta política fue conllevó al cierre, por parte del gobierno, de los
ingenios azucareros de Tucumán, medulares para su economía, lo que resultó en
“hambre y desocupación, con todas las consecuencias sociales que esto acarrea”. Al
dar visibilidad a esta situación mediante la acción artística, los artistas deseaban ir
en contra de la estrategia mediática concebida por los economistas gubernamentales
para “enmascarar esta desembozada agresión a la clase obrera con un falso desarro-
llo económico”; Tucumán fue el epítome de la política económica de la dictadura de
Onganía, promovido como Tucumán, jardín de la república. Las fuerzas de Onganía
intervinieron para reprimir y cerrar Tucumán Arde, con consecuencias negativas
para la vanguardia argentina; después de este evento, muchos de ellos se exilia-
ron del país o se retiraron de sus prácticas artísticas; otros se unieron al Partido
Revolucionario de los Trabajadores, como Eduardo Favario, quien fue asesinado por
fuerzas gubernamentales en 1975. Pronto después, el Instituto Di Tella también fue
clausurado, concluyendo así un capítulo de la historia de la vanguardia argentina.54
Geohistoriografías descoloniales
Para los artistas que trabajaban dentro de la matriz ideológica que informó las crí-
ticas de la dependencia y el desarrollo, fue crucial mirar hacia atrás y abordar las
53. Gillo Dorfles, “CAyC: Juan Carlos Romero; del rosarino Juan Pablo Renzi escribió un manifiesto
Grupo de los Trece (GT-216)” (declaración en contra de lo que él llamaba la “cultura mer-
escrita a máquina, Buenos Aires: Centro de Arte melada”, en referencia al mundo cada vez más
y Comunicación (CAyC), 11 abril 1973). aburguesado del arte argentino. En 1968, Renzi,
54. Los artistas de Rosario, el Grupo de Arte de junto con un grupo de artistas de Rosario,
Vanguardia de Rosario (organizadores del Ciclo irrumpió en una ponencia que pronunciaba
de Arte Experimental de Rosario en 1968), Romero Brest, declarando que como artistas de
fueron críticos del carácter inherentemente vanguardia ellos denunciaban “el mecanismo de
burgués del di Tella (era una institución privada la burguesía que absorbe, distorciona y aborta
financiada por el empresario industrial Torcuato toda obra creativa”. Véase Inés Katzenstein, ed.,
di Tella). A pesar de su programación experi- Listen, Here, Now!: Argentine Art of the 1960s:
mental, se le criticaba estar al servicio de una Writings of the Avant-garde (¡Escucha, aquí,
élite que miraba hacia Europa y Estados Uni- ahora!: arte argentino de la década de 1960,
dos, sobre todo en términos de validación esté- Nueva York: Museum of Modern Art, 2004).
tica. Por otro lado, sus conexiones con intereses
comerciales como la galería Bonino reafirmaban
sus afiliaciones burguesas. En 1966, el artista
historias coloniales; cuestiones como el poder de la iglesia, de los letrados que man-
tenían la organización burocrática de las monarquías europeas en las colonias, y la
supervivencia de estas estructuras del poder hasta el siglo XX, figuraron en muchas
obras de este período. El cineasta Glauber Rocha es ejemplar en este sentido. Su
película Terra em transe (1967), ubicada en la república ficticia de Eldorado (una
alegoría de la América Latina subdesarrollada), está repleta de referencias al colo-
nialismo moderno, desde sus orígenes en la conquista portuguesa de Brasil y el
establecimiento de rutas comerciales al Oriente en el siglo XVI, hasta la hegemonía
de una sociedad colonial latifundista estructurada sobre la base de lo que el soció-
logo brasileño Roberto Schwarz ha descrito como una “cultura del favor”.55 Como ha
notado el crítico de cine brasileño Ismail Xavier: “Eldorado—irónicamente distante
de cualquier Edad de Oro o Tierra Prometida—es el nuevo sitio alegórico del subde-
sarrollo y del orden neocolonial, un ámbito tropical para la convergencia de culturas
contradictorias, dominantes y dominados.”
El tema del colonialismo y lo que el crítico de cine Jean Delmas ha descrito como
una “síntesis de los mitos del Tercer Mundo” están profundamente enraizados en
toda la obra de Rocha. Películas como Der leone have sept cabeças (1970), filmada en
Brazzaville, Congo, Cabeças cortadas (1970) e História do Brasil (1972–74) son repre-
sentativas de lo que él definió como Cinema tricontinental, un proyecto que reflejaba
su compromiso con el Tercer Mundo y el problema del subdesarrollo. Además, buscó
activamente alinear sus escritos y películas con las interrogantes planteadas por los
teóricos de la dependencia y sus contrapartes en el campo cultural. En su manifiesto
de 1965 Eztetyka da fome (Estética del hambre), evidencia claramente su interés por
los problemas descritos por los teóricos en el campo de la economía política:
55. Roberto Schwarz definió la “cultura del favor” incompatible con ellas como el primero, las
como el legado duradero del colonialismo en absorbe y disloca insidiosamente, originando un
Brasil y las Américas. En “As idéias fora do patrón singular…. El favor, punto por punto,
lugar” (Las ideas fuera de lugar), el primer practica la dependencia de la persona, la excep-
capítulo de su libro de 1977 Ao vencedor as ción a la regla, la cultura interesada, la remune-
batatas. Forma literária e processo social nos ración por servicios personales. Sin embargo,
inícios do romance brasileiro (Al ganador, las no éramos a Europa lo que el feudalismo al
papas. Forma literaria y proceso social en los capitalismo; por el contrario, éramos sus tribu-
inicios de la novela brasileña), Schwarz analiza tarios en todo sentido, además de nunca haber
“la disparidad entre la sociedad brasileña, sido propiamente feudales –la colonización es
esclavista, y las ideas del liberalismo europeo”, y un hecho del capital comercial–…. Así, metódi-
la resultante “cultura del favor” que sirvió como camente, se le atribuyó independencia a la
la fundación defectuosa sobre la que se cons- dependencia, utilidad al capricho, universalidad
truyeron los discursos del desarrollo, el pro- a las excepciones, mérito al parentesco, igual-
greso y la modernidad en las Américas. Su texto dad al privilegio, etc.” Roberto Schwarz, Ao
tiene especial resonancia con el concepto pos- vencedor as batatas. Forma literária e processo
terior de la colonialidad así como con los argu- social nos inícios do romance brasileiro (San
mentos esgrimidos por la teoría de la Pablo: Livraria Duas Cidades, 1977), 17–19.
dependencia. Para Schwarz, “El esclavismo
desmiente las ideas liberales; pero el favor, tan
del mundo ‘civilizado’, mal comprendidas porque fueron impuestas por los condi-
cionamientos colonialistas. América Latina permanece colonia, y lo que diferencia
al colonialismo de ayer del actual es solamente la forma más perfecta del coloni-
zador. . . . El problema internacional de América Latina es todavía un caso de cam-
bio de colonizadores, siendo que una liberación posible estará todavía por mucho
tiempo en función de una nueva dependencia.56
En una entrevista para la revista Cine Cubano en 1974, habló del proceso de investi-
gación para su película História do Brasil, citando referencias que incluían a autores
que iban desde Euclides da Cunha (autor de Os Sertões), a historiadores modernos
como Sérgio Buarque de Holanda y Gilberto Freyre, el sociólogo Darcy Ribeiro, y
también los economistas políticos afiliados con la CEPAL, Celso Furtado y Fernando
Henrique Cardoso, declarando que su película fue capaz de producir un estudio de
todos los aspectos de la historia brasileña que sólo habían sido parcialmente aborda-
dos por estos autores.57 Las películas de Rocha, hasta cuando toman la forma docu-
mental, como es el caso de História do Brasil, no siguen rigurosamente el género,
sino que son el producto de un lenguaje cinematográfico altamente estetizado y per-
sonal (que en última instancia trascendió fronteras ideológicas).58 Además, refleja-
ban lo que el crítico de cine brasileño Ismail Xavier describió como “la búsqueda de
parte del Cinema Novo de un modo de producción capaz de superar el subdesarro-
llo económico”. Para Rocha y sus compañeros del movimiento Cinema Novo, “para
hacer una película legítima” lo único que se necesitaba era “una cámara en la mano
e ideas en la cabeza”.59
La filmografía y los escritos de Rocha reflejan las preocupaciones de una genera-
ción de artistas que trabajaban bajo las condiciones del subdesarrollo. La imagen en
movimiento fue una manera poderosa de dar voz a estas críticas, porque era capaza
de traducirlas en los lenguajes audiovisuales del cine y el vídeo, añadiendo la dimen-
sión del relato a lo que de otro modo había permanecido en el campo de la economía
política, accesible sólo a profesionales especializados. En una línea parecida pero
empleando la retórica de un cine militante y activista, La hora de los hornos, la pelí-
cula de 1968 de Fernando Solanas y Octavio Getino, equipara el surgimiento de la
dictadura militar en Argentina con la vuelta al poder de las élites terratenientes y la
56. Glauber Rocha, “Eztetyka da fome,” en Revo las facciones más radicales de la izquierda en la
lução do Cinema Novo. Glauber Rocha (San década de 1960, a mediados de la década de
Pablo: Cosac Naify, 2004), 63–67. 1970 declaró su apoyo a la dictadura militar de
57. História do Brasil abre con el descubrimiento y Brasil, una posición le ocasionó serios conflictos
la colonización de Brasil, declarando que el con amigos y colaboradores, como Darcy
dominio portugués de las rutas comerciales a la Ribeiro, muchos de los cuales se distanciaran
Asia estableció la base para el colonialismo de él.
moderno. También toca brevemente la cuestión 59. Ismail Xavier, Allegories of Underdevelopment,
de la cartografía como elemento característico Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Brazilian
de la empresa colonial, citando el Tratado de Cinema (Alegorías del subdesarrollo. Estética y
Tordesillas, que marcó una línea a través de política del cine brasileño moderno, Minneapo-
Sudamérica para dividir las colonias españolas lis/Londres: University of Minnesota Press,
de las portuguesas. 1997), 88.
58. Rocha oscilaba entre posiciones ideológicas.
Mientras se alineó con la Revolución Cubana y
esta manera, “el mundo” es la representación convencional del mundo (que, sin
embargo, es deformada por la proyección cartográfica); en “the world of oil” vemos
los países productores del petróleo agrandados para que Arabia Saudita, por ejem-
plo, parezca más grande que Estados Unidos, y África parezca mucho más grande
que su tamaño real; en “desenvolvido e subdesenvolvido”, el mundo subdesarrollado
parece pequeño relativo al mundo desarrollado, donde África e India prácticamente
desaparecen del mapa; “de dominio cultural ocidental” muestra las masas terrestres
en relación a su dependencia cultural de Occidente. Las operaciones conceptuales
de Geiger ofrecen un comentario perspicaz sobre el discurso de la representación
cartográfica y su papel en instrumentalizar el poder del Occidente. Representan la
ubicación de vastos recursos en las regiones subdesarrolladas que son casi exclu-
sivamente explotados por el primer mundo, enfatizando las relaciones de depen-
dencia entre Primer y Tercer Mundos. En última instancia, ofrecen la opción de la
desvinculación al demostrar también que gran parte del mundo no es culturalmente
dependiente de Occidente, así presentando la posibilidad de repensar el orden mun-
dial impuesto por Occidente y su eliminación de formas de conocimiento autóctonas
como estrategia de colonización y control.
El uso de mapas en la obra de Downey es recurrente a lo largo de toda su pro-
ducción, y Anaconda Map of Chile (Anaconda, mapa de Chile) (1973) establece cla-
ramente la relación entre el territorio a ser colonizado, y explotado, y la función
representativa del mapa. Una serpiente yace dentro de una caja cubierta con el mapa
estándar de Chile que por lo general se colocaba en todas las aulas de clase escolares,
que incluía la pintura de Pedro Lira de 1889 representando la fundación de Santiago
de Chile por el conquistador Pedro de Valdivia después de la derrota de los indios
mapuches, nativos de la región de la Araucanía. Downey hizo esta obra pensando
en un contexto muy específico, porque iba a presentarla en una exhibición organi-
zada por el Centro para las Relaciones Inter-Americanas (CIAR) en Nueva York (hoy
conocido como Americas Society), una organización patrocinada por la familia Roc-
kefeller.60 La serpiente y el título de la obra eran referencias directas a la Anaconda
Mining Company, perteneciente a la familia Rockefeller y que, desde mediados del
siglo diecinueve, había liderado la explotación del cobre en Chile.
Mientras que los mapas ofrecen una representación simbólica del espacio, la
imagen del paisaje pertenece al ámbito del lugar, representando las características
físicas del territorio y sus recursos naturales, fuentes principales de riqueza para
las empresas coloniales y neocoloniales. La serie Paisaje como idea de Osvaldo Rom-
berg de 1970 es emblemática de este tipo de acercamiento; en estas obras emprende
una disección sistemática de un paisaje de antiguas ruinas incaicas de Tucumán.
Al imponer una organización gráfica sobre la fotografías, el artista “intenta pro-
ducir un modelo, mediante distintas variables, que revela las estructuras de una
realidad que se esconde detrás de las imágenes”.61 Las Ciudades de plata de Jacques
Bedel aluden a las ciudades prehispánicas y al mito de ciudades de oro y de plata
que animó las expediciones de conquista en las Américas. Paisaje bandera de Víctor
Hugo Codocedo examina la conexión entre paisaje y la construcción simbólica del
estado nacional.
La relación entre territorio y la riqueza prospectiva a ser extraída de éste, fue sub-
rayada por artistas que empleaban el mapa y el paisaje para abordar la explotación
de los recursos por parte de le empresa colonial desde la conquista de las Améri-
cas hasta lo que ellos percibían como formas contemporáneas del neocolonialismo,
también fue retomada en otra forma por artistas que trabajaban explícitamente
con la relación asimétrica entre la pobreza en América Latina y su abundancia de
recursos naturales y materiales brutos. Este desbalance es una de las preocupacio-
nes principales de la teoría de la dependencia, que encuentra en la raíz del “sub-
desarrollo” una situación de dependencia histórica que se remonta a la relación
que impusieron los centros metropolitanos sobre las colonias como proveedores de
materia prima y mano de obra barata, renovada en el mundo moderno por tratados
de comercio con los centros, que en su mayoría obligan a los países dependientes
a comprar de nuevo, y a precios altos, los productos de sus materias primas y su
mano de obra barata. La teoría de la dependencia sostenía que para solucionar los
problemas de desigualdad social y pobreza, los recursos naturales y agrícolas debían
ser explotados para el consumo doméstico.
Esta disparidad en la distribución de los recursos y el consiguiente ciclo perpe-
tuo de pobreza era un tema común entre muchas obras militantes e ideológica-
mente orientadas de la década de 1970. Las gráficas militantes de Taller 4 Rojo, en
Colombia 72, evidencian una clara influencia de los carteles revolucionarios cuba-
nos, asimismo señalan los problemas enfrentados por las sociedades campesinas
en Colombia; Guillermo Deisler usó la técnica del collage para materializar la des-
igualdad social y el problema del hambre; mientras Anna Bella Geiger empleó el
mapa de nuevo, esta vez en un bocado de pan en O pão nosso de cada dia (1978).
Make Chile Rich (Haz rico a Chile), originalmente producido por Juan Downey en el
formato heliográfico del CAyC para Hacia un perfil del arte latinoamericano (1972),
promovió el uso del nitrato de sodio chileno como fertilizante, revelando una red
compleja de relaciones entre la reserva de alimentos, la agricultura y el papel de
las corporaciones transnacionales que pretendían sustituir al nitrato de sodio que
ocurría natural y abundantemente en Chile por fertilizantes de laboratorio. Analogía
I (1970–71) de Víctor Grippo enfatizó el papel económico y cultural que desempeñó
la papa para la civilización incaica y, después de la colonización de las Américas, en
Europa, volviendo al tema de la conciencia también planteado por artistas del Grupo
de los Trece en su manifiesto sobre un arte de la conciencia, haciendo una analogía
entre comida (papa), energía, conciencia y libertad de conciencia como “el derecho
de cada ciudadano de pensar como le plazca en la esfera de la religión”.
La alusión de Grippo a la libertad de la conciencia y la religión en el contexto de
una crítica de las estructuras coloniales se reitera en obras que abordan la relación
entre la empresa colonial y la difusión de la cristiandad en las Américas. En nombre
de la religión, los pueblos nativos fueron subyugados y esclavizados bajo la estruc-
tura laboral de la encomienda, un sistema de servidumbre feudal (que cedió su lugar
al latifundio) mediante el cual el encomendero recibiría terreno y mano de obra a
cambio de responsabilizarse del bienestar de sus súbditos mediante su conversión
a la fe cristiana. La estructura de poder de la iglesia no sólo sobrevivió el siglo XX,
sino que también fue fortalecida por las dictaduras de derecha que se instalaron en
Sur América en las décadas de 1960 y 1970. Este tema fue abordado directamente
por León Ferrari quien, mediante diferentes cuerpos de trabajo, cuestionó el apa-
rato estatal de la iglesia, criticando tanto su posición conservadora con respecto a la
sexualidad y las normas sociales como también su intolerancia hacia la diferencia.
Catalina Parra señala el papel de la iglesia en la creación de las estructuras econó-
micas que conducen hacia la situación de la dependencia que acabó sumiendo a
toda América Latina en la crisis de la deuda externa de la década de 1980, en Let the
Pope Pay the E(X)TERNAL DEBT (Deje que el Papa pague la DEUDA E(X)TERNA).
La procesión del Becerro de oro organizada por Fernando (Coco) Bedoya en Perú
durante el Festival Contacta en 1979 llevó a la esfera pública las tensiones entre las
tradiciones populares indígenas (quechuas y aymaras) y la imposición de la reli-
gión católica en las Américas de parte por el poder colonial español, fusionando la
narrativa bíblica del Becerro de oro con la efigie del Torito de Pucará (un símbolo
de la fertilidad entre las sociedades indígenas peruanas). La tensa coexistencia de
religiones pre-hispánicas y Occidentales en las Américas es también el tema de Altar
latinoamericano de Alferdo Portillos, presentado en varias exhibiciones del CAyC,
incluso en la XIV Bienal de San Pablo. El Altar latinoamericano propone un “espacio
ecuménico” capaz de acomodar a “las religiones actuales de América Latina—cato-
licismo, protestantismo, judaísmo, candomblé”, donde las ceremonias debían ser
ejecutadas por representantes de cada denominación.
Este tipo de producción es claramente indicativo de la inflexión ideológica de esta
ruptura epistémica y descolonial con el legado de un pasado colonial, inscribién-
dose dentro del contexto más amplio de las entonces recientes luchas de descolo-
nización en África, el Medio Oriente y Asia en un intento de ofrecer una alternativa
al creciente fenómeno del neocolonialismo e imperialismo en el Tercer Mundo. La
instalación El imperialismo es un tigre de papel de Antonio Caro la cual retoma la
renombrada frase de Mao Zedong como parte de una causa común para el conti-
nente durante aquel período, así como Le Tour du Monde du Président Carter de
Carlos Ginzburg, evocan este espíritu al hacer referencia a las políticas intervencio-
nistas de los Estados Unidos en el Sureste asiático.62
62. En un discurso de 1956, Mao Zedong declaró de papel, incapaz de resistir el viento y la lluvia”,
que el imperialismo estadounidense era un tigre e instaba a los países latinoamericanos a unir
de papel, “un tigre por fuera, pero está hecho
Cada circunstancia histórica tiene su propia definición del arte. . . . Por lo consi-
guiente, las expresiones de vanguardia son, en primera instancia, formas de con-
ciencia. En la Argentina de 1972 definir el arte como LA CONCIENTIZACION DEL
PRESENTE63 significa otorgarle un fuerte contenido ético a lo político. Porque tomar
conciencia de nuestra realidad significa reflexionar sobre la dependencia, el subde-
sarrollo y la violencia. . . . Para el artista argentino todo esto significa adquirir un
alto grado de autoconciencia, crear en base a su propio contexto cultural, llegar a la
mayor cantidad de gente posible, dar la espalda a las proposiciones de las culturas
dominantes y no temer expresar la violencia que encierran, en sí mismos, los con-
ceptos de conciencia y libertad.64, 65
En Brasil, una década antes, en su texto A cultura posta em questão (1963), Ferreira
Gullar había definido la tarea principal del CPC con respecto a la cultura popular
como una toma de conciencia de las realidades brasileñas. Por un lado, esta reeva-
luación de lo popular dentro de unas coordenadas ideológicas en la década de 1960
condujo hacia un interés renovado en la producción cultural de las regiones más
pobres de Brasil. No sólo fue evidente en las películas del Cinema Novo e iniciativas
fuerzas con sus poblaciones indígenas para Los artistas distribuyeron máscaras de cartón
oponerse al imperialismo estadounidense. con “caras felices” bajo el aviso de que era
63. En español, “la concientización del presente,” compulsorio llevarlas puestas. La máscara
que es distinto del inglés “awareness,” como contenía instrucciones para su uso y advertía al
también implica un proceso de construcción de usuario de que todo el peso de la ley se aplicaría
conciencia. a aquellos que no siguieran las instrucciones.
64. Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC), CAyC: Este proyecto está claramente arraigado en el
El arte como conciencia en la Argentina; Luis llamado de Pazos a una cultura de la concien-
Pazos y Juan Carlos Romero; Charla a propósito cia; el arte sólo sería eficaz al crear esta con-
de la muestra Hacia un perfil del arte latinoame ciencia colectiva, y despertar conciencia sobre
ricano (GT-138), (Buenos Aires: Centro de Arte y la realidad alrededor. Estudios sobre la felicidad
Comunicación (CAyC), June 22, 1972). (1979-81) de Alfredo Jaar, que consistió en
65. Aunque no está incluida en la exposición, la vallas publicitarias instaladas en distintos espa-
obra colaborativa de Luis Pazos, Héctor Puppo cios públicos con la pregunta: “¿Es usted feliz?”,
y Jorge de Luján Gutiérrez, La cultura de la opera de manera similar, esta vez en el con-
felicidad (1971) es emblemática de la inflexión texto de la dictadura de Pinochet en Chile.
ideológica de una praxis de la concientización.
como la Caravana Farkas, que pretendió documentar la rica cultura del Nordeste
brasileño, sino también en la atención prestada, si bien no siempre consistente, a
los artistas activos fuera del eje Río-San Pablo, como Bene Fonteles, Juraci Dórea y el
grupo Etsedron (Etsedron es Nordeste escrito al revés), conduciendo a su inclusión
en las décadas de 1970 y 1980 en grandes eventos como la Bienal de San Pablo, y
exhibiciones en museos en Rio y San Pablo.66 Con respecto a este fenómeno, el crí-
tico Federico Morais habló con respecto al problema de la aceptación por parte del
mundo de arte y mercado cosmopolitas de los artistas de esas regiones. Describe las
propuestas de Juraci Dórea, en el contexto de su Projeto Terra, y su trabajo con los
materiales, formas y narrativas de su Bahía natal, como uno que “produce arte sin
referencias urbanas y la exhibe en el mismo ambiente que lo inspiró, el Sertão”. Para
Morais, Dórea “se ha situado contra la corriente de la historia del arte”, un tipo de
posición que según Morais ha resultado en una influencia sobre las vanguardias de
Río y San Pablo, las cuales no obstante caracteriza como “importadoras de idiomas
internacionales”.67
Por otro lado, el texto de Ferreira Gullar también establecía un vínculo con el
problema del analfabetismo, una causa importante para los afiliados al CPC como
León Hirszman, cuya película Maioria Absoluta (Mayoría absoluta, 1964) aborda
directamente este problema y, de hecho, abre con una escena que representa los
diafilmes de Paulo Freire empleados en la enseñanza de su método fonémico.68 En
efecto, muchas de las batallas revolucionarias de la década de 1960 fueron libradas
en el frente cultural, donde los intelectuales y artistas reconocieron la relación entre
el analfabetismo y la exclusión social y económica con la perpetuación de modos de
producción y explotación coloniales. La primera de varias estrategias para resolver
estas fallas fue el combate contra el analfabetismo.69
66. En este contexto, también es importante men- de João Goulart SUDENE reclutó a Paulo Freire
cionar el renovado interés por los vínculos en 1963 para implementar su método pedagó-
culturales entre África y Brasil en el contexto gico en la región, mediante la intervención del
del Tercer Mundo, décadas después de que entonces Ministro de Educación Darcy Ribeiro.
Gilberto Freyre hubiera organizado el Primer Fue en este contexto que, a través de la Alianza
Congreso Afro-Brasileño en 1934. Artistas para el Progreso, Freire inició su ahora emble-
como Rubem Valentim y Mestre Didi eran figu- mática experiencia pedagógica en Angicos en el
ras muy importantes en los movimientos cultu- estado de Rio Grande do Norte.
rales y artísticos afro-brasileños, que tuvieron 69. La situación del analfabetismo está al centro
mayor visibilidad en la década de 1960. del ensayo de Aníbal Quijano “Coloniality
67. Frederico Morais, A arte popular e sertaneja de Modernity/Rationality” (Colonialidad y moder-
Juraci Dórea: uma utopia? (Salvador, Bahia: nidad/racionalidad): “La represión cultural y el
Edições Cordel, 1987). genocidio masivo, llevaron a que las previas
68. La SUDENE (Superintendência de Desenvolvi- altas culturas de América fueran convertidas en
mento do Nordeste, or Superentendencia para subculturas campesinas iletradas, condenadas
el Desarrollo del Noreste) fue establecida en a la oralidad. Esto es, despojadas de patrones
1959 por Celso Furtado a petición del Presi- propios de expresión formalizada y objetivada,
dente Juscelino Kubitschek, para atender la intelectual y plastica o visual. De allí en ade-
situación de pobreza extrema y desigualdad en lante, los sobrevivientes no tendrían otros
el noreste de Brasil, agravada por las sequías modos de expresión intelectual o plástica for-
frecuentes en la región. Asimismo este orga- malizada y objetivada, sino a través de los
nismo reconocía la importancia de la cultura en patrones culturales de los gobernantes…. Amé-
el esfuerzo para resolver muchos de los proble- rica Latina es, sin duda, el caso extremo de la
mas de dicha región. A pesar de su alineamiento colonización cultural por Europa.” Véase “Colo-
con la retórica desarrollista, durante el gobierno
73. La obra de Jesús Ruiz Durand, como la de otros la necesidad en la revista Habitat. La favela de
artistas peruanos trabajando en el contexto de hecho entra en el espacio museístico por pri-
lo popular, es analizada en profundidad por mera vez con Tropicália de Oiticica y protago-
Sharon Lerner en su ensayo para el presente niza Favela da Maré de Lygia Pape.
catálogo, por lo que su discusión no está 75. Pedrosa fue también muy activo en este frente,
incluída en este texto. Sin embargo es intere- aunque al contrario de Ferreira Gullar, nunca
sante señalar la participación activa de Durand formó parte del CPC. Publicó dos libros en
en ALFIN, en cuanto al argumento particular 1966, A opção brasileira y A opção imperialista,
sobre el alcance extendido de la filosofía peda- en los que esencialmente resume sus perspec-
gógica de Freire en la región durante este tivas anti-desarrollistas durante los inicios de la
período. La acogida de lo popular en Perú por dictadura en Brasil. Estos libros casi nunca son
parte de la vanguardia, y las iniciativas como considerados en el marco de la historia del arte
ALFIN, se dieron en el contexto de lo que des- porque, al ser enfocados en política, no abordan
cribe Lerner como una izquierda de facto, la el tema del arte, pero es pertinente nombrarlos
dictadura de Velasco Alvarado, una situación para efectos de este análisis. En la década de
compleja que es ideológica y políticamente 1970, varios ensayos de Pedrosa, como Discurso
problemática, ya que la represión instrumenta- aos Tupiniquins ou Nambás (1975) y Arte culta e
lizada por las dictaduras derechistas de Brasil, arte popular, reiteran su posición ideológica
Chile, Argentina y Uruguay fue en efecto repli- ante el desarrollismo, y las expectativas que
cada en Perú pero desde el extremo contrario depositó sobre las opciones abiertas al Tercer
del espectro ideológico. Mundo si eligiera el camino de la
74. Oiticica y Pape escribieron sobre las cualidades descolonización.
espaciales de la favela y Bo Bardi escribió sobre 76. Lygia Pape, Catiti Catiti: na terra dos Brasis
la arquitectura rural y las soluciones nacidas de (tesis de maestría, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciên-
de Ferreira Gullar) es un libro sin palabras cuya narrativa sólo puede ser realizada
por el cuerpo. En su film Súper 8 del mismo título, el libro es literalmente ani-
mado, aproximándose extraordinariamente a la simplicidad y eficacia del método
fonémico de Freire en su construcción de una narrativa basada en las formas abs-
tractas y su interacción con el cuerpo. Una voz en off narra el mito de la creación
mediante estas formas abstractas, en un lenguaje que habla de las condiciones más
básicas de la existencia (caza y recolección, agricultura, casas sobre pilotes, los ele-
mentos, agua, tierra y luz) que permite la legibilidad universal, pero que también
podría comprensible para aquellos que no podían leer o escribir, para quienes, sin
embargo, las situaciones descritas les eran conocidas y cotidianas.77
La estética cinematográfica vanguardista de Rocha situaba a esa mayoría privada
de derechos, esa multitud de sujetos coloniales y subalternos, al centro de sus escri-
tos y producción cinematográfica. En Deus e o Diabo na terra do sol y Antonio das
mortes, Rocha revisita el papel crucial de los marginalizados en la historia conflic-
tiva de las zonas remotas del Nordeste brasileño, enfocándose en la guerra de Canu-
dos de finales del siglo XIX y los cangaceiros, bandidos que asolaron la región hasta
las décadas de 1920 y 1930. Para Rocha no era sólo una cuestión de contenido sino
también un lenguaje, que tomó prestado en la forma en que estas películas adoptan
la estructura narrativa de la literatura de cordel, poemas populares que relataban
las hazañas de Antonio Conselheiro, Padre Cícero y los cangaceiros del Nordeste,
que frecuentemente eran recitados oralmente como canciones por los repentistas
(figuras parecidas a los trovadores). En sus películas, las figuras del marginado y
el criminal aparecen como símbolos de una violencia generada por el hambre: “el
comportamiento exacto de un hambriento es la violencia, y la violencia de un ham-
briento no es primitivismo. . . . una estética de la “violencia” antes de ser primi-
tiva es revolucionaria; he ahí el punto inicial para que el colonizador comprenda la
existencia del colonizado; solamente concientizando sobre la violencia como única
opción del colonizado, puede el colonizador entender, a través del horror, la fuerza
de la cultura que él explota”.78
El discurso anticolonialista de Rocha sobre el hambre, la pobreza y la margina-
lidad fue adoptado en las décadas de 1960, 1970 y 1980 por artistas de diferentes
cias Sociais, Universidade Federal do Rio de ron. / El hombre comenzó a marcar el tiempo /
Janeiro, 1980), 22. Más aún, los últimos dos El hombre descubrió el fuego / El hombre era
capítulos, “A fala dos mudos” (El habla de los nómada y cazador. / En el bosque. / El hombre
mudos) y “Nós, os bugres” (Nosotros, los salva- inventó la rueda. / El hombre descubrió que el
jes), no sólo identifican el silenciamiento de sol era el centro del sistema planetario. / Que la
voces subalternas e indígenas por la imposición tierra era redonda y giraba sobre su propio eje.
de la cultura Occidental, que sin embargo / El hombre construyó sobre el agua: palafito. /
encuentran modos de expresión importantes en Submarino: el vacío que fue llenado sobre el
lo popular, sino que señalan también a la mise- agua. / La quilla navegando en el tiempo / Luz
ria como agente catalizador de la creación y la – luz plena”. (Traducción mía del original en
invención: “La miseria (el denominador común Portugués—PPT).
para todos estos pueblos) será el elemento 78. Glauber Rocha, “Eztetyka da fome,” en Revo
detonante del proceso creativo”. Véase Pape, lução do Cinema Novo. Glauber Rocha (San
Catiti Catiti, 60. Pablo: Cosac Naify, 2004), 63–67.
77. “En el principio todo era agua. / Después las
aguas iban bajando, bajando, bajando, y baja-
79. He escrito de manera extendida sobre la rela- tem cão caça com gato (El que no tiene perro
ción de Bo Bardi con lo popular, en distintos caza con gato), incluido en el catálogo de A mão
ensayos: The Architecture of Playgrounds: from do povo brasileiro 1969–2016 (San Pablo: MASP,
the logic of space to the logic of place (La arqui- 2016). Por favor, refiérase a la versión inglesa
tectura de los parques infantiles: desde la de este último ensayo en Academia.edu,
lógica del espacio hasta la lógica del lugar, San https://www.academia.edu/33058640/A_mão_
Pablo: MASP, 2016, edición bilingüe), donde do_povo_brasileiro_Quem_não_tem_cão_
analizo su aproximación a la arquitectura “de caça_com_gato_new_JG_chgs_accptd_for_
abajo hacia arriba” y su afinidad con las ideas publication.docx79.
de Aldo van Eyck y Team 10; y más específica-
mente en relación al subdesarrollo en Quem não
80. Frantz Fanon, Black Skin/White Masks (Piel 81. Clarival do Prado Valladares, Artesanato Brasi
negra, máscaras blancas, Londres: Pluto Press, leiro (Río de Janeiro: FUNARTE, 1978), 11.
1986), 231.
82. En La colonialidad del poder, Aníbal Quijano descolonial ofrece una salida para el sujeto
describe el dominio colonial como uno funda- colonial, y más específicamente mediante la
mentado en la dualidad mente-cuerpo, donde el agencia del cuerpo.
sujeto/razón es el europeo y el Otro es el
cuerpo/objeto. El sujeto colonizado es un objeto
de estudio, y la objetificación lo sujeta al domi-
nio y la explotación. En esta manera, la opción
94
95
Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC), Hacia un perfil del arte Latinoamericano, 1972. Heliografías, impresiones digitales
facsimilares, 24 × 36 in. (61 × 91.4 cm) cada una. Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAYC) Buenos Aires, The University of Iowa
Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.
97
98
99
100
101
Introduction F ig. 3 6
Behind the exhibition Memories of Underdevelopment: Art and the Decolonial Turn Jesús Ruiz Durand, Promotional poster of the
Agrarian Reform, 1969–1972. Offset print on
in Latin America, 1960–1985, the main hypothesis investigates the appearance in the
paper, 98.6 × 70.2 cm. Museo de Arte de Lima.
realm of the Latin American visual arts at the end of the 1960s of an epistemic break Comité de Adquisiciones de Arte
from the modern, through a counter narrative based on the notion of underdevelop- Contemporáneo 2007. Courtesy of the artist.
ment, which reflected the desire to decolonize from imposed cultural and aesthetic
Jesús Ruiz Durand, Afiche de difusión de la
canons. This premise allows for the coexistence and tension, in the same curatorial
Reforma Agraria, 1969–1972. Impresión en
narrative, of different anachronistic and geographically uneven practices, allowing offset sobre papel, 98.6 × 70.2 cm. Museo de
for the uncanny combination of artistic works otherwise deemed unconnected by Arte de Lima. Comité de Adquisiciones de Arte
art history.1 Contemporáneo 2007. Cortesía del artista.
What does this “break with the modern” actually entail? An answer can be found
in a shift in the theoretical focus under which Latin American art is commonly
analyzed. This shift is exemplified in the exhibition, which surveys a series of
works and practices that move away from the modernist paradigm, mainly associ-
ated with formal developments in art practice, to focus on their surrounding social
context by embracing as central concerns the appropriation of local traditions and
forms of knowledge, popular and folk expressions, or cultural production in condi-
tions of material poverty. As recent research has emphasized, many Latin Ameri-
can artists transitioned from avant-garde and experimentalist movements of the
1960s—commonly associated with different forms of cosmopolitanism—to socially
engaged practices. This is partly due to the rise of seminal critical texts in the Latin
American social theory of art, but also to the major epochal changes in the life of
these countries and the broader revolutionary impulse in the international scene
after 1968. Indeed, from the mid-1970s until the beginning of the 1980s, one can
identify different regional events and colloquia that fostered exchanges between
1 The most common and widespread curatorial sented at MNCARS (Madrid), MALI (Lima), and
approaches to many practices in the Latin Muntref (Buenos Aires), an exhibition that
American context from the aforementioned focused on a revision of the connection
decades somehow still feel insufficient to read between art and politics, but also underground
the links and connections existing in the region, and punk forms of resistance to structures of
and the particular responses from artists to the repression in Latin America in the 1980s. How-
structural conditions inherent to their societies. ever, that exhibition necessarily left out of its
An exception would be the work initiated by the curatorial framework production from the
Red Conceptualismos del Sur (RCS), particu- 1960–1970s and much of the Latin American
larly in To Loose the Human Form (2013), pre- social theory of art of that time.
103
art critics, trying to engage in a discussion about the limits and spaces of artistic
practices on a continental level, having as a main topic for the discussion the idea of
Latin American art: a term subject to heated debate throughout the decades. Among
these events we can count a symposium organized by Damián Bayón in Austin,
Texas, in 1975; the series of colloquia organized by Juan Acha parallel to the Latin
American Biennial of São Paulo, entitled Mito y Magia (Myth and Magic), in 1978;
Aracy Amaral’s organization of the Reuniao de Consulta de Críticos de Arte da Amer-
ica (Consultative Meeting of Art Critics of America) in São Paulo in October 1980,
and finally the Primer Coloquio de Arte No-Objetual y Arte Urbano (First Colloquium
of Non-Objectualist and Urban Art) in the city of Medellín in 1981.2 In this context,
underdevelopment was a major concern for artists and critics who sought to react
critically to the consequences of economic and cultural dependency by looking into
the different power structures at play, commenting on issues such as education,
nutrition, economy, politics, religion, or racial conventions.
Within this general framework, this text aims to introduce the Peruvian scene
in the major narrative of the exhibition.3 More generally, it aims to revisit through
specific cases some of the discussions surrounding the definition of Latin American
avant-gardes of the second half of the twentieth century, paying particular attention
to artists that elaborate on the notion of “popular culture,” acknowledging it as a key
term for an understanding of the period.
2 Some of the critics involved in these pan- sizing forms of experimentalism and ephemeral
continental exchanges include names such as art that were previously invisible. I have ben-
Aracy Amaral, Federico Morais, Damián Bayón, efited greatly from these works. See Gustavo
Juan Acha, Jorge Glusberg, Ticio Escobar, Mirko Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos (Lima:
Lauer, Rita Eder, and Marta Traba, among many Centro Cultural de España / IFEA / MALI,
others. For a critical account on the discussion 2005); Miguel A. López and Emilio Tarazona,
on the Latin American question and particularly “Juan Acha y la revolución cultural: La transfor-
the role Brazil played in relation to the rest of mación de la vanguardia artística en el Perú a
the region, see Isobel Whitelegg, “Brazil, Latin fines de los sesenta,” Temas de Arte Peruano 3.
America: The World,” Third Text 26, no.1 (2012). Nuevas referencias sociológicas de las artes
3 Recent historiography of art has contributed to visuales: Mass media, lenguajes, represiones y
the possibility of reconstructing the artistic grupos. Juan Acha 1969. (Lima: Universidad
Peruvian scene between 1967 and 1981. Note- Ricardo Palma, 2008), 1–17. Miguel A. López,
worthy is investigation done by Gustavo Bun- “Cosmopolitan f(r)ictions: Aesthetic and politi-
tinx, with his widespread research of the active cal redefinitions of a concept of avant-garde in
beginnings of E.P.S. Huayco in the early 1980s; the 1960s,” in Arte contemporáneo: Colección
Miguel A. López and Emilio Tarazona on the Museo de Arte de Lima, ed. Sharon Lerner (Lima:
cosmopolitan experimentalism of the 1960s MALI, 2013): 17–45; and Augusto del Valle,
around Grupo Arte Nuevo, the art collective “Fernando Bedoya, antropófago de iconos:
that included some artists that later eschewed <<Los profesores estaban en huelga>>”, in
attempts at conceptual art, and the important Fernando ‘Coco’ Bedoya: Mitos, acciones e ilumi
research on the work by Teresa Burga; or finally naciones, ed. Sharon Lerner and Rodrigo Qui-
Augusto Del Valle’s account of the art practices jano (Lima: MALI, 2014), 24–43.
of Grupo Paréntesis and Fernando Bedoya in 4 Approaching creative production from a Marx-
the late 1970s. Though brief and partial, this list ist point of view—i.e., art is the expressive
is a very welcomed example of studies empha- activity of an artist in response to her material
tension between two key figures, Marta Traba and Juan Acha.4 The discrepancies
between the two critics5 lies in their position regarding certain forms of cosmopoli-
tan Pop of the 1960s and the issue of whether they might have constituted acritical
forms that responded to the developmentalist project: the series of economic mea-
sures and models imposed by first-world countries, and particularly the United
States, upon third-world countries, particularly in Latin America during the 1950s
and 1960s, which prompted the advent of conditions described by so-called depen-
dency theory and a series of critical reactions and resistances.6
One point of departure for Acha’s early definition of the avant-garde, partly owing
to the influence of Argentinian critic Jorge Romero Brest, is Pop art and, with it, the
whole semiology of mass media rhetoric. For Acha, art needed to confront mass
culture, and the local appropriation of Pop aesthetics revealed a more sophisticated
critical capacity than a quick superficial reading would suggest.7 This was locally
embodied by the works of Grupo Arte Nuevo,8 a Peruvian collective that engaged in
local forms of painting associated with international Pop.
For Traba, on the other hand, Pop art was part of an urban reality alien to the
South American environment:
In most of our cities the urban life is a terminology without meaning, for the third
part of the so-called urban population proceeds from peasant exodus or migration
and lives in conditions acutely determined by unemployment, anomie, and malad-
aptation, conditions that exclude that population from any involvement in an even-
tual cultural life.9
environment—Traba sees Pop art as the by- condition, we can count Eduardo Galeano’s The
product of technologically developed and highly Open Veins of Latin America (1971), a controver-
industrialized countries. For her “the Latin sial interpretation of Latin American reality as a
American avant-garde in the visual arts is pro- continuum of oppression and exploitation from
gressively working according to a signal the conquest until American Imperialism of the
imparted from the United States,” a diagnosis mid-twentieth century.
that she caustically avers to be tantamount to a 7 However, Acha’s early theory of the avant-garde
self-imposed colonial panorama. (See Marta distances itself from the North American
Traba, Dos décadas vulnerables en las artes account of the concept, an account that he
plásticas latinoamericanas 1950–1970. [México deemed as “not critical enough.” He is rather
D.F.: Siglo XXI Editores, 1973], 11.) Neverthe- inclined to align with a more critical (maybe
less, both Acha and Traba depart from a Marx- European) way of thinking about consumer
ist posture, in particular through their readings society. There is a progressive process that
of Marcuse and his calls against the alienating defetishizes the art object, a critical interven-
effects of consumer society. Both antagonize tion on its condition as merchandise. Unlike the
on the more pertinent ways to respond to these dematerialized forms of art recounted by Lucy
same conditions. Lippard in the North, Acha’s approach does not
5 This debate has been pointed out by many renounce the object completely; it rather takes
authors, most recently by art historian Rita apart the ideological apparatus that sustains
Eder. See Eder. “Juan Acha: A Latin American the art object.
perspective on art,” Post: Notes on Modern & 8 The group incorporated artists like Teresa
Contemporary Art around the Globe (September Burga, Emilio Hernández Saavedra, Gloria
27, 2016), http://post.at.moma.org/content Gomez Sánchez, Luis Arias Vera, among many
_items/749-juan-acha-a-latin-american others.
-perspective-on-art 9 Marta Traba, Dos décadas vulnerables en las
6 Among the most widespread texts of the period artes plásticas latinoamericanas, 1950–1970,
that proposed a reading on the Latin American 10–11. Unless otherwise stated, the citations
Not every new art is revolutionary, nor is it necessarily truly new. In the contem-
porary world two souls coexist, one of the revolution and one of decay. Only the
presence of the first one confers the value of new art to a poem or a painting. . . .
No aesthetic can lower artistic work to a technical matter. A new technique must
correspond also to a new spirit. If not, the only thing that changes is the param-
eter, the furnishing. And an artistic revolution does not content itself with formal
conquests. . . . Art nourishes itself always, consciously or not—this is what is less
important—from the absolute of the age . . .11
have been translated from the original Spanish Quijano (Lima: Patronato del Libro Peruano,
into English by the author. 1956), 95–99. Originally in Amauta 1, no. 3
10 According to Traba, “it is embarrassing to (November 1926).
ascertain that, gone Mariátegui—whose brave
attempt to define an aesthetic emerging from
Latin America’s peculiar conditions results
nowadays obviously surpassed and sche-
matic—there aren’t even attempts to formulate
an interpretation, partial or total, of art in the
continental context.” Ibid., 24).
11 José Carlos Mariátegui, “Arte, revolución y
decadencia,” in Ensayos escogidos, ed. Aníbal
12 As Rodrigo Quijano notes, in Peru the debate workshop experience and in group efforts—can
over the artistic status of popular arts and be understood as an emancipatory process in
crafts gravitated around the cultural scene of which the collective will to unravel what hides
the mid-1970s. The unprecedented conferral in underneath individual subjectivities and what
1976 of the National Prize of Culture to Joaquín liberates the backdrops of dynamics associated
López Antay, an Ayacuchan craftsman, is a to specific social contexts prevails,” Fernando
resounding sign of this paradigm shift. Quijano, ‘Coco’ Bedoya, Lima / Buenos Aires: 1979–1999,
“Fernando ‘Coco’ Bedoya. Mitos, acciones e (2014). Wall text, Museo de Arte de Lima
iluminaciones: Una introducción,” in Fernando (unpublished).
‘Coco’ Bedoya: Mitos, acciones e iluminaciones, 14 More than a decade later Ruiz Durand would
ed. Sharon Lerner and Rodrigo Quijano (Lima: retrospectively call this style “pop achorado”
MALI), 13. (slang-based term that is close to confronta-
13 Silkscreen printing and the aesthetics resulting tional, critical or emboldened Pop), used to
from graphic developments allowed for the refer to a certain irreverent attitude of Andean
proliferation of artistic experiences that related migrants that arrived to Lima. For more infor-
to political agendas in the region. A case in mation about pop achorado, see Gustavo Bun-
point would be the experience of the collective tinx, “¿Entre lo popular y lo moderno?
Taller 4 Rojo in Colombia. For more information, Alternativas pretendidas o reales en la joven
see Taller 4 Rojo, Arte y disidencia política: plástica peruana,” Hueso Húmero, no. 18 (1984):
Memorias del Taller 4 Rojo (Bogotá: Taller de 61–85. The collectives in question are on the
Historia Crítica del Arte, 2015). As stated by one hand E.P.S Huayco and later on Taller NN,
Rodrigo Quijano, in a comment on Fernando both of which base their visual production
Bedoya’s work that easily applies to other anal- mainly on silkscreen prints with a bold graphic
ogous experiences in the region, “the collective style.
spirit of the silkscreen workshop transcends the 15 Among the few texts that look into this period
mere will to do Pop art and consciously turns and these manifestations, we want to highlight
into a weapon for collective action. Thus silk- the writings of Miguel López. For more informa-
screen—based since its beginnings in the tion see López, “Cosmopolitan f(r)ictions.”
16 Critical of national populisms, Aníbal Quijano 18 Chasqui is the Quechua term used to denomi-
noted that in the Andean countries, between nate the official messengers in charge of run-
the 1960s and the 1970s, the status of a pos- ning between different towns carrying the
sible “national culture” was in question. For quipus, gifts and messages during the Inca
him, the idea of integrating indigenous or Empire.
socially marginalized groups within it evidenced 19 López, “Cosmopolitan f(r)ictions,” 38. These
an acritical assumption that there is “a culture” events were promoted by Arias Vera but exe-
comprising the totality of the national expres- cuted from INRED, the National Institute for
sion. For him, that assumption reveals an Recreation, Physical Education and Sports
“elitist-intellectualist” approach to culture, but created in May 1974 by the Ministry of Educa-
also the problematic fact of social groups tion of the military government. The event had
excluded from public presence, not participat- two editions. The first one in 1974 lasted thirty-
ing in the “function” of culture. See Ferreira six days and entailed thirty-six different stages
Gullar, “Vanguardia y subdesarrollo,” in Fecha from Cuzco in the Andes to Chiclayo on the
de elaboración/Fecha de vencimiento, ed. and northern coast. The second edition in 1976
trans. Teresa Arijón and Bárbara Belloc (Buenos lasted forty days, in forty different stages, and
Aires: Manantial, 2014), 67–68. entailed a route from Chiclayo in the north to
17 Mariotti would end up being a crucial figure in Puno in the Southern Andes. The information
this whole period. Not only did he organize the comes from an email exchange between Luis
first Contacta Festival in 1971, but also became Arias Vera and Miguel A. López, December 14,
an instrumental figure in the avant-garde scene 2008.
between 1979 and 1981, participating belatedly 20 Juan Acha, “Arte, mitos y utopías,” Cambio,
in Paréntesis and finally in E.P.S Huayco. no. 6 (1986): 27.
its sensibility, the popular element appears and grows in an environment of pauper
objects, the ones that project ideals of beauty are the upper classes.”20 This is pre-
cisely the symbolic space that would be later taken over by urban popular culture.
21 Morales Bermúdez was found guilty early in wave of critical art production in the 1970s,
2017 of crimes associated with the disappear- partly indebted to the exchanges of several
ance of Italian citizens in Peru at the end of the artists with Acha. But some will be a continua-
1970s as an action that was part of the so- tion of these seminal ideas. For instance, the
called Plan Condor, a coordinated action component of activism in no–objetualismo
against leftist groups done by right-wing dicta- (non-objectualism), the actual term that Acha
torships in the region. will coin some years later to refer to the first
22 López, “Cosmopolitan f(r)ictions,” 38. cases of Latin American conceptual art, is
23 It is important to note Acha’s exile to Mexico already present here.
during the Velasco regime, the result of an
unjust incarceration due to the repressive rule
of the government. There would be a second
24 Pedrosa and Acha both collaborated together in that misery is the result of archaic structures.”
cultural magazines at the beginning of the Gullar, “Vanguardia y subdesarrollo,” 69.
1980s such as U-tópicos, where they elaborated 26 Gullar, “Vanguardia y subdesarrollo,” 68.
on the relation of highbrow and popular art. 27 For example, in Peru, the reflection on the pluri-
25 His critique is based on literature (the poetry of cultural configuration of the population has
Oswald de Andrade or Maiakowski) but can prompted heated debates around concepts like
easily be applied to the discussions around the mestizaje or choledad. According to authors
major shifts in visual art practices in the region such as Néstor García Canclini, these are forms
at the time. Gullar opposed rendering avant- of hybridization that entail socio-cultural pro-
garde as a concept purely based on formal cesses in which discrete structures or practices
innovations. He rather focused on the discur- that existed separately combine to generate
sive and conceptual pertinence of the artwork new structures, objects, and practices that
to its specific social, cultural, and political con- ultimately interest the hegemonic sector as well
texts and problematics. However, though criti- as people who want to seize the benefits of
cal of their political attitude, Gullar modernity. See García Canclini, “Noticias reci-
acknowledged a social function in more formal- entes sobre la hibridación,” Trans—Revista
ist avant-gardes, for these movements “bring, Transcultural de Música, no. 7 (2003). http://
although wrongly, the issue of the new, and that www.sibetrans.com/trans/articulo/209
is indeed an essential issue for the underdevel- /noticias-recientes-sobre-la-hibridacion. These
oped countries and for the artists of those ideas were previously developed in Sharon
countries. The need for transformation is a Lerner, “New Popular Actors. TAFOS: Informal-
radical demand for those who live in a society ity and Display in Lima” (master’s thesis, Cali-
dominated by misery and those who know that fornia College of the Arts, 2010).
Contacta 79 was an initiative that took art into the streets. Unlike preceding fes-
Volante-manifiesto del Festival de Arte Total
tivals, it revealed a critical posture on the part of individual artists against colonial Contacta 79, Lima 1979. Collage y tinta sobre
structures of power and domination. For example, Becerro de Oro (Golden Calf)— papel, 20 × 30 cm cada uno. Foto: Daniel
a pagan and anarchic procession led by members of Paréntesis and conceived by Giannoni. Archivo Fernando “Coco” Bedoya.
Fernando Bedoya32—assumed the form of a fictional ritual that paraded the image
of a “golden calf” made out of detritus and recycled materials. This procession,
28 Roberto Miró Quesada, “Repensando lo popu- 31 Paréntesis (active only in 1979) was an artistic
lar: Dos hipótesis tentativas,” Socialismo y group of variable configuration whose core
Participación, no. 44 (December 1988), 4. members included Fernando “Coco” Bedoya,
29 This naturally excludes Mariotti, who acted as a Mercedes Idoyaga (Emei), Lucy Angulo, Jaime
bridge between the two moments. He was La Hoz, Juan Javier Salazar, José Antonio “Cuco”
indeed the eldest and most experienced among Morales, Francisco Mariotti, Charo Noriega,
the artists that operated in collectives in the and Raúl Villavicencio. At specific moments the
Barranco district from the late 1970s and early configuration of the group varied, including
1980s. Most of the young artists of the time more participants such as Rolf Knippenberg, a
were active militants in many of the different German nurse who happened to be in Lima at
leftist parties that spread out at the end of the the time and who actively participated in the
decade. Their work systematically addressed activities while documenting them. His photo-
the role power structures played in social life, graphs of the period are one of the few visual
questioning religion, national sentiment, testimonies of a time of radical changes in the
approaching discrimination (based on class or local scene.
race), or critically engaging with the educational 32 In this context, one of the most salient figures
apparatus. would be Fernando “Coco” Bedoya, an artist
30 For more information on this period and in later active in Argentina and associated with
relation to the work of Bedoya as well as Grupo Trotskist parties, who participated in the collec-
Paréntesis, see Sharon Lerner and Rodrigo tive responses to the atrocities committed by
Quijano, eds. Fernando ‘Coco’ Bedoya: Mitos, the Videla dictatorship. Bedoya’s general prac-
acciones e iluminaciones (Lima: MALI, 2014), tice questions the meaning and weight of cer-
especially Augusto del Valle, “Fernando Bedoya, tain religious, political, national, or educational
antropófago de iconos: «Los profesores esta- icons and their pertinence for public life.
ban en huelga»,” 24–43.
which took place on July 28, the celebration of Peruvian independence from Span-
ish dominance, finished with the group confronting the parishioners of the local
Catholic church, a provocation that ended with the burning of the pagan idol at the
center of the public plaza (fig. 43). Another example is Proyecto Coquito (Coquito
Project), a project designed by Bedoya—and executed together with Lucy Angulo,
Martín Biduera, Guillermo Bolaños, Mercedes Idoyaga (Emei), Rolf Knippenberg,
and Gigi Stenner—after the Contacta 79 experience (fig. 44). Originally conceived
F ig . 42 as an intervention and critical re-elaboration of widespread educational materials
Photographic record of Golden Calf action. used to teach writing and reading to elementary school children, the project could
Festival of Total Art Contacta 79, Lima 1979. never be completed as a publication. The small series of collages that survived attest
Digital prints. Photo: Rolf Knippenberg. Archive
to the conceptual use of alphabetic alliterations, which point to the inherent contra-
Fernando “Coco” Bedoya.
dictions of the local educational system.
Registro fotográfico de acción Becerro de oro. This convoluted yet productive context allowed for the formation of E.P.S Huayco
Festival de Arte Total Contacta 79, Lima 1979. in 1980,33 a group that incorporated many artists previously associated with Parén-
Impresiones digitales. Archivo Fernando “Coco”
tesis.34 Huayco is perhaps the most internationally recognized case of a Peruvian
Bedoya. Foto: Rolf Knippenberg.
local collective that fully engaged with the issue of the popular and its articulation
with a new group of urban inhabitants of Lima of migrant background.
In the brief period it operated, Huayco managed to produce some of the most
groundbreaking situations in recent Peruvian art history. Among them we can count
Arte al paso, the only exhibition they presented in a commercial gallery (fig. 45).
The presentation included a series of bold silkscreen prints in strident colors with
phrases in popular slang—as some critics have pointed out, in the fashion of the
“pop achorado” style indebted to Ruiz Durand—together with texts on critical the-
ory placed on the walls around the gallery. The central floor piece was a large carpet
made out of hundreds of empty milk cans painted individually with single colors
depicting a dish of salchipapas (sausages and fries), a Peruvian street food. The
piece, which mimicked the Benday dots of well-known North American Pop artists,
reflected what the group associated with a certain “popular aesthetic” based on the
visual imagery of the urban migrant population.35 It is precisely in the context of
this exhibition that critic Mirko Lauer, who at the time was close to the group, wrote
an introductory text, with the tone of a manifesto, that asserted the radicalism of
F ig . 43
the proposal for the time, by stating that, “In Peru, today, only what is popular is
Fernando “Coco” Bedoya in collaboration with
Lucy Angulo, Guillermo Bolaños, Mercedes modern.”36
Idoyaga (Emei), Rolf Knippenberg, Martin
Biduera and Gigi Stenner, Coquito Project, 1979. 33 Gustavo Buntinx refers to the acronym in the 36 Mirko Lauer, “Arte al paso: Tome uno,” in E.P.S.
collective’s name. He mentions that E.P.S. Huayco. Documentos, ed. Gustavo Buntinx
Collage on paper, 85 × 62 cm each. Museo de
stands for “Estética de Proyección Social,” in an (Lima: Museo de Arte de Lima, Instituto
Arte de Lima. Comité de Adquisiciones de Arte ironic twist to the analogous acronym of the Francés de Estudios Andinos, 2005), originally
Contemporáneo 2012. Empresas de Propiedad Social, the system of published in Arte al Paso (Lima: Galería Fórum,
cooperatives implemented by the Velasco May 1980), exhibition brochure. Lauer would
Fernando “Coco” Bedoya en colaboración con regime. Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos, increasingly become more cautious and critical
101. of the proposal. In further texts he would call it
Lucy Angulo, Guillermo Bolaños, Mercedes
34 The total list of E.P.S Huayco’s members a rather shy although important impulse that
Idoyaga (Emei), Rolf Knippenberg, Martin includes María Luy, Charo Noriega, Francisco did not manage to attain the necessary radical-
Biduera y Gigi Stenner, Proyecto Coquito, 1979. Mariotti, Herbert Rodríguez, Juan Javier Salazar, ism. For more information, see Lauer, “Opina
Collage sobre papel, 85 × 62 cm cada uno. Armando Williams, and Mariella Zevallos. Mirko Lauer sobre Arte al Paso,” in E.P.S.
Museo de Arte de Lima. Comité de 35 This work was previously placed on the street in Huayco (Locarno: Edizione Flaviana Locarno,
Barranco, as can be seen in the brochure with a 1981), exhibition brochure.
Adquisiciones de Arte Contemporáneo 2012.
text by Lauer that circulated during the
opening.
Doing “modern art” . . . but departing from a social and popular base. . . . We have
been careful for it not to be merely Pop Art. . . . In the United States what’s popular
is the industrial product by definition. Not here, here what’s popular is intrinsically
revolutionary.37
a fierce comment on the social structure of hunger and art in a country where the
interests of transnational industries impose the most onerous forms of spend-
ing in the dairy business (even the tin for the cans was imported), while the crisis
prompted the quick consumption of unhealthy foods.38
Another project, perhaps E.P.S Huayco’s most emblematic piece, is Sarita Colonia:
F ig. 44
an intervention set on top of a desert hill near kilometer marker 54 of the Southern
E.P.S. Huayco, stills from Arte al paso, 1981.
Pan-American Highway on October 26, 1980 (fig. 46).39 Following their experience Video, 30:11 min. Edited by Francisco Mariotti y
with Arte al Paso, the artists worked inside dumpsters on the wastelands that sur- Lorenzo Bianda. Museo de Arte de Lima. Gift of
rounded the city to recycle about ten thousand milk cans to create a sixty-square- Francisco Mariotti.
the Arte al Paso floor piece. Sarita would thus be less schematic, including more
than one color per can, which generated a more fluid image, closer to a processional
flower carpet of Andean peasant popular traditions than an image derived from
American or European Pop. Indeed, placed outside the usual cultural circuits of the
capital, it sought to be seen by new audiences: the different travelers that migrated
from the Southern Andes to Lima, becoming, according to Buntinx, a destination
itself.40
37 Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos, 81. Though milk in the national market. See Manuel Lajo,
reproduced by Buntinx, the quote from Mariotti “Transnacionales y alimentación en el Perú: El
appears in Luis Freire, “¿Es arte popular o ‘Pop caso de la leche,” in E.P.S. Huayco (Locarno:
Art’?: La alfombra de latas de Fórum,” Diario de Edizione Flaviana Locarno: 1981), exhibition
Marka (May 18, 1980): 19. In the article, Freire brochure, 3–4.
comments on Arte al Paso and interviews the 39 The Sarita Colonia project included, beside the
exhibiting artists. site-specific intervention, the later edition of a
38 Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos, 75. The series of six silkscreen prints done between
reference to the milk industry is indeed present February and April 1981.This set of prints did
in the work. In a later brochure that accompa- not reach the cohesiveness the previous project
nies a video that summarizes the E.P.S Huayco had and it presaged the imminent dissolution of
experience, Mariotti includes a text by Manuel the collective. The members would later on be
Lajo that reflects on the role of the transna- distanced from each other.
tional milk companies (Nestlé and Carnation) in 40 In fact, for Buntinx, by engaging in the “post-
the manipulation of the costs of evaporated modern cult” of the “unofficial saint,” Huayco
returns Pop art to the middle class. The inter- 41 While writing on Hélio Oiticica’s comment
vention would be the most successful example regarding the relation, or non-relation, between
of the will of the urban socialist and leftist the Brazilian and Peruvian contexts, Isobel
classes to approach the emerging sectors of Whitelegg comments on the proximity of Acha’s
Andean descent that were forming the new and Gullar’s thoughts. According to her, “Oiti-
urban popular sector. See Buntinx, E.P.S. cica’s identification of ‘Peru’ as the antithesis of
Huayco: Documentos, 102. In a recent essay Brazil reveals the absence of a conversation
that deals with the insertion of the “popular” as between his proximity to Ferreira Gullar’s the-
a “conventional story” within recent Peruvian ory of the non-object and (Peruvian) Acha’s
historiography, Mijail Mitrovic analyzes the coining of the term no-objetualismo.” Whitelegg,
mutation of the term throughout the decades, “Brazil, Latin America,” 138.
pointing out how younger generations relate 42 Ferreira Gullar, “Cultura popular,” in Fecha de
uncritically to these forms, although they have elaboración / Fecha de vencimiento, 94.
been co-opted by a neoliberal agenda associ- 43 Mirko Lauer, “Notas para un prólogo,” in Memo
ated with the Fujimori regime since the 1990s. rias del Primer Coloquio Latinoamericano sobre
See Mitrovic, “El desborde popular del arte en el Arte No-Objetual y Arte Urbano. Realizado en el
Perú I,” Ecuador Debate, no. 99 (2016). Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín en mayo de
1981 (Medellín: Museo de Arte Moderno de
Medellín, 2011). 20.
44 Ibid., 20.
In the same text, Lauer emphasizes the avant-garde’s will to establish international
dialogue. Thus, according to him, the non-objectualists who gathered in Medellín
looked for a supranational convergence, while a group like Huayco instead seems to
represent an immovably local phenomenon.45
Conclusion
Art critics disagree about the best definition of the term “avant-garde.” A mile-
stone in art theory, Peter Bürger’s 1968 Theory of the Avant-Garde held that only
movements that rejected aesthetic autonomy and merged artistic praxis with lived
experience (Dada, Surrealism, or Constructivism, for example) qualified as avant-
garde. Some authors go further as to consider avant-garde’s involvement with life as
necessarily political, understanding it as an agent for social change. Other features
associated with the avant-gardes are the will to attain international visibility or the
construction of a long-term platform for action. What is true is that the use of the
term in Latin American art criticism during the 1960s and 1970s is far from univo-
cal. That fact not only failed to impede its social impact, but is clearly germane to
the different ways it acquires social influence and legitimacy.
In her writings about the Argentinian scene of the 1960s, Andrea Giunta proposes
a fruitful approach to the use of the term “avant-garde.” Giunta eschews the ques-
tion of its definition and focuses instead on how the term acquired its meaning
against the discursive and non-discursive domains correlated to practice.47 In this
sense, one could find the following principle: once the aesthetic value of an avant-
garde work cannot be found within the art piece itself, a look beyond to the greater
cultural context in which it is produced asks for an unwritten legitimacy.
In this reconstruction of events, the Peruvian art scene of the period 1967–1981
includes some salient cases worth revisiting as examples of artistic practices in a
context of underdevelopment. The narrative line of this text parallels, on the one
hand, the artworks of Ruiz Durand, Arias Vera, Grupo Paréntesis, E.P.S. Huayco,
and Teresa Burga, with the ongoing debate concerning the physiognomy of a pos-
sible Latin American avant-garde on the other. Though here the parallel is proposed
only as a basis for discussion, we can propose some key questions that allow for a
tentative definition of the forms the avant-garde assumed in Peru.
The first important question is whether these artistic practices moved beyond cul-
tural dependency. The answer is that some did and others did not. In Ruiz Durand,
we see the application of Pop aesthetics to a national political subject: the possibility
of a social revolution. However, when Pop art turns to the imagery of mass media,
it uses it—as Hal Foster noted in a different context—as weapon but also as target;
that is to say, it uses the medium but it also refers ironically to the medium itself, to
what it implies and where it comes from. In Ruiz Durand’s work, the appropriation
of Pop has a rather functional role, and even in some cases is rendered as cultural
propaganda. Arias Vera’s early work during the military government followed a sim-
ilar path as Ruiz Durand’s but, a few years later, the Carrera de Chasquis does not
allow any claim of cultural dependency. These events show a clear rupture with cos-
mopolitan avant-gardes and a direct, autonomous appropriation of popular culture.
While these two cases marked a moment of tentative experimental learning, the
Introducción
La hipótesis principal de la exhibición Memorias del subdesarrollo: arte y el giro F ig. 46
descolonial en América Latina, 1960–1985 investiga la llegada, dentro de la esfera Teresa Burga and Marie-France Cathelat, cover
of the book Profile of the Peruvian Woman
de las artes plásticas latinoamericanas a fines de la década de 1960, de una ruptura
(Lima, ISA, Investigaciones Sociales y Artísticas,
epistémica con lo moderno, mediante una contra-narrativa basada en la noción del Banco Industrial del Perú), 1981. Museo de Arte
subdesarrollo, que refleja el deseo de descolonizarse de los cánones culturales y de Lima Archive. Courtesy of the artist and
estéticos impuestos. Esta premisa admite la coexistencia y la tensión de distintas Galerie Barbara Thumm.
1 Los acercamientos más comunes y extendidos MNCARS (Madrid), MALI (Lima) y Muntref
a las diferentes prácticas en el contexto latino (Buenos Aires), una exhibición que se enfocó en
americano de las décadas arriba mencionadas revisar la conexión entre arte y política, pero
resultan todavía insuficientes para leer los también formas clandestinas y punk de resis-
vínculos y las conexiones que existen en la tencia a las estructuras de represión en Amé-
región, y las respuestas particulares de artistas rica Latina en la década de 1980. Sin embargo,
a las condiciones estructurales inherentes a sus esa exhibición excluía necesariamente de su
sociedades. Una excepción sería la obra iniciada marco curatorial la producción de las décadas
por la Red Conceptualismos del Sur (RCS), de 1960 y 1970 y gran parte de la teoría social
particularmente en To Loose the Human Form latinoamericana de la época.
119
(Perder la forma humana), presentada en
2 Algunos de los críticos involucrados en este 1970. Aunque breve y parcial, esta lista es un
intercambio panamericano incluían nombres ejemplo muy bienvenido de los estudios que
como Aracy Amaral, Federico Morais, Damián enfatizan en las formas del experimentalismo y
Bayón, Juan Acha, Jorge Glusberg, Ticio Esco- del arte efímero previamente invisibles. Me he
bar, Mirko Lauer, Rita Eder y Marta Traba, entre beneficiado enormemente de estas obras.
muchos otros. Para un recuento crítico de la Véase Gustavo Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Docu
discusión sobre la cuestión latinoamericana y mentos (Lima: Centro Cultural de España / IFEA
particularmente del papel relativo que jugó / MALI, 2005); Miguel A. López y Emilio Tara-
Brasil con respecto al resto de la región, véase zona, “Juan Acha y la revolución cultural: La
Isobel Whitelegg, “Brazil, Latin America: The transformación de la vanguardia artística en el
World,” Third Text 26, no.1 (2012). Perú a fines de los sesenta,” Temas de Arte
3 La historiografía del arte reciente ha contri- Peruano 3. Nuevas referencias sociológicas de las
buido a la posibilidad de reconstruir la escena artes visuales: Mass media, lenguajes, represio
artística peruana entre 1967 y 1981. Es conside- nes y grupos. Juan Acha 1969. (Lima: Universi-
rable la investigación de Gustavo Buntinx, con dad Ricardo Palma, 2008), 1–17; Miguel A.
su análisis extendido de los inicios activos de López, “Cosmopolitan f(r)ictions: Aesthetic and
E.P.S. Huayco a principio de la década de 1980; political redefinitions of a concept of avant-
Miguel A. López y Emilio Trazona sobre el expe- garde in the 1960s”, en Arte contemporáneo:
rimentalismo cosmopolita de la década de 1960 Colección Museo de Arte de Lima, ed. Sharon
alrededor del Grupo Arte Nuevo, la cooperativa Lerner (Lima: MALI, 2013): 17–45; y Augusto del
de arte que incluía a algunos artistas que luego Valle, “Fernando Bedoya, antropófago de ico-
rehuyeron de los intentos de arte conceptual, y nos: «Los profesores estaban en huelga»”, en
las investigaciones importantes de Teresa Fernando ‘Coco’ Bedoya: Mitos, acciones e ilumi
Burga; o finalmente el trabajo de Augusto Del naciones, ed. Sharon Lerner and Rodrigo Qui-
Valle sobre las prácticas del Grupo Paréntesis y jano (Lima: MALI, 2014), 24–43.
Fernando Bedoya a finales de la década de
4 Acercándose a la producción creativa desde 6 Entre los textos del período más difundidos
una perspectiva marxista—i.e., el arte es la que proponían una lectura sobre la condición
actividad expresiva de un artista en respuesta a latinoamericana, podemos contar Las venas
su ambiente material—Traba ve al arte Pop abiertas de América Latina (1971) de Eduardo
como la consecuencia de los países tecnológi- Galeano, una interpretación polémica de la
camente desarrollados y altamente industriali- realidad latinoamericana como un continuum de
zados. Para ella, “la vanguardia latinoamericana opresión y explotación desde la conquista hasta
en artes plásticas está trabajando, progresiva- el imperialismo norteamericano de mediados
mente, de acuerdo a la señal impartida desde del siglo XX.
los Estados Unidos”, diagnóstico que asevera 7 Sin embargo, la teoría de la vanguardia tem-
cáusticamente ser el equivalente de un pano- prana de Acha se distancia de la explicación
rama colonial auto-impuesto. (Véase Marta norteamericana del concepto, la explicación
Traba, Dos décadas vulnerables en las artes que designó como “no suficientemente crítico”.
plásticas latinoamericanas 1950–1970. [México Más bien se inclina hacia la alineación con una
D.F.: Siglo XXI Editores, 1973], 11.) Sin embargo, manera más crítica (tal vez europea) de pensar
tanto Acha como Traba parten de una postura la sociedad de consumo. Hay una progresión
marxista, en particular de sus lecturas de Mar- que desfetichiza al objeto de arte, una interven-
cuse y sus llamados en contra de los efectos ción crítica sobre su condición de mercancía. Al
enajenadores de la sociedad consumista. Los contrario de las formas desmaterializadas del
dos se antagonizan sobre las maneras más arte recontadas por Lucy Lippard en el Norte, el
pertinentes de responder a estas mismas acercamiento de Acha no renuncia al objeto de
condiciones. arte por completo; más bien desmonta el apa-
5 Este debate ha sido señalado por muchos auto- rato ideológico que sostiene al objeto de arte.
res, más recientemente por la historiadora de 8 El grupo incorporó a artistas como Teresa
arte Rita Eder. Véase Eder. “Juan Acha: A Latin Burga, Emilio Hernández Saavedra, Gloria
American perspective on art,” Post: Notes on Gómez Sánchez y Luis Arias Vera, entre muchos
Modern & Contemporary Art around the Globe otros.
(27 septiembre 2016), http://post.at.moma.org
/content_items/749-juan-acha-a-latin
-american-perspective-on-art
9 Traba, Dos décadas vulnerables en las artes ni siquiera tentativas de formular una interpre-
plásticas latinoamericanas, 1950–1970, 10–11. tación, parcial o total, del arte dentro del con-
10 Según Traba, “Da vergüenza comprobar que— texto continental”, Ibid., 24).
desaparecido Mariátegui, cuyo valeroso intento 11 José Carlos Mariátegui, “Arte, revolución y
de definir una estética emergente de las condi- decadencia,” en Ensayos escogidos, ed. Aníbal
ciones peculiares de América Latina resulta hoy, Quijano (Lima: Patronato del Libro Peruano,
obviamente, superado y esquemático—, no hay
militar expropió empresas industriales claves del sector privado nacional e interna-
cional (por ejemplo, la industria petrolera y la prensa); produjo una reconfiguración
drástica a nivel nacional de la posesión de tierras con una reforma agraria, lo que
significaba la transferencia de los medios de producción agrarios desde los terrate-
nientes oligárquicos hacia los campesinos; y reivindicaba a la cultura indígena. Esto
implicaba la incorporación de una suerte de modernidad vernácula como imposi-
ción estatal que, aunque fuera populista en su discurso y maniquea en su práctica,
condujo a varios artistas a sentirse libres de las aspiraciones cosmopolitas y capaces
de interactuar con una audiencia popular no circunscrita al circuito reducido y eli-
tista de los círculos y galerías del llamado “arte culto”.12
Hay algunos artistas y obras emblemáticos que operaron dentro de la lógica cultu-
ral del régimen de Velasco, particularmente mediante su Oficina Estatal de Comuni-
caciones (parte de SINAMOS, el Sistema Nacional de Apoyo a la Movilización Social,
un movimiento oficial durante los primeros años del gobierno militar). Quizás el
resultado visual más reconocible de esta época sean los afiches diseñados por Jesús
Ruiz Durand para la reforma agraria. Ruiz Durand—antes asociado con el arte Pop
y el arte óptico a mediados de los años 60—se unió a un grupo de artistas e inte-
lectuales que operaban dentro de SINAMOS entre 1969 y 1971. Sus afiches fueron
diseminados por todo el país, especialmente en los pueblos rurales de los Andes
y a lo largo de la costa peruana. Las imágenes—que aplicaban los lenguajes gráfi-
cos del Pop cosmopolita a la representación de sujetos indígenas locales—fueron
concebidas como una manera de promover didácticamente, mediante la estética de
las historietas, la agenda ideológica del gobierno.13 El resultado fue una imaginería
poderosa que contrastó fuertemente con los alrededores empobrecidos, un encuen-
tro imprevisto de lenguajes y sujetos que devendría en un impacto influyente sobre
las estéticas de los colectivos peruanos en la década de 1980 (fig. 38).14
Quizás menos conocido que Ruiz Durand es el caso de Luis Arias Vera, otro artista
previamente asociado con el experimentalismo local de los años 60,15 quien cola-
boraría más tarde con el gobierno militar como promotor de distintos eventos cul-
turales.16 Entre estos figura el segundo Festival Contacta en 1972, que organizó en
Lima junto con Francisco Mariotti, un artista peruano-suizo con una carrera ya
establecida en Europa.17 Contacta buscaba promover una idea del “arte total” que
abarcara tanto la música, las expresiones folclóricas y las artesanías, como tam-
bién las artes plásticas. Unos años más tarde, en 1974, Arias Vera participó en la
producción de los Festivales Inkari (nombre que alude al retorno mítico del último
rey incaico), que consistía en eventos culturales descentralizados en las provincias
rurales (fig. 39). Más parecidos a formas de práctica social que de arte conceptual,
los proyectos de Arias Vera adquirieron un tono distinto entre 1974 y 1976, cuando
colaboró en la organización de dos ediciones de la Carrera de Chasquis:18 carreras de
relevos que conectaron cientos de pueblos rurales que culminaban en celebraciones
y eventos artísticos.19 Como ha dicho Miguel López, estas “experiencias artísticas
sin precedentes” tuvieron lugar durante un período de continuas transformaciones
radicales (fig. 40).
Tanto Ruiz Durand como Arias Vera pertenecían a las vanguardias cosmopolitas
de la década de 1960 que se trasladaron en la década venidera hacia intereses más
revolucionarios. Sin embargo, habría que esperar hasta finales de la década de 1970
para que se pudiera establecer una relación más directa con la cultura popular y
para que se insertara una conciencia de las condiciones de la realidad social local en
las obras de muchos artistas locales jóvenes, quienes reaccionaron enérgicamente a
las condiciones impuestas por el gobierno militar. Aquí es importante notar el papel
ción en 1976 duró cuarenta días, en cuarenta 21 A principios de 2017 Morales Bermúdez fue
escenarios distintos y supuso una ruta desde declarado culpable de crímenes asociados a la
Chiclayo, al norte, hasta Puno, en el sur de los desaparición de ciudadanos italianos en Perú a
Andes. Esta información viene de un intercam- finales de la década de 1970, acción que fue
bio de correo electrónico entre Luis Arias Vera y parte del llamado Plan Cóndor, una acción
Miguel A. López, 14 de diciembre de 2008. coordinada contra los grupos izquierdistas
20 Juan Acha, “Arte, mitos y utopías,” Cambio, ejecutado por las dictaduras derechistas en la
no. 6 (1986): 27. región.
22 López, “Cosmopolitan f(r)ictions,” 38.
27 Por ejemplo, en Perú, la reflexión sobre la confi- 28 Roberto Miró Quesada, “Repensando lo popu-
guración pluricultural de la población ha dado lar: Dos hipótesis tentativas,” Socialismo y
piea debates acalorados alrededor de concep- Participación, no. 44 (diciembre 1988), 4.
tos como el mestizaje o la choledad. Según 29 Naturalmente esto excluye a Mariotti, quien
autores como Néstor García Canclini, estas son sirvió de puente entre los dos momentos. En
formas de hibridez que conllevan procesos efecto, era el mayor y más experimentado entre
socioculturales en los cuales estructuras o los jóvenes artistas que operaron en cooperati-
prácticas discretas que existían por separado se vas en el distrito de Barranco desde los años
combinan para generar nuevas estructuras, tardíos de la década de 1970 hasta principios de
objetos y prácticas que en última instancia la década de 1980. Muchos de los artistas jóve-
interesan tanto al sector hegemónico como a nes en ese momento eran militantes activos en
las personas que quieren aprovechar de los muchos de los diferentes partidos de izquierda
beneficios de la modernidad. Véase García que se expandieron a finales de la década. Su
Canclini, “Noticias recientes sobre la hibrida- trabajo sistemático abordó el papel que desem-
ción,” Trans—Revista Transcultural de Música, peñaron las estructuras de poder en la vida
no. 7 (2003). http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/ social, cuestionando la religión, los sentimien-
articulo/209/noticias-recientes-sobre-la tos nacionales, enfrentando la discriminación
-hibridacion. Estas ideas fueron desarrolladas (de clase o raza) o entablando un diálogo con el
previamente en Sharon Lerner, “New Popular aparato pedagógico.
Actors. TAFOS: Informality and Display in 30 Para más información sobre este período y en
Lima,” (tesis de maestría, California College of relación a la obra tanto de Bedoya como del
the Arts, 2010). Grupo Paréntesis, véase Sharon Lerner y
Rodrigo Quijano, eds., Fernando ‘Coco’ Bedoya:
Mitos, acciones e iluminaciones (Lima: MALI,
contexto el grupo Paréntesis31 organizó el Festival de Arte Total Contacta 79, una
vuelta al formato de festival promovido por el Gobierno Militar, aunque ahora sin
relación a la propaganda oficial (fig. 42).
Contacta 79 fue una iniciativa que llevó el arte a las calles. Al contrario de los
festivales previos, reveló una postura crítica de parte de los artistas individuales en
contra de las estructuras coloniales de poder y dominación. Por ejemplo, Becerro de
oro—una prosesión pagana y anárquica conducida por miembros de Paréntesis y
concebida por Fernando Bedoya32—asumió la forma de un ritual ficticio que exhi-
bió la imagen de un “becerro de oro” hecho de desperdicios y materiales reciclados.
Esta procesión, que tuvo lugar el 28 de julio, día que conmemora la independencia
peruana de España, terminó con el grupo enfrentado con parroquianos de la iglesia
católica local, una provocación que terminó con el incendio del ídolo pagano en el
medio de la plaza central (fig. 43). Otro ejemplo es Coquito, un proyecto diseñado por
Bedoya—y ejecutado junto con Lucy Angulo, Martín Biduera, Guillermo Bolaños,
Mercedes Idoyaga (Emei), Rolf Knippenberg y Gigi Stenner—después de la expe-
riencia de Contacta 79. Originalmente concebido como una intervención y una ree-
laboración crítica de materiales pedagógicos ampliamente utilizados para enseñar
la escritura y la lectura a los niños escolares, el proyecto nunca se pudo completar
como publicación. La pequeña serie de collages que sobrevivió da testimonio del uso
conceptual de las aliteraciones alfabéticas, que señalan las contradicciones inheren-
tes del sistema local de educación.
Este contexto enrevesado pero productivo permitió la formación de E.P.S. Huayco
en 1980,33 un grupo que incorporó a muchos artistas previamente asociados con
Paréntesis.34 Huayco es quizás el caso más internacionalmente reconocido de un
colectivo peruano local que enfrentó plenamente la cuestión de lo popular y su arti-
culación con un nuevo grupo de habitantes urbanos de origen migrante en Lima.
Durante el período breve en el cual operó, Huayco pudo producir algunas de las
situaciones más innovadoras en la historia reciente del arte peruano. Entre ellas
contamos Arte al paso, la única exhibición que realizaron en una galería comercial
2014), especialmente Augusto del Valle, “Fer- 32 En este contexto, una de las figuras más salien-
nando Bedoya, antropófago de iconos: «Los tes sería Fernando “Coco” Bedoya, un artista
profesores estaban en huelga»,” 24–43. que luego sería activo en Argentina y asociado
31 Paréntesis (activo solo en 1979) fue un grupo con los partidos trotskistas, quien participó en
artístico de configuraciones variables cuyos las respuestas colectivas a las atrocidades
integrantes principales incluían a Fernando cometidas por la dictadura de Videla. La prác-
“Coco” Bedoya, Mercedes Idoyaga (Emei), Lucy tica general de Bedoya cuestiona el significado
Angulo, Jaime La Hoz, Juan Javier Salazar, José y el peso de ciertos íconos religiosos, políticos,
Antonio “Cuco” Morales, Francisco Mariotti, nacionales o pedagógicos y su pertinencia en la
Charo Noriega y Raúl Villavicencio. En un vida pública.
momento dado, la configuración del grupo 33 Gustavo Buntinx se refiere al acrónimo en el
varió, incluyendo más participantes como Rolf nombre de la cooperativa. Menciona que E.P.S.
Knippenberg, un enfermero alemán que estaba significa “Estética de Proyección Social”, en un
por casualidad en Lima en ese momento y que guiño irónico al acrónimo análogo de las Empre-
participó activamente en las actividades mien- sas de Propiedad Social, el sistema de coopera-
tras las documentaba. Sus fotografías del tivas implementadas por el régimen de Velasco.
período son de los pocos testimonios visuales Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos, 101.
que hay de un tiempo de cambios radicales en 34 La lista entera de los integrantes de E.P.S.
la escena local. incluye a María Luy, Charo Noriega, Francisco
(fig. 45). La presentación incluyó una serie de serigrafías llamativas en colores estri-
dentes con frases de la jerga popular—como han señalado algunos críticos, en la
forma del estilo “pop achorado” término acuñado por Ruiz Durand—junto con
textos sobre teoría crítica situados en las paredes alrededor de la galería. La pieza
central del piso fue una alfombra grande hecha de cientos de latas de leche vacías
pintadas individualmente con un solo color representando un plato de “salchipa-
pas”, una comida callejera peruana. La pieza, que imitaba los puntos Benday de reco-
nocidos artistas Pop norteamericanos, reflejó lo que asociaba el grupo con una cierta
“estética popular” basada en la imaginería visual de la población migrante urbana.35
Es precisamente en el contexto de esta exhibición que el crítico Mirko Lauer, que en
aquel momento estuvo cerca del grupo, escribió un texto introductorio, con tono de
manifiesto, que afirmaba el radicalismo de la propuesta para su momento, decla-
rando que “solo lo popular es realmente moderno hoy en el Perú.”36
En su estudio extenso sobre Huayco, Gustavo Buntinx cita la definición de Mario-
tti sobre lo popular:
Estamos haciendo ‘arte moderno’ [. . .] pero partiendo de una base social y popular
[. . .] Nos hemos cuidado de que no se trate netamente de Pop Art. . . . En Estados
Unidos, lo popular es el producto industrial por excelencia. Aquí no, aquí lo popular
es intrínsecamente revolucionario.37
un feroz comentario a la estructura social del hambre y del arte en un país donde
los intereses de empresas trasnacionales imponían las formas más onerosas de
expendio lácteo (hasta la hojalata era importada), mientras la crisis generalizaba el
consumo apresurado y callejero de alimentos malsanos.38
Mariotti, Herbert Rodríguez, Juan Javier Salazar, 37 Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos, 81. Aunque
Armando Williams y Mariella Zevallos. es reproducida por Buntinx, la cita de Mariotti
35 Esta obra fue ubicada anteriormente en la calle aparece en Luis Freire, “¿Es arte popular o ‘Pop
en Barranco, como se puede observar en el Art’?: La alfombra de latas de Fórum,” Diario de
folleto con un texto de Lauer que circulaba Marka (18 de mayo de 1980): 19. En el artículo,
durante la inauguración. Freire comenta sobre Arte al paso y entrevista a
36 Mirko Lauer, “Arte al paso: Tome uno,” en E.P.S. los artistas de la exhibición.
Huayco. Documentos, ed. Gustavo Buntinx 38 Buntinx, E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos, 75. En
(Lima: Museo de Arte de Lima, Instituto Fran- efecto, la referencia a la industria lechera está
cés de Estudios Andinos, 2005), originalmente presente en la obra. En un folletín más tardío
publicado en Arte al Paso (Lima: Galería Fórum, que acompaña al video que resume la experien-
May 1980), folleto de exhibición. Lauer se volve- cia de E.P.S. Huayco, Mariotti incluye un texto
ría cada vez más cauteloso y crítico con la pro- de Manuel Lajo que refleja sobre el papel de las
puesta. En textos posteriores lo llamaría un compañías lecheras trasnacionales (Nestlé y
impulso algo tímido pero importante que no Carnation) y la manipulación de los costos de la
logró conseguir el radicalismo necesario. Para leche evaporada en el mercado nacional. Véase
más información, véase Lauer, “Opina Mirko Manuel Lajo, “Transnacionales y alimentación
Lauer sobre Arte al Paso,” en E.P.S. Huayco en el Perú: El caso de la leche,” en E.P.S. Huayco
(Locarno: Edizione Flaviana Locarno, 1981), (Locarno: Edizione Flaviana Locarno: 1981),
folleto de exhibición. folleto de exhibición, 3–4.
Otro proyecto, quizás la obra más emblemática de E.P.S. Huayco, es Sarita Colonia:
una intervención ubicada sobre una colina desierta a la altura del kilómetro 54 de
la Carretera Panamericana Sur el 26 de octubre de 1980 (fig. 46).39 Después de su
experiencia con Arte al Paso, los artistas trabajaron dentro de vertederos en los
páramos alrededor de la ciudad para reciclar unas diez mil latas de leche para crear
un retrato de sesenta metros cuadrados de Sarita Colonia, una “santa” peruana no
oficial, conocida como la patrona y protectora de ladrones y prostitutas. La imagen
icónica, copiada de un impreso devocional popular, fue colocada en una ubicación
estratégica en medio del desierto litoral. Buntinx nota que el tratamiento técnico
de la imagen fue distinto del de la pieza en el suelo de Arte al Paso. De esta manera,
Sarita sería menos esquemática, incluyendo más de un color por lata, lo que generó
una imagen más fluida, más cercana a una alfombra de flores procesional propia de
las tradiciones campesinas populares de los Andes que de una imagen derivada del
Pop norteamericano o europeo. El efecto, ubicado afuera de los circuitos culturales
usuales de la capital, buscó ser visto por nuevas audiencias—los distintos viajeros
que migraron desde el sur de los Andes hacia Lima—y se convirtió, según Buntinx,
en un destino en sí.40
Según Gullar, la “cultura popular” significaba, por omisión, la conciencia revolu-
cionaria. Es tal vez en este sentido que un grupo como Huayco estaba más cercano
a su pensamiento sobre el tema.41 Gullar se dedicó a establecer una cercanía entre
la obra y la experiencia vivida y consideraba al arte moderno como distanciado de
la vida popular y, consecuentemente, del gusto popular. Para él el arte debía ser
comprendido como formas de acción sobre la realidad social42 y, en efecto, Huayco
pareció tener una sensibilidad particular que le permitió reaccionar a una de las
transformaciones principales de la vida social del país. Sin embargo, tener sola-
mente una conciencia social fuerte no hace una vanguardia. Mirando hacia atrás, al
Primer Coloquio de Arte No-Objetual y Arte Urbano en Medellín en 1981, un evento
organizado por Acha que reunió a representantes regionales, Mirko Lauer arguye
39 El proyecto Sarita Colonia incluía, aparte de la largo de las décadas, señalando la manera en
intervención específica del sitio, la edición más que las generaciones más jóvenes se relacionan
tarde de una serie de seis serigrafías hechas sin sentido crítico hacia estas formas, aunque
entre febrero y abril de 1981. Este grupo de han sido cooptadas por una agenda neoliberal
impresiones no llegó a la cohesión que tenía el asociada con el régimen de Fujimori desde la
proyecto previo y anunciaba la disolución inmi- década de 1990. Véase Mitrovic, “El desborde
nente de la cooperativa. Los integrantes luego popular del arte en el Perú I,” Ecuador Debate,
se distanciarían los unos de los otros. no. 99 (2016).
40 De hecho, para Buntinx, al envolver al “culto 41 Mientras escribía sobre la relación, o falta de
posmoderno” con el “santo no oficial”, Huayco relación, entre el contexto brasileño y el
devuelve el arte Pop a la clase media. La inter- peruano, Isobel Whitelegg comenta sobre la
vención podría ser el ejemplo más exitoso de la proximidad del pensamiento de Acha y Gullar.
voluntad de las clases socialistas e izquierdistas Según ella, “Para Oiticica, la identificación de
urbanas para acercarse a los sectores emergen- ‘Perú’ como la antítesis de Brasil revela la
tes de ascendencia andina que formaban el ausencia de una conversación entre su proximi-
nuevo sector popular urbano. Véase Buntinx, dad a la teoría del no-objeto de Ferreira Gullar y
E.P.S. Huayco: Documentos, 102. En un ensayo el hecho de que Acha (peruano) acuña el tér-
reciente que se trata de la inserción de “lo mino neo-objetualismo.” (Whitelegg, “Brazil,
popular como una historia convencional” dentro Latin America,” 138)
de la historiografía peruana reciente, Mijail 42 Ferreira Gullar, “Cultura popular,” en Fecha de
Mitrovic analiza la mutación del término a lo elaboración / Fecha de vencimiento, 94.
Pero la preocupación de Huayco es, en realidad, visto desde hoy, por lo menos,
producir versiones socialmente cercanas a la gente, producir formas asequibles
y manejar temas reales. Huayco no es una crítica al arte establecido, si no al arte
establecido que veremos dentro de veinte, treinta o cuarenta años, y es consciente
de ello. En eso son unos visionarios sociales.44
43 Mirko Lauer, “Notas para un prólogo,” en mayo de 1981 (Medellín: Museo de Arte
Memorias del Primer Coloquio Latinoamericano Moderno de Medellín, 2011), 20.
sobre Arte No Objetual y Arte Urbano. Realizado 44 Ibid., 20.
en el Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín en 45 Ibid., 21–24.
Conclusión
Los críticos de arte difieren en cuanto a la mejor definición del término “vanguar-
dia”. Un hito en la teoría del arte, la Teoría de la vanguardia de Peter Bürger, de
1968, arguye que solo los movimientos que rechazaron a la autonomía estética y que
fusionaron la práctica artística con la experiencia vivida (el dadaísmo, surrealismo o
constructivismo, por ejemplo) podían ser calificados de vanguardia. Algunos autores
van tan lejos como para considerar la relación vanguardista con la vida como algo
necesariamente político, comprendiéndolo como un agente para el cambio social.
Otros rasgos asociados con las vanguardias son la voluntad de conseguir visibilidad
internacional o la construcción de una plataforma para la acción de largo plazo. Lo
que es cierto es que el uso de este término dentro de la crítica de arte latinoameri-
cano durante las décadas de 1960 y 1970 está lejos de ser unívoco. El hecho no solo
falló en impedir su impacto social, sino que claramente es pertinente en las maneras
en que adquiere influencia social y legitimidad.
En sus escritos sobre la escena argentina de la década de 1960, Andrea Giunta
propone un acercamiento productivo al uso del término “vanguardia”. Giunta evita
la cuestión de su definición, enfocándose en cómo el término adquirió su significado
asociado a los dominios discursivos y no discursivos relativos a la práctica.47 En este
sentido, uno podría encontrar el siguiente principio: toda vez que el valor estético
de una obra vanguardista no se pueda encontrar dentro de la obra en sí, la mirada
hacia el contexto cultural en el que fue producida solicita una legitimidad no escrita.
46 Miguel A. López y Emilio Tarazona han pro- la nueva audiencia urbana. Mientras era intere-
puesto estas ideas y la investigación del pro- sante en su intención, el proyecto fue conside-
yecto, Teresa Burga: Informes, esquemas, rado un fracaso por las voces críticas de aquel
intervalos 17.9.10 (Lima: ICPNA, 2011), 142–161. momento debido a una falta de rigor en la
Además, Buntinx ha señalado agudamente que metodología empleada.
este proyecto iba en paralelo a una encuesta 47 Andrea Giunta, Vanguardia, internacionalismo y
análoga por E.P.S. Huayco titulada Encuesta de política: Arte argentino en los años sesenta (Bue-
preferencias estéticas para un público urbano, nos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores, 2008), 27–28.
que buscaba medir las preferencias estéticas de
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
This document should be anonymous: firstly, because I cannot speak for people that F ig. 5 5
are suffering inside something that I have painfully kept with me while momentarily Cildo Meireles, Inserções em Circuitos
Ideológicos: Projeto Coca-Cola (Insertions into
outside . . . how to communicate what happens between howling sirens during the
Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project), 1970.
state of siege, or the grief of families whose sons and daughters were picked up Text transferred on glass; each of 3 bottles:
by hellish patrols . . . masked men carrying weapons of war, their boots trudging in 7 1⁄16 × 3 1⁄8 in. (18 × 8 cm). Courtesy of the artist
pools of blood during the night, in paths, streets and walled squares. . . .1 and Galeria Luisa Strina.
1 From a postcard sent with an apocryphal name group of poets in São Paulo, gathered around
by Graciela Gutiérrez Marx in 1978 while travel- the review Noigandres and formed by Augusto
ing from Genoa to England. Graciela Gutierrez de Campos, Haroldo de Campos, and Décio
Marx, Artecorreo. Artistas invisibles en la red Pignatari. Poema/Processo members included
postal (Buenos Aires: Luna Verde, 2010), 151. Moacy Cirne, Wlademir Dias-Pino, Álvaro de Sá,
2 Poema/Processo came up as a response to the Neide Dias de Sá, and Falves Silva, among
nationwide hegemony of the Concrete Art others.
143
separated in individual envelopes may well be seen as a way of openly declaring the
group’s plural character.
Conceivably there was also an allusion to the postal network that Poema/Processo
members had been working on. As Dias-Pino wrote,
during the five years the movement existed—and this without any scissions!—it
had created an international force. We were working in Europe and all over Latin
America. But we were not claiming European influences, as concrete poetry did.
Europe would not accept a visual culture born in Brazil, so this claiming was neces-
sary for concrete poetry, but not for Poema/Processo as it had pan Latin American
connections.3
The ability to work both collectively and individually, accepting and even fostering
the contradictions of this modus operandi; the interest in building an international
network, and particularly a continental one; graphic and verbal elements, used
either separately or together; an emphasis on process rather than on final product;
the use of the poetic/artistic context as a means of conveying data and elements of
(counter-) information4—all of these aspects show that the group’s work was an
important forebear of mail art in Brazil.
Even more interestingly, Poema/Processo was part of a recurring pattern in this
period in Latin America, as groups or movements of poets started to act ever more
incisively and decisively on the intersection between poetry and visual art: “In
Edgardo Antonio Vigo’s words, it was a ‘total art’ that did not recognize boundaries
between the literary and the visual aesthetic.”5 One of the Poema/Processo group’s
first poetic interventions, for example, was a two-meter long pão poema (bread-
poem), baked to be eaten by the public. Several works of this kind by Latin American
artists/poets around 1970 amounted to conceptual art for all intents and purposes,
despite their conscientiously eschewing this definition:
Mail art and visual poetry are largely two sides of the same coin. While mail art is
mostly defined as a practice of artistic communication relating to immediate situ-
ations involving originator and recipient, it shares the language of iconic images
that transcend borders and languages, montage or collage techniques, counter-
information, and the expropriating of mass-media messages or recycling and
reprocessing of works that are characteristic of many productions of visible poetry,
3 “Intensified reading, expanded writing (a con- 4 In this respect, see, among other cases, Dias
versation with Wlademir Dias-Pino on intensiv- Pino’s project Brasil Meia Meia, published in
ism, concrete poetry, process/poem and the Ponto I, now also in OEI, p. 37.
visual encyclopedia),” in OEI # 66 2014: Process/ 5 Zanna Gilbert, “Genealogical Diversions: Exper-
Poem (poema/processo), ed. Jonas (J) Magnus- imental Poetry Networks, Mail Art and Concep-
son, Cecilia Grönberg, Tobi Maier (Stockholm: tualisms,” in Caiana. Revista de Historia del Arte
OEI Editör, 2014), 153. y Cultura Visual del Centro Argentino de Investi
gadores de Arte (CAIA), no. 4 (2014): 2.
On more than one occasion groups of “new poets” started, as did Poema/Processo,
as a response to the overly controlling hegemony of previous generations. Clemente
Padín, for example, wrote that releasing the magazine Los Huevos del Plata in 1965
was an attempt
to make space for us, because the 1945 generation left us practically nowhere to
go, since they controlled the major publishers and literary publications and we
were unable to find anywhere to publish our poems or express our opinions. So we
started this peculiar review that set out to be a generational proposal.7
Indeed, it was the initiative of members of some of these groups of poets in the mid-
1960s and early 1970s that built a network that at different times brought together
the Ediciones Mimbre books of Guillermo Deisler, then living in Antofagasta, north-
ern Chile; Dámaso Ogaz’s La Pata de Palo and El techo de la Ballena, both published
in Caracas, Venezuela; Los Huevos del Plata and Ovum 10, publications headed by
Clemente Padín himself in Uruguay; the magazines organized by Edgardo Antonio
Vigo in La Plata, Diagonal Cero and Hexagono ’71, the latter quite politically engaged,
especially after its seventh issue, and more clearly focused on the visual arts;8 in
addition to the abovementioned publications of the Poema/Processo group in Brazil
and Samuel Feijóo (El caimán barbudo and Signos) in Cuba.9 A point to note is that
the network was capable of drawing together very different proposals that in many
cases were produced in relatively peripheral places in each country—La Plata in
Argentina, Natal in Brazil, Antofagasta in Chile—thus showing the existence of a
surprisingly lively and widespread cultural production. Again there was this net-
work’s ability to structure and organize in an extraordinarily organic manner, away
from—and even against—“establishments” or hegemonic systems. As we shall see
below, this would also be a feature of the mail art system.
transitioning from poetry to art was ultimately less relevant than maintaining and
consolidating a continental channel for exchanges, further strengthened by con-
verging with the larger international mail art system, which some Latin Ameri-
can artists were able to join during more or less extended periods spent in other
countries. These artists had traveled to these countries on their own account or to
flee from dramatic political situations in their respective homelands. Worth noting
in this respect were the cases of the Mexican artists Felipe Ehrenberg in England
and Ulises Carrión in Holland; the tireless work of Guillermo Deisler in the several
socialist bloc countries where he was exiled; the relationships built up by Brazilian
artists Ângelo de Aquino (who spent time in Italy and Poland) and Regina Silveira,
who in 1969 joined Julio Plaza at the University of Puerto Rico, where many other
artists from the Americas lectured and exhibited in those years; and especially,
considering the absolutely pioneering character of some of their initiatives, Liliana
Porter (fig. XX) (Argentina), Luis Camnitzer (Uruguay) and José Guillermo Castillo
(Venezuela), who headed the New York Graphic Workshop.
In addition to their activities in New York, Porter and Camnitzer introduced mail
art methods to Latin America on the occasion of their participation in the group
exhibition Experiencias 69, held at the Instituto Di Tella, in Buenos Aires, for which
they each sent four different works by mail to approximately one thousand people in
the city. The same works were then included in the exhibition, thus inaugurating the
ambivalent nature of mail art, hovering between public and private.11 Experiencias
69 may be seen as a prelude to the systematization of the mail art network on the
continent in the middle of the following decade.
Despite the difficulties involved in any attempt to organize this genealogy, there
is a certain consensus that the network was definitively consolidated by 1975 or
thereabouts. That same year saw two seminal exhibitions named, quite oddly, Pri-
meira Exposição Internacional de Arte Postal (First International Mail Art Exhibi-
tion) and Última exposición internacional de Arte correo ’75 (Last Mail Art Exhibition
’75). The former was organized in Recife by Paulo Bruscky. Although there was a
relatively small proportion of international works on show, it did feature impor-
tant artists from the Latin American network, such as Clemente Padín, Dámaso
Ogaz, Edgardo Antonio Vigo, and Horácio Zabala; the latter two also organized the
Última exposición internacional de Arte correo ’75, which, despite its title, was an
absolutely new development in the Argentine context, one that involved 199 artists,
a quite significant number, especially given the incipient nature of mail art on the
“Yes, but that would have been to please people Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro et al., The New York
that we didn’t want to please. Our move was a Graphic Workshop (1964–1970) (Austin: Blanton
strategic one towards polemics, and an attempt Museum of Art, 2009), 37–40, accessed Octo-
to take discussions of the avant-garde further.” ber 9, 2016, https://www.academia.edu
OEI, 136. /28341529/To_Develop_Images_from
11 For a more detailed description of Porter and _Thoughts._The_South_American_Travels
Camnitzer’s involvement in Experiencias 69 and _of_the_New_York_Graphic_Workshop.
its implications, see Silvia Dolinko, “To Develop
Images from Thoughts—The South American
Travels of the New York Graphic Workshop,” in
12 Edgardo Antonio Vigo, “Balance del Artecorreo 14 Ulises Carrión, “Mail Art and the Big Monster,”
en Sudamerica hasta 1977,” in Mike Crane, A in XVI Bienal de São Paulo: Arte Postal (São
Brief History of Correspondence Art (La Plata: Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1981), 12.
Running Dog Press, 1977), quoted in Bruno 15 See A User’s Guide to Detournement originally
Sayão, Solidariedade em Rede: arte postal na published in Les Lèvres Nues, no. 8 (1956). Note
América Latina (master’s dissertation, USP that procedures advocated by the authors (Guy
Interunidades, 2015), 46. Debord and Gil Wolman) include appropriation
13 Julio Plaza, “Mail Art: Art in Synchrony,” in XVI and “collage” of various materials from artistic,
Bienal de São Paulo: Arte Postal (São Paulo: philosophical, or media contexts, all widely used
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1981), 8. by New Poetry and postal art.
this work was clandestine in both the literal and metaphorical senses of the term.
While calling for insurrection, it presupposed and required extreme secrecy, and at
the same time referred almost literally to the clandestine rebel—an unknown and
almost invisible passenger who parasitically uses a pre-existing structure or infra-
structure but does not obey its rules or even fights them head on. Some insightful
theorists have posed invisibility as a key feature of mail art,16 but its subtly parasiti-
cal character is another, and it should be added.
It would be hard to imagine anything more opposite from the reality of mail art in
Latin America, plagued by dictatorships and repressive regimes in the 1960s and
1970s, than this soothing and peaceful vision of a dream eventually fulfilled of “free
and open exchange.” Just as the Pop movement retained some of the features of the
British and US models—particularly iconographic ones—while incorporating vio-
lence and political engagement as it spread around Latin America, so did mail art
when it became artecorreo or arte postal. It plunged into local reality, significantly
distancing itself from the playful tone of Ray Johnson and other early mail artists.
Over the last few decades, the continent’s critical historiography has argued over
the real pertinence of an exclusive or predominantly ideological reading of Latin
American “conceptualism;”18 however, artists who may be more or less arbitrarily19
affiliated with this type of production undeniably introduced issues that had previ-
ously been absent from it. As Graciela Gutiérrez Marx admirably points out in the
epigraph to this text, Latin American mail art of these years had to be anonymous
while carrying the burden and grief of a clear, objective, and tragic message. One of
the most explicit and at the same time subtle pieces in this respect is Felipe Ehren-
berg’s Obra Secretamente titulada Arriba y Adelante . . . y si no pues también (Work
Secretly Titled Upwards and Onwards . . . whether you like it or not, 1970) (fig. XX).
16 Graciela Gutiérrez Marx’s referential book, ism Looks Like?” Afterall 23 (2010), accessed
Artecorreo. Artistas invisibles en la red postal, October 9, 2016, http://www.afterall.org
seeks to track down “invisible artists” in the /journal/issue.23/how.do.we.know.what.latin
mail network. .american.conceptualism.looks.likemiguela
17 Vittore Baroni, Arte Postale (Italy: AAA Edizioni, .lopez#footnote4247.
1997). 19 The opposition of some artists to any critics’
18 For a very clear analysis, although synthetic, of effort to classify them is made clear in Artur
the intense critical debate of the last two Barrio’s 1970 Manifesto, or by Juan Pablo Renzi
decades of the relationship/opposition between in his intervention in the catalogue for the exhi-
US conceptual art and Latin American “Ideo- bition Arte de Sistemas (Buenos Aires: Centro
logical Conceptualism,” see Miguel López, “How de Arte y Comunicación, 1971), both easily
Do We Know What Latin American Conceptual- retrievable on the internet.
At the time he was living in England, where he moved after the 1968 Tlatelolco mas-
sacre, and from there he sent this light, Pop-style black-and-white drawing, featur-
ing a woman holding her breast with one hand and a soccer ball marked “World
Cup Mexico 1970” with the other, to the Salón Independiente de Mexico. To keep an
image so charged with symbolism from getting caught up in the mesh of censorship
before reaching its destination, Ehrenberg divided the drawing into two hundred
postcards that were sent from three different post offices, with clear instructions
for assembling the work:20
During the opening night of the Third Annual Exhibition of the Salón Independiente,
and after a respectable amount of citizens are gathered, my duly appointed repre-
sentative shall begin by tacking up each card in order. . . . Members of the public
are happily invited to help.21
Whereas by dividing the work into several parts he was able to dodge censorship
and make it logistically and economically viable, this procedure also made it col-
lective, plural, and almost anonymous, lending it a democratic character together
with a latent sense of urgency that fundamentally distinguished mail art produced
in Latin America from that produced in the United States and Europe at the time,
perhaps with the significant exception of the Socialist Bloc countries. In Poland, to
give just one example, Jarosław Kozłowski and Andrzej Kostołowski were part of
mail art’s global system through the NET event/manifesto (1971), which included
Latin American artists, and Zofia Kulik and Przemysław Kwiek, working under the
name KwieKulik from 1971 to 1987, produced a huge range of precarious, ephemeral
works that were extremely critical of the political and social situation in Poland as
well as a number of counterinformation bulletins they called Mail-Out, periodically
sent to local art-scene personalities.
These strategies reflected more a need to communicate and be free of stifling con-
texts than support of typical mail art procedures. However, they acted in the same
context and used the same network to circulate and build links and affinities that
became especially strong given their working in similar contexts.22 At the Centro
de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC, or Center for Art and Communication) in Buenos
Aires, Jorge Glusberg was then one of the leading organizers of the continent’s mail
art and conceptual networks. He visited KwieKulik in Warsaw and invited them
to show work in Buenos Aires.23 From 1968 onward, CAyC was particularly active
with exhibitions and discursive activity in Argentina and internationally. Among the
artists most closely related to the center are several active in mail art such as Vigo,
Zabala, and Carlos Ginzburg. In addition, CAyC organized traveling exhibitions for
Argentinean artists and others based on principles close to mail art (by calling for
entries, including predefined format works on paper, emphasizing the ease of send-
ing them in, etc.). CAyC also produced frequent—sometimes almost daily—news-
letters about its activities, some of which were almost mail art in themselves, while
others were merely informative. By not distinguishing between these two formats,
CAyC’s “institutional” work was similar to that of artists active in the mail art chan-
nel, which—as noted above—did not make rigid distinctions between these two
possible uses of postal services as vehicle, thus stigmatizing what Clemente Padín
defined as a
false dichotomy between art and communication. The artistic product is above all
a product of communication and therefore an indissoluble part of social produc-
tion. . . . In some contexts its “artistic” aspect will prevail (museums, galleries, pro-
fessors’ positions, etc.), in others its use as means of communication will prevail.
But both aspects are inseparable.24
23 See KwieKulik, ed. Lukasz Ronduda and Georg memory of Palomo, son of Edgardo Antonio
Schôllhammer (Zurich: jrp|Ringier, 2013). Vigo, who was abducted and killed by the
24 Clemente Padín interviewed by Tulio Restrepo, regime, and the international campaign for the
“Entrevista sobre Arte Correo: Contexto Lati- release of Jorge Caraballo and Clemente Padín,
noamérica,” Escáner Cultural, accessed incarcerated by the dictatorship in Uruguay in
October 3, 2016, http://revista.escaner.cl 1977.
/node/1206. 26 In addition to the references, there are numer-
25 Two famous cases of mail art network mobiliza- ous essays on the period and subjects covered
tion are the initiative Set Free Palomo, in
posed in a state of suspension, in this respect choosing to remain in the realm of the
tactics used by the movement’s leading figures. “Tactics” is used here as in Michel de
Certeau’s sense, which distinguishes between strategies, developed by a subject that
may be separate from the environment in which it seeks to intervene, and tactics,
as a calculation that cannot rely on a basis of its own or a boundary distinguishing
the other as visible totality. The tactic has nothing but the place of the Other. There it
infiltrates fragment by fragment without apprehending it as a whole, without being
able to keep it at a distance.27 It is necessarily in this place of the Other (capitalism,
colonization, repression, alienation . . .), unable to leave for more than the short
lapse of an afuera momentáneo that the new poetry and mail art examined above
are articulated.
It would therefore be arbitrary to write about them in an attempt to avoid what
Miguel López called “the discordant crossing of stories.”28 And it would be risky to
suggest categorizations and definitions that would contradict the very history of
a movement that has never been a movement, a poetry that has never been (just)
poetry, and letters that were certainly not just letters. More modestly, but not there-
fore with less conviction, the aim here was to summarize a few points, suggest some
reflections, and metonymically point to the importance and urgency of re-reading
chapters still seen as “minor” in the context of recent art history, and not only of
Latin American art.
Este documento debe ser anónimo: primero, porque no puedo hablar por los que F ig. 5 6
sufren por dentro algo que he mantenido dolorosamente conmigo mientras estaba Omar Lara, cover of The Enemies, 1967. Printed
by Ediciones Mimbre by Guillermo Deisler,
momentáneamente afuera [. . .] cómo comunicar lo que pasa entre los aullidos de
Santiago, Chile. Courtesy of Laura Coll de
las sirenas durante un estado de asedio, o la pena de las familias cuyos hijos e hijas Deisler.
fueron recogidos por patrullas infernales [. . .] hombres enmascarados portando
armas de guerra, sus botas chapoteando en charcos de sangre durante la noche, Omar Lara, portada de Los Enemigos, 1967.
Impreso por Ediciones Mimbre de Guillermo
en caminos, calles y plazas amuralladas [. . .]1
Deisler, Santiago, Chile. Cortesía de Laura Coll
—postal de Gr ac i e l a Gutié rre z Marx, 1978 de Deisler.
1 De una postal enviada con un nombre apócrifo grupo Arte Concreto, de poetas de São Paulo,
por Graciela Gutiérrez Marx en 1978 mientras reunidos alrededor de la revista Noigandres y
viajaba de Génova a Inglaterra. Graciela Gutié- congregados por Augusto de Campos, Haroldo
rrez Marx, Artecorreo. Artistas invisibles en la de Campos y Décio Pignatari. Los integrantes
red postal (Buenos Aires: Luna Verde, 2010), de Poema/Processo incluían a Moacy Cirne,
151. Wlademir Dias-Pino, Álvaro de Sá, Neide Dias
2 Poema/Processo surgió en parte como res- de Sá y Falves Silva, entre otros.
puesta a la hegemonía a nivel nacional del
153
durante los cinco años que existía el movimiento—¡y eso sin ninguna escisión!—
había creado una fuerza internacional. Estábamos trabajando en Europa y por toda
América Latina. Pero no afirmábamos las influencias europeas, como hizo la poesía
concreta. Europa no aceptaría una cultura visual nacida en Brasil, así que esta afir-
mación era necesaria para la poesía concreta, pero no para Poema/Processo como
tenía connotaciones panamericanas.3
En más de una ocasión se iniciaron grupos de “poetas nuevos”, como hizo Poema/
Processo, en respuesta a la hegemonía demasiado dominante de las generaciones
previas. Clemente Padín, por ejemplo, escribió que publicar la revista Los Huevos
del Plata en 1965 fue un intento de:
10 Entre los pocos que no se unieron al sistema de 11 Para una descripción más detallada de la
arte se encontraban integrantes de Poema/ participación de Porter y Camnitzer en Expe
Processo, y es en este respecto que es riencias 69 y sus implicaciones, véase Silvia
interesante notar que, cuando fue preguntado Dolinko, “To Develop Images from Thoughts—
si habría sido más fácil llamar a lo que hacían The South American Travels of the New York
los integrantes de Poema/Processo “arte Graphic Workshop,” en Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro
visual”, el mismo Wlademir Dias-Pino et al., The New York Graphic Workshop (1964–
respondió: “Sí, pero eso habría sido para 1970) (Austin: Blanton Museum of Art, 2009),
complacer a la gente a quien no queríamos 37–40, consultado el 9 de octubre de 2016,
complacer. Lo nuestro fue un movimiento https://www.academia.edu/28341529/To
estratégico hacia la polémica, y un intento de _Develop_Images_from_Thoughts._The
adelantar la discusión de la vanguardia”. OEI, _South_American_Travels_of_the_New_York
136. _Graphic_Workshop.
en Recife por Paulo Bruscky. Aunque había una proporción relativamente pequeña
de obras internacionales expuestas, incluía a artistas importantes de la red latino
americana, como Clemente Padín, Dámaso Ogaz, Edgardo Antonio Vigo y Horácio
Zabala; estos últimos dos también organizaron la Última exposición internacional
de Arte correo ’75, que, a pesar de su título, fue un acontecimiento absolutamente
nuevo en el contexto argentino, uno que involucraba a 199 artistas, un número bien
importante, especialmente dada la naturaleza incipiente del arte correo en el conti-
nente. Presentada en una galería comercial, sin embargo, y sujeta a una significativa
interferencia por parte del director, la exhibición fue considerada un fracaso por
los organizadores mismos, quienes decidieron que sería la “última” de este tipo.12
El hecho de que los dos artistas hayan permanecido activos en la escena del arte
postal, y de que Vigo llevara a cabo eventos cruciales a su consolidación en el país,
no debe ser visto como una contradicción. En cierto sentido, desde el principio el
arte correo en América Latina estaba destinado a ser marcado por cierta vaguedad:
hasta cuando los autores intentan plantear el asunto con precisión, lo único que
logran admitir es que hay “confusión sobre lo que es y lo que no es el arte correo
[. . .] [sin embargo] no interesa aquí definir lo que es y no es el arte correo, pues en
ese tipo de arte predomina el espíritu de mezcla de medios y de lenguajes y el juego
es precisamente invadir otros espacios-tiempo”.13 Hasta la reclamación audaz de
Ulises Carrión de que “el arte correo tiene muy poco que ver con correo y mucho
que ver con arte”14 es discutible dado que la característica fundamental del arte
correo es precisamente su uso del sistema postal, el cual Carrión intentó subvertir,
por lo menos como una provocación, con su propuesta de una Rede Internacional
de Correio Artístico Imprevisível (RICAI, o Red Internacional de Correo Artístico
Imprevisible), que complementaría al arte correo al aceptar entregas en cualquier
modo, excepto del servicio postal oficial. Mientras RICAI fue una iniciativa en gran
medida marginal, vale la pena mencionarla porque en último lugar muestra que
el arte correo siempre ha sido dependiente de los servicios de correo, no tanto en
sentido logístico, sino por la naturaleza “parasítica” de su mera esencia, bastante
cercana al concepto de detournement desarrollado por los Situacionistas unos años
antes:15 el arte correo tiene que ser parte de un circuito operacional para lograr
completamente su función. Así que si hay un rasgo ontológico que distingue clara-
mente a la Nueva Poesía del arte correo, es que este último requiere de los servicios
12 Edgardo Antonio Vigo, “Balance del Artecorreo 14 Ulises Carrión, “Mail Art and the Big Monster,”
en Sudamérica hasta 1977,” en Mike Crane, A en XVI Bienal de São Paulo: Arte Postal (São
Brief History of Correspondence Art (La Plata: Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1981), 12.
Running Dog Press, 1977), citado en Bruno 15 Véase A User’s Guide to Detournement, original-
Sayão, Solidariedade em rede: arte postal na mente publicado en Les Lèvres Nues, no. 8
América Latina (tesis de maestría, USP Interu- (1956). Es notable que los procedimientos
nidades, 2015), 46. propuestos por los autores (Guy Debord y Gil
13 Julio Plaza, “Mail Art: Art in Synchrony,” en XVI Wolman) incluyen la apropiación y el “collage”
Bienal de São Paulo: Arte Postal (São Paulo: de varios materiales de contextos artísticos,
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1981), 8. filosóficos o mediáticos, todos ampliamente
empleados por la nueva poesía y el arte postal.
Sería difícil imaginar algo más opuesto a la realidad del arte correo en América
Latina, plagada de dictaduras y regímenes represivos en las décadas de 1960 y 1970,
que esta visión reconfortante y pacífica de un sueño eventualmente satisfecho de
“intercambio libre y abierto.” Tal como el movimiento Pop retenía algunos de los
rasgos de los modelos de Gran Bretaña y Estados Unidos—particularmente los
más iconográficos—incorporando la violencia y el compromiso político mientras se
difundía por América Latina, así hacía también el arte correo cuando se convirtió en
arte correo o arte postal. Se sumergió en la realidad local, distanciándose considera-
blemente del tono juguetón de Ray Johnson y de otros artistas de correo anteriores.
16 El libro referencial de Graciela Gutiérrez Marx, 17 Vittore Baroni, Arte Postale (Italia: AAA Edizioni,
Artecorreo. Artistas invisibles en la red postal, 1997).
busca rastrear a los “artistas invisibles” en la
red de correo.
Si bien dividiendo la obra en varias partes fue capaz de esquivar la censura y hacerla
logística y económicamente viable, este procedimiento también la hizo colectiva, plu-
ral y casi anónima, otorgándole un carácter democrático junto con un sentido latente
de urgencia que distinguía fundamentalmente al arte correo producido en América
Latina del que fue producido en Estados Unidos y Europa en aquel momento, tal
vez con la excepción importante de los países del Bloque Soviético. En Polonia, para
18 Para un análisis muy claro, aunque también 20 En el servicio postal mexicano, no se permitía el
sintético, del debate crítico intenso de las transporte de material pornográfico. Además,
últimas dos décadas sobre la relación/oposición el título de la obra se apropió del eslogan del
entre el arte conceptual estadounidense y el entonces candidato presidencial y el ex ministro
“Conceptualismo Ideológico”, véase Miguel del interior, Luis Echeverría, considerado uno
López, “How Do We Know What Latin American de los responsables de la masacre de
Conceptualism Looks Like?” Afterall 23 (2010), Tlatelolco.
consultado el 9 de octubre de 2016, http:// 21 Instrucciones para una Obra secretamente
www.afterall.org/journal/issue.23/how.do titulada arriba y adelante . . . y si no, pues tam
.we.know.what.latin.american.conceptualism bién (noviembre de 1970), Tate Gallery Archive:
.looks.likemiguela.lopez#footnote4247. 815.2.2.4.201, citado en Zanna Gilbert, “The
19 La oposición de algunos artistas al esfuerzo de Afterlives of Mail Art: Felipe Ehrenberg’s Poetic
cualquier crítico de clasificar es aclarada en el System,” Post (en línea), consultado el 3 de
Manifesto de Artur Barrio de 1970, o por Juan octubre de 2016, http://post.at.moma.org
Pablo Renzi en su intervención para el catálogo /content_items/391-the-afterlives-of-mail
de la exhibición Arte de Sistemas (Buenos Aires: -art-felipe-ehrenberg-s-poetic-systems.
Centro de Arte y Comunicación, 1971), ambos
fácilmente encontrados en internet.
dar solo un ejemplo, Jaroslaw Kozłowski y Andrzej Kostołowski, parte del sistema
global del arte correo por el Evento/manifiesto NET (1971), que incluía a artistas
latinoamericanos, y Zofia Kulik y Przemysław Kwiek, quienes trabajaron juntos
bajo el nombre de KwieKulik desde 1971 hasta 1987 y produjeron un espectro muy
amplio de obras precarias, efímeras que fueron extremadamente críticas de la situa-
ción política y social de Polonia, como también un número de boletines de c ontra-
información que llamaron Mail-Out (Envío de correo), enviados periódicamente a
personalidades de la escena de arte local.
Estas estrategias reflejaban una necesidad de comunicar y de liberarse de los
contextos sofocantes que apoyan los procedimientos típicos del arte correo. Sin
embargo, actuaron dentro del mismo contexto y utilizaron la misma red para circu-
lar y construir enlaces y afinidades que se volvieron especialmente fuertes dado que
trabajaban en contextos similares.22 En el Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC)
en Buenos Aires, Jorge Glusberg fue uno de los organizadores principales de las
redes de arte correo y conceptual del continente. Visitó a KwieKulik en Varsovia y
los invitó a exhibir sus obras en Buenos Aires.23 Desde 1968 en adelante, el CAyC
fue particularmente activo con exhibiciones y actividades discursivas en Argentina
y a nivel internacional. Entre los artistas más estrechamente relacionados con el
centro hay varios activos en el arte correo como Vigo, Zabala y Carlos Ginzburg.
Además, el CAyC organizó exhibiciones itinerantes para artistas argentinos y otros,
basadas en principios cercanos a los del arte correo (al hacer un llamado por con-
tribuciones, incluyendo obras sobre papel de formato predefinido, enfatizando la
facilidad de entregarlas, etc.). El CAyC también producía boletines informativos fre-
cuentes—a veces casi diarios—sobre sus actividades, algunos de los cuales fueron
prácticamente arte correo en sí, mientras otros fueron simplemente informativos.
Al no distinguir entre estos dos formatos, el trabajo “institucional” del CAyC fue
semejante al de los artistas activos en el canal del arte correo, quienes—como se ha
notado arriba—no hicieron distinciones rígidas entre estos dos posibles usos de los
servicios postales como vehículo, estigmatizando así lo que Clemente Padín definió
como una:
falsa dicotomía entre el arte y la comunicación. El producto artístico es, ante todo,
un producto de comunicación y por lo tanto parte indisoluble de la producción
social. Por otra parte, al igual que el resto de los productos que el hombre crea,
se constituyen en auxiliar de esa misma producción (al favorecer o dificultar sus
procesos). En algunos contextos prevalecerá su índole “artística” (museos, galerías,
cátedras, etc.), en otros prevalecerá su índole de instrumento de comunicación.
Pero, ambas facetas son inseparables.24
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
The fixed images of photography or pictorial and sculptural arts, as well as film’s F ig. 6 8
moving images, depict the unique friction of bodies. Whether suspended or in Luis Pazos, Live transformation of masses,
1972⁄2012. Black-and-white photograph, 11 ×
motion, these bodies distill the rhythm of the many, brought together by a common
13 3⁄4 in. (28 × 35 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
motive for a more or less lasting moment—a party, a destination, a protest, the
transformation of the world. Bodies together invoke movement—a potential, and Luis Pazos, Transformación de masas en vivo,
also a danger. 1972⁄2012. Fotografía en blanco y negro, 11 ×
13 3⁄4 in. (28 × 35 cm). Cortesía del artista.
People, mass, multitude. This union of bodies and wills is named using different
terms that seek to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate bonds. Despite
their ambiguity, the notion of “the people” appears, without a doubt, among the first
of said terms. Constitutions speak in the name of the people, referring in general
terms to the inhabitants of the nation: to the citizen who possesses rights, beyond
the fact that these rights are not manifested in the same way for everyone. In terms
of class, the people are represented by the working class—with a latent turbulence.
For example, in the postrevolutionary murals of the Palacio Nacional, México City,
Diego Rivera represents campesinos and proletarian people in contrast to those who
are not the people: the elites, the decadent bourgeoisie who are only affected by
money. The story is of a people in arms who battle for power. Rivera also depicted
the cultural concept of “the people” through the ancestral traditions of Mexicanness,
including religious beliefs and the preparation of food. People, nation, sovereignty,
and citizenship are all notions that are interconnected. Inflaming the people leads
to war and to the eradication of those who do not fit within the term’s boundaries,
as came to pass during Hitler’s Germany.
Mass and multitude refer to the collective subject and to a way of behaving in
opposition to that of the individual. But the mass is also a form. The history of art
is populated with images that represent masses, that is to say, an array of collective
subjects. The history inscribed by the masses develops in the nineteenth century
and expands in the twentieth.
Hobbes introduced the central difference between “people” and “multitude,”
understanding the people as a subject with one will (even in a monarchy, as the rep-
resentation of the state)—that is, the will of the citizens—and with an understand-
ing of the multitude as those who rebel against the will of the people.1 The people
1 Thomas Hobbes, De Cive : Philosophical Rudi vol. 2, The English Works, ed. Sir William Moles-
171
ments Concerning Government and Society, worth (Routledge: Thoemmes Press, 1992), 158.
can be imagined when the multitude is guided by a unitary will. It is not defined in
terms of civil society—as it could be understood in Locke, Kant, Hegel, or Marx—
but rather in relation to the state. When the opinion of the multitude is placed above
the reason of the state, Hobbes calls it sedition. In Leviathan, the term “people” is
reinscribed in relation to Republicanism, through the concept of representation.2
For Spinoza, the multitude is a plurality that persists in the public sphere through
collective actions represented by community tasks that do not converge into a single
one. It is the social and political existence of many insofar as they are many.3 The
multitude is a permanent form, non-episodic, the foundation of civil liberties. The
multitude clears the way for diversity, plurality, and decentralization.
The studies of Paolo Virno or Antonio Negri reinscribe the concept of the multi-
tude. The crisis of the nation-state concedes importance and space to the multitude
as a form of political existence. The nation is understood as a process of multiplicity
and individuation.4 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri uphold its independence and
the capacity of the contemporary multitude to mobilize itself without political lead-
ers, beyond barriers of social class and national borders.5 It is based on the premise
that if the multitude made the empire grow, it can also provoke a crisis within it to
create something new. Its very conception is unquestionably imbued with a positive
vision.
As Hardt and Negri establish in their periodization of the emergence of the mul-
titude as political subject (three periods marked by the formation of the First Inter-
national in 1848, the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the Chinese Revolution in 1949
and the revolutions in Latin America and Africa), it possesses a de facto power. The
authors mention the 1999 summit in Seattle as the contemporary moment of the
multitude’s expression.
In the 1960s and 1970s, “people,” “mass,” and “multitude” served as key terms. The
power of the masses, of the people, and of the multitude brought people together
and, at the same time, provoked rejection and condemnation. There is a historic
mistrust of the mob. It transforms and deforms, unleashing dark forces that the
history of civilization has attempted to control. The people are the historical subject
that transforms society to attain greater rights within the state, looking to occupy its
structure to allow for transformation (both in terms of political representation and
On the concept of multitude in Hobbes, see 5 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Multitude
Omar Astorga, “Hobbes’s Concept of Multi- (New York: Penguin Press, 2004). Gonzalo
tude,” Hobbes Studies 24, no. 1: 5–14. Aguilar also develops the possibility of “con-
2 See Quentin Skinner, “Hobbes on Persons, ceiving of alternative groupings that no longer
Authors and Representatives,” in The Cam respond to the domineering, nationalist, and
bridge Companion to Hobbes’s Leviathan, ed. hegemonizing central nucleus that is assumed
Patricia Springborg (Cambridge: Cambridge by the idea of the people.” Aguilar develops
University Press, 2007), 157–80. other iterations of the notion of the people that
3 Spinoza, Tratado político (Madrid: Alianza Edito- he analyzes through Latin American cinema.
rial, 1986 [1677]). See Aguilar, Más allá del pueblo. Imágenes,
4 Paolo Virno, Gramática de la multitud. Para un indicios y políticas del cine (Buenos Aires: FCE,
análisis de las formas de vida contemporáneas, 2015), 10.
trans. Adriana Gómez, Juan Doming Estop, and
Miguel Santucho (Madrid: Traficantes de sue-
ños, 2003).
access to capital). The mass, like the multitude, is associated with indetermination,
a confused, strange, other force, whose mobilization has no declared program. El
pueblo (the people) and la masa (the mass): the pairing of the masculine and femi-
nine genders in Spanish suggests the patriarchal order and its insubordinate other.
The people can mutate unpredictably into the mass. In the streets, the people who
find expression in demonstrations and rallies can evolve into a mass, into uncon-
trolled hordes.
The sixties were years of a widespread insurrection. The masses, the people, and
the multitudes erupted onto the urban scene confident in their terrifying, transfor-
mative power. Elias Canetti’s book Masa y poder (Crowds and Power) begins with
these words: “Man fears nothing more than being touched by the unknown. He
wants to know who is grabbing him; he wants to recognize him or at least to be able
to classify him. Man always avoids contact with what is strange.”6 This early and
adroit essay deals with the widespread emergency brought about in the 1960s by the
existence and perception of the masses.
Artistic representations present different facets of these groupings, delineating
convictions and fears about them. They encrypt fragments of experiences lived
by many people and transmit the conceptual and emotional complexity of those
moments. Paintings, drawings, photographs, and films distill aspects that are diffi-
cult to classify when they are experienced. This text will examine representations of
the 1960s and 1970s that provide evidence of the mutating and ambiguous character
of the masses. How did art represent multiple people in movement? How do we
differentiate some concrete expressions from others? What gestures, what forms
of connection, what means of representation might allow us to analyze their differ-
ences? Answers to these questions are formulated in light of the general hypothesis
that maintains that works of art can be analyzed as a laboratory of both feelings and
projects that intervened in the rhythm of history at different moments.
6 Elias Canetti, Masa y poder, trans. Horst Vogel (São Paulo: Companhia Das Letras, 1992). The
(1960; repr., Barcelona: Muchnik Editores, book begins precisely with the carnival of 1919.
1981). 8 For a detailed, complex, and revelatory analysis
7 A stunning book on the process of metropoliza- of the grammar of the organization of the
tion in São Paulo as a modern city is by Nicolau masses, see the aforementioned book by Elias
Sevcenko, Orfeu Extático na metrópole. São Canetti.
Paulo, sociedade e cultura nos frementes anos 20
9 The account is from the priest Antonio Tello in el paradigma zilboorgiano primitivista,” in Otras
his History of New Galicia. See Joan Handwerg, rutas hacia Siqueiros, ed. Olivier Debroise
“La conquista como Kairos (¿o será quiasma?) y (México, D. F.: INAA-CURARE, 1996), 147–65.
driving force for the film project about Brasília that Lygia Pape was not able to real-
ize. In her project, people came together and worked like ants in the construction
of the new city. It was a visual and constructive project. In an interview, the artist
pointed out that this film “presented the constructive character of the neoconcrete
and could be done easily today, but I lost the drive.”10 Brasília—the emblematic city
that shattered the molds of the constructive, architectural challenge—was the privi-
leged stage that highlighted the state crisis that would explode with the coup of 1964
and would deepen in the following years.
In the work by Luis Felipe Noé, Introducción a la esperanza (Introduction to Hope,
1963, fig. 76), another sense of meaning moves the masses. This is a painting that
Luis Felipe Noé rightly and repeatedly differentiated from Manifestación. All of the
features mentioned in Berni’s painting vanish. This is a shapeless mass, in which
the faces have the same form and their expressions are excessive, with mouths open
as they shout or sing. It is another kind of demonstration, not of workers organized
for a particular demand. Noé considers the demonstration to be an intense aes-
thetic expression.11 Peronist demonstrations are always with bombos—Argentinian
bass drums—and Noé was astonished by their sound, their hypnotic percussion,
rhythm, and vibrations.12
10 Lygia Pape, interviewed by Fernando Cocchi- between the bombos and Peronism in “El origen
arale and Anna Bella Geiger, Abstracionismo de los sonidos del peronismo,” Página/12, Octo-
geométrico e informal: a vanguarda brasileira nos ber 3, 2016, accessed January 22, 2017, http://
anos cinqüenta (Rio de Janeiro: Funarte, 1987), www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-310828
160. This interview, in addition to Mário Pedro- -2016-10-03.html
sa’s talk and Lygia Pape’s project, are men- 13 The Festival de Viña del Mar held in November
tioned and analyzed in the article by Vanessa of 1969 brought the news of a Latin American
Rosa Machado, “Arte e espaço público nos project articulated around the figure of the
filmes de Lygia Pape,” Risco: Revista de pesquisa people—a cinema that would link the image
em arquitetura e urbanismo 7, no. 1 (2008): with the actions of the many. Films like La hora
93–106. de los hornos (The Hour of the Furnaces) by
11 Fundamentally, this is a Peronist demonstra- Fernando Solanas and Octavio Gettino (1973)
tion. For an analysis of this painting by the artist were based on the potential of a unity of the
himself, see Luis Felipe Noé, interviewed by people with the real. In regards to the analysis
Andrea Giunta at Universidad Nacional de San of “the many” in film, Gonzalo Aguilar proposes
Martín, YouTube video, posted by Cultura three principles: 1) As to the question of how to
Unsam, May 12, 2016, 1:18:55, https://www name them (mass, mob, multitude, community,
.youtube.com/watch?v=qLtaU8Z7I_A, begin- gang, public, people?), he points out that what
ning at 56:00. differentiates the “people” is the union of the
12 In regards to the emblems of Peronism, see many “with one person, typically the leader, to
Ezequiel Adamovsky and Esteban Buch, La configure a homogeneous force, a will to take
marchita, el escudo y el bombo. Una historia over the State;” 2) The many on the screen
cultural de los emblemas del peronismo, de Perón respond to an order that he refers to as a chore
a Cristina Kirchner (Buenos Aires: Planeta, ography of bodies that move in organic direc-
2016). Adamovsky analyzes the relationship tions, preferably toward the consolidation of
The idea of union, in and of itself, gave rise to images that proposed a loving trib-
ute to the masses—an invitation to leave behind isolation to unite with the flow of
solidarity. In Divisor (Divider, 1968, fig. 77), Lygia Pape gathered together 200 people
who moved in unison, equidistant from one another, through the streets of Rio de
Janeiro. The vast square white cloth—which replicated the utter relinquishment of
representation that Malevich achieved with his White on White (1918)—was punc-
tured by holes that allowed for life, bodies, and movement. Together but separate,
the bodies poked through the cloth at equivalent distances, allowing only a head
to be seen. The contrast between the hair and the white and the movement of the
bodies activated a metaphor about everything that had to do with the generational
call to participation in change-making that felt imminent—a poetic choreography
of the mass.
The eclogues of the bodies unified together were connected to poetry and to song,
and they evolved into demands for action. The painting by Gracia Barrios, América
no invoco tu nombre en vano (America, I Do Not Invoke Your Name in Vain, 1970,
fig. 78), whose title is derived from the poem by Pablo Neruda in the Canto general,
provided the perfect image for the song by Violeta Parra, De cuerpo entero (Full
Body, 1966), which stated that the human being, formed out of spirit and body, was
not just a soul, but rather a river-body. The masses began to move in the streets of
the world’s metropoli. But it was not only movement; it was not just the choreogra-
phy that brought them together, but also the projects they sought to activate using
the idea of the future. They were moved by protests against conventions and by the
certitude that, together, everything could be transformed. It was not exclusive to one
specific struggle, and it was not limited to a particular sector, but rather it sought
the replacement of the state with something else—all of its prevailing structures,
the complete transformation of society. Man would be free—although soon reality
would make it clear that those unified bodies were threatened with domestication,
disciplining, and the loss of the meaning of the intimate other by a massive and
undefined other. With this idea, Gracia Barrios was able to put together her wall of
bodies in suits. The spectator was invoked as a body directly confronted, the fourth
wall, which was an invitation to turn 180 degrees to join up with the masses. In 1976,
after the military coup, her depiction of the masses would change. In Se abrirán las
grandes avenidas . . . (Large Avenues Will Be Opened . . .), Salvador Allende’s last
words were chosen to herald a promised future, but not the reality of socialism
through democratic means, which the work from 1970 advocated (fig. 79).
power; 3) The many are articulated in a political through repression into organized choreogra-
audiovisual dimension though the formulation phies thanks to the formulation of the royal ‘we’
of the royal “we” that combines image with of Peronism, the only movement—according to
speech: “to speak in the name of another but the film—that can legitimately speak in first
also to put oneself in the place of the other . . . person plural,” in Glauber Rocha’s work, differ-
to suggest a logic based on what is shared.” An ent forces are confronted. See Gonzalo Aguilar,
anti-state royal “we” gives shapes to something Más allá del pueblo, 182–84.
like a virtual state. Thus, if La hora de los hornos
narrates “the passage of dispersed bodies
It is the insurgent mass devastating the established order. The mass that mutates
into a demonstration when it is organized. The formations of the left called urgently
for it to be done. At the end of the 1970s, when the Colombian artist Clemencia
Lucena joined the MOIR (Movimiento de izquierda revolucionaria, or Revolutionary
Left Movement, with ties to Maoism), a radical change in her work takes place. Her
ironic depictions with their connections to 1970s feminist critiques were replaced
with the masses surrounded by fluttering red flags (fig. 80). More flags even than
bodies. A change that also returns women to their traditional place, under the man-
date to set up a revolutionary home.
In the world, the rebellions of 1968 progressed over traditions and statutes. The
imminent revolution, led by the people, was felt on the streets of Latin American
cities. The perception and thinking that were widespread held that the interven-
tions of the masses in urban space were legitimate, despite the violence that might
be required. The language of Pop was taken over by elements of advertising graph-
ics—for which this artistic style had originally served—to work in protest’s field of
representation with greater efficacy. “Não há vagas” (No Vacancy, fig. 81) is written
on a poster in a painting by Rubens Gerchman in 1965; O publico (The Public, 1968,
fig. 82) by Claudio Tozzi shows us the faces and their shouting, in the contrasting
language of black and white, and he brings us closer to a specific face, the portrait of
the hero, in his Guevara morto (Dead Guevara, 1967, fig. 83). As bodies follow the call
of the masses and are compacted together, they are deformed, making the immedi-
ate future unpredictable. In A luta diaria (The Daily Struggle, 1966) and América, o
herói nu (America, the Naked Hero, 1966, fig. 84), Antonio Dias makes a jumble of
sections out of the bodies, crisscrossed with clouds of smoke, poles, and symbols
of death.
How to call for the ordinary citizen to abandon their comfortable and complacent
position and, armed with a new consciousness, agree to leave individualism behind
and join the mass, to gather with the multitude? This is the question that many
works sought to respond to with a need for real efficacy. It was a discourse that
fused Sartre’s call for responsibility, Fanon’s decolonial rebellion, Marxism, Mao-
ism, Trotskyism, and hundreds of other groupings that were organizing strategies
for transforming society that included armed struggle and guerrilla movements.
The artists asked themselves insistently how to bring together the masses, how to
contribute to make the ordinary citizen leave behind their individualism.
The militants of the artistic avant-gardes began to fuse their tactics with those
of the political avant-garde. Tucumán Arde (Tucumán is Burning, 1968, fig. 84)—a
coordinated series of actions over time by a group of artists who understood that the
avant-garde had to be in the streets—could be analyzed as a strategic manual for
fusing art with politics. All strategies were called for in this process. Collective work,
research trips, using conspiratorial tactics that bordered on espionage, the steps of
a publicity campaign, image, sound, testimony, taste. Both the spectator’s mind and
whole body were called to transform passive individuals into revolutionary subjects.
They focused on the farce of the Argentinian dictatorship of General Onganía, who
promoted the consolidation of sugar refineries in northeastern Argentina. It was
15 Bill Nichols, La representación de la realidad. 16 This was the first postrevolutionary film
Cuestiones y conceptos sobre el cine documental, screened partially in the United States. We
trans. Josetxo Cerdán and Eduardo Iriarte (Bue- should remember that Alea wrote a manifesto
nos Aires: Paidós, 1997). in the form of a letter to Alfredo Guevara, dated
but it contains features derived from agitprop and transmits a part of the dominant
discourse that it defends.”17
Doubt and critical distance are also detectable in the painting Una tribuna para
la paz democrática (A Platform for Democratic Peace), completed by the Cuban
artist Antonia Eiriz in 1968 (fig. 87)—a work in which the multitude of undefined,
amorphous faces awaits an orator who will speak to them from a dais with five
microphones at the same time. The orator could be anyone, as there are no precise
indicators, but the leader is not present. The work—clear and ambiguous at the
same time—did not receive the national prize that everyone anticipated it would
receive.18
This distance from and suspicion of the crowd and its leaders becomes poetic des-
peration on the map of the masses activated by poverty that Glauber Rocha presents
in his films Dios y el Diablo en la tierra del sol (Black God, White Devil, 1964) and
Tierra en trance (Entranced Earth, 1967). The first film portrays the desperation of
poor people in Brazil’s Northeast, the sertão, where the land is dry and animals die
for lack of water. Manuel, the protagonist, begins to rebel against an exploitative
landowner as one lone individual and kills him. Afterward, he joins up with a mul-
titude of destitute people following a preacher who leads them to imagine a verdant,
green land. Manuel’s wife, Rosa, distrusts the sermon. The church and the state
work together to hire Antônio das Mortes, a mercenary, a man who killed canga-
ceiros (social bandits). In this film, the depiction of the mass is odd. The multitude
does not transmit strength nor fervor. It is the union of the destitute, who move
with great difficulty or scatter around on the ground as they listen to the preacher.
Together, but without strength.
In Tierra en trance, the mass is an object used to build power— mass of people
that an enlightened dictator, a capitalist media baron, and a demagogical, corrupt
politician all want to instrumentalize. Among them is Paulo Martins, the poet,
searching for the legitimate basis upon which he could take a position. Paulo fluc-
tuates between Sara and Silvia, one an ideologue and the other a lover of multiple
men. “The country needs good poets, poets who lift up the multitudes,” he reflects,
speaking at various points directly into the camera. He both believes and has doubts,
February 3, 1968, in Havana, titled Para un cine Cinémas d’Amérique latine (online) 21 (2013),
marginal (For a Marginal Cinema), in which he accessed October 12, 2016, http://cinelatino
argues for a didactic cinema as “the most suit- .revues.org/248 ; DOI : 10.4000/cinelatino.248
able instrument for providing reports on certain 18 Apparently it was the officialist critic José Anto-
conflictive aspects of the development of the nio Portuondo, vice president of the Unión
Revolution (life) in the country. . . . Here cinema Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba
would play a role as an instrument for explora- (UNEAC, or National Union of Writers and
tion and in-depth analysis. It would be a kind of Artists of Cuba), who prevented her from
scalpel that would cut through the flesh itself of receiving the prize. After this episode, Eiriz
our reality and allow us to get to the point stopped exhibiting work for twenty years and
where we could identify a particular anomaly.” spent time teaching papier-mâché techniques
Alea, Volver sobre mis pasos, Una selección and community theater with her neighbors in
epistolar de Mirta Ibarra (Madrid: Sociedad the barrio of Juanelo. Heberto Padilla dedicated
General de Autores, 2007), 167. a poem to her in his book Fuera de juego (Off-
17 Magali Kabous, “Memorias del subdesarrollo & side), published in Havana in 1968, in which he
Memorias del desarrollo de la política cubana,” declares that he feels “quite close to those
rebuking the populist leader who uses and represses the masses. The dialogues
between Sara and Paulo make us question ourselves and also make Paulo ques-
tion himself. Paulo struggles to decide between poetry or politics, as he feels and
expresses the insufficiency of language. (“Poetry has no meaning, the words . . .
words are useless,” he practically recites.) Meanwhile, in the face of his doubts, Sara
forcefully renounces maternity and family in pursuit of political goals. The media
baron, utterly distressed, shouts, with hysterical laughter, “The masses, the masses
must invade the palaces. The masses, Paulo! The guerrillas! The guerrillas!” The
biography that Paulo puts together for the dictator, Porfirio Díaz, describes his alli-
ances to build his power in Eldorado, the uncharted land in which these struggles
take place, though wars, dictatorships, imperialism. Without having ever seen the
people, the dictator manipulates them. “Come with me and you will have all the
power. Politics is a weapon . . . politics is worthless,” Diaz concludes for Paulo. “What
is the people?” This would seem to be the central question of the film. The dictator
defines the people cynically and cruelly. “The extremists created this mysticism
about the people, but the people are worthless! The people are blind and venge-
ful. If the people were given eyes, what would the people do?” Paulo answers, “The
blood of the students, the campesinos, the workers! . . . You sold everything, all our
hopes, our hearts, our love, everything! . . . I walk the streets and I see the people
are weak, apathetic, defeated. These people no longer believe in any party. These
people are broken, with their feeble blood. The people need death more than they
might assume. . . . Death as faith, not as fear.” “Paulo, why do you submerge yourself
in that chaos?” Sara asks him. “What is the point of coherence? They say it’s smart
to observe history without suffering. Until one day the masses take power through
their own consciousness. . . . The abyss is there, gaping. We are all marching towards
it. . . . But the people are not to blame, the people are not to blame,” says Paulo as he
cries. The film is a profound meditation on the coherence, mobility, meaning, uses,
and structure of the people.
The masses brought forth enthusiasm. Dictatorships caused disenchantment or
involuntary withdrawal.19 The depictions of the masses by Elda Cerrato (fig. 88) refer
to the latent state of forces in opposition. They portray the idea of Latin America at a
demagogues that she paints” (poem Antonia Revolución. This call for participation was de-
Eiriz). The book received the Julián de Casal nounced because it was disseminated
poetry award, granted by the jury despite pres- through counterrevolutionary media outlets.
sure from the UNEAC, which considered this El Susurro de Tatlin (Tatlin’s Whisper) had
book and others “ideologically opposed to our already created tension and controversy when
revolution.” The Padilla case culminated with Bruguera staged it at the 10th Biennial in
the poet’s imprisonment and his acceptance of Havana in 2009. Tamara Díaz Briga, “Tribunas
guilt in the case. These events were interna- de La Habana,” L’Internationale, February 9,
tionally denounced by many intellectuals who 2015, accessed October 6, 2016, http://www
up to that point had been supporters of the .internationaleonline.org/opinions/19_tribunas
revolution. As Tamara Díaz Briga has pointed _de_la_habana
out, the empty platform painted by Eiriz and its 19 Paraguay (1954–1989), Brazil (1964–1985), Peru
rejection by the UNEAC recall Tania Bruguera’s (1968–1980), Bolivia (1971–1978), Chile (1973–
unsuccessful call for people to express them- 1988), Uruguay (1973–1988) and Argentina
selves freely for one minute with a microphone (1966–1976 and 1976–1983), the civil war in
on December 29, 2015, in the Plaza de la Guatemala (1960–1996) and in El Salvador in
boiling point because of the problems of the continent, above all the precarious state
of housing and the threat from imperialism. Political alternatives accelerated by his-
torical time appear on the maps in the works, depicting the coexistence of the people
and the armed forces that lead the way to the dissolution of land and to poverty.
The ambiguous status of the people in those years of social transformation finds
a specific example in the history of the Museo de la Solidaridad, founded in Chile
in 1971. Directed by Mário Pedrosa, who was exiled to Chile when the conditions
under the dictatorship in Brazil turned particularly harsh, the museum involved
the formation of an immense collection of international art donated for the “Chilean
people.”20 Through an open call and personal letters, artists from around the world
(above all Mexico, Spain, France, the United States, Cuba, Uruguay, and Ecuador)
donated their works as an expression of their solidarity with the government of Sal-
vador Allende, Unidad Popular (the Popular Unity coalition), and socialism through
democratic means. But just who were “the people”? The government of the Unidad
Popular, or any government in Chile? Do the state cultural institutions represent
the people? These conditions made the mission of the museum a bit complicated,
above all during the years of the Pinochet dictatorship, when the works were hidden,
giving rise to the exceptional case of a clandestine museum. With the arrival of the
first democratic government, the idea of “the people” found a home. In September
1991, the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende was re-opened with a stunning
collection of art by artists from around the world, given as gifts to the Chilean people
who were newly enjoying a return to democracy.21
The masses and multitudes are assembled and disassembled, representing dis-
tinct sectors of the people, with distinct agendas. It is not possible to trace a clear
and definitive line between a legitimate and an illegitimate mass. The people can
mutate into rabble. The classifications and hierarchies are established not only by
those who act on the inside of distinct formations, but also by those who analyze
their depictions. If the mass appeals to emotions, the critic attends more often to
distant visions, in a certain way skeptical about the more literal and emotional levels
of the multitude, mass, or people.22 In that sense, the film Memorias del subdesar-
rollo represents an ever important example due to its distancing from the revolu-
tionary empathy demanded at the time. Tierra en trance makes that distance even
more extreme in order to expose distinct facets of a political problem, present since
the 1980s. The history of violence and disap- Mix at the Universidad de Chile. See Museo de
pearances is also based on Operation Condor, la Solidaridad 40 años. Fraternidad, Arte y
which coordinated activities between the dicta- Política, ed. Claudia Zaldívar (Santiago de Chile:
torial regimes of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Museo de la Solidaridad, 2013).
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, 21 The most noteworthy compilation of sources
and at times Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and about the difficult circumstances faced by the
Venezuela) with the participation of the United museum was edited by Claudia Zaldívar,
States CIA. “Museo de la Solidaridad” (undergraduate
20 This initiative originated with the Operación thesis, Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Artes,
Verdad (Truth Operation), at the suggestion of Department of Theory and History of Art, San-
José María Moreno Galván of Mexico, who had tiago de Chile, 1991).
ties from the very beginning to the Instituto de 22 Gonzalo Aguilar, Más allá del pueblo, 186–88.
Arte Latinoamericano, directed by Miguel Rojas
the appearance of that amorphous and in many ways unpredictable subject that the
mass represents: who can appropriate power to construct their own power, and
how do they do that? This is one of the great questions of the cultural and political
history of the 1960s and 1970s.
What this essay illustrates is the fragility of the boundary between the ideas of
people, mass, and multitude, according to the classification that has been used,
23 The text of the letters and the signatures see León Ferrari. Retrospectiva, 1954–2004, ed.
included therein can be accessed at CIHA- Andrea Giunta (Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural
BAPAI, http://www.arteuna.com/panel Recoleta/MALBA, 2004).
/CIHABAPAI.htm. The request has also been
recently reactivated by the collective Etcétera
at the 31st Biennial of Sao Paulo in 2014. Also
even historically, to name the unnerving union of bodies—a connection that finds
expression in the history of images that simultaneously reveal their complexity.
Instead of the transparent and definitive meaning of the concept of “the people,”
what is shown is its real ambiguity. These works actualize positive and negative
values in regards to these groupings. The question of legitimacy, of prestige, and of
the value of the masses was one of the central problems for politics and culture in
the 1960s and 1970s. Rather than support the idea of correct or incorrect represen-
tations as judged in hindsight from the present, I seek to reveal a profound histori-
cal complexity. This complexity demonstrates that, in those same decades, history
presented society with different ideas of how to use the strength derived from the
union of individuals in the forms of the people, the masses, or the multitudes. Many
people felt themselves driven to ask profound questions about the nature and uses
of these collective subjects.
Las imágenes fijas de la fotografía o de las artes plásticas y esculturales, igual que F ig. 6 9
las imágenes en movimiento del cine, representan una fricción de los cuerpos. Sean Antonio Dias, The Hero’s Remains, 1965. Oil and
acrylic on cushioned canvas and wood, 72 13⁄16 ×
suspendidos o en movimiento, estos cuerpos destilan el ritmo de la multitud unida
701⁄16 × 13 3⁄4 in. (185 × 178 × 35 cm). Courtesy of
durante un momento más o menos duradero por un motivo común—una fiesta, the artist.
un destino, una manifestación, la transformación del mundo. Los cuerpos unidos
invocan el movimiento—un potencial, pero también un peligro. Antonio Dias, Os Restos do Herói, 1965. Óleo y
acrílico sobre lienzo acolchado y madera,
Pueblo, masa, multitud. Esta unión de cuerpos y voluntades se nombra con tér-
72 13⁄16 × 701⁄16 × 13 3⁄4 in. (185 × 178 × 35 cm).
minos diferentes que intentan distinguir entre lazos legítimos e ilegítimos. A pesar Cortesía del artista.
de su ambigüedad, la noción de “pueblo” aparece, sin duda, entre los primeros tér-
minos dados. Las constituciones hablan en nombre del pueblo, refiriéndose en
términos generales a los habitantes de la nación: al ciudadano que posee derechos,
más allá del hecho de que estos derechos no están manifestados de la misma manera
para todos. En términos de clase, el pueblo es representado por la clase obrera—con
una turbulencia latente. Por ejemplo, en los murales posrevolucionarios del Palacio
Nacional, Ciudad de México, Diego Rivera representa a los campesinos y personas
del proletariado en contraste a aquellos que no son personas: las élites, la burguesía
decadente preocupada solamente por el dinero. La historia es sobre un pueblo en
armas que lucha por el poder. Rivera también representó el concepto de “pueblo”
mediante las tradiciones ancestrales de la mexicanidad, incluyendo creencias reli-
giosas y la preparación de la comida. Pueblo, nación, soberanía y ciudadanía son
todas nociones interconectadas. Inflamar al pueblo conduce a la guerra y a la erra-
dicación de los que no caben dentro de las fronteras del término, como ocurrió en
la Alemania de Hitler.
Masa y multitud refieren al sujeto colectivo y a un estilo de comportamiento en
oposición al del individuo. Pero la masa es también una forma. La historia del arte
Editor: There is not
está poblada de imágenes que representan masas, es decir, un surtido de sujetos
room for note 1 on
colectivos. La historia producida por las masas se desarrolla durante el siglo XIX y
this page. If I shorten
se expande en el siglo XX.
the column to make
Hobbes introdujo la diferencia central entre “pueblo” y “multitud”, compren-
room, the note refer-
diendo la gente como un sujeto con una sola voluntad (incluso en una monarquía,
ence moves to the
como la representación del Estado)—es decir, la voluntad de los ciudadanos—y con
next page.
un entendimiento de la multitud como aquellos que se rebelan contra la voluntad de
—comp
la gente.1 La gente puede imaginarse cuando la multitud es guiada por una voluntad
unitaria. No es definida en términos de sociedad civil—como podría comprenderse 187
1 Thomas Hobbes, De Cive : Philosophical Rudi 3 Spinoza, Tratado político (Madrid: Alianza Edito-
ments Concerning Government and Society, rial, 1986 [1677]).
vol. 2, The English Works, ed. Sr. William 4 Paolo Virno, Gramática de la multitud. Para un
Molesworth (Routledge: Thoemmes Press, análisis de las formas de vida contemporáneas,
1992), 158. Sobre el concepto de multitud en trad. Adriana Gómez, Juan Doming Estop y
Hobbes, véase Omar Astorga, “Hobbes’s Con- Miguel Santucho (Madrid: Traficantes de sue-
cept of Multitude,” Hobbes Studies 24, no. 1: ños, 2003).
5–14. 5 Michael Hardt y Antonio Negri, Multitude (New
2 Véase Quentin Skinner, “Hobbes on Persons, York: Penguin Press, 2004). Gonzalo Aguilar
Authors and Representatives,” en The Cam también desarrolla la posibilidad de “concebir
bridge Companion to Hobbes’s Leviathan, ed. agrupaciones alternativas que ya no correspon-
Patricia Springborg (Cambridge: Cambridge den al núcleo cultural dominante, nacionalista y
University Press, 2007), 157–80. hegemónico que presume la idea del pueblo”.
Aguilar desarrolla otras iteraciones de la noción
del pueblo que analiza mediante el cine latino es el de Nicolau Sevcenko, Orfeu Extático na
americano. Véase Aguilar, Más allá del pueblo. metrópole. São Paulo, sociedade e cultura nos
Imágenes, indicios y políticas del cine (Buenos frementes anos 20 (São Paulo: Companhia Das
Aires: FCE, 2015), 10. Letras, 1992). El libro comienza precisamente
6 Elias Canetti, Masa y poder, trad. Horst Vogel con el carnaval de 1919.
(1960; reimpr., Barcelona: Muchnik Editores, 8 Para un análisis detallado, complejo y revelador
1981). de la gramática de la organización de las masas,
7 Un libro imponente sobre el proceso de metro- véase el libro ya mencionado de Elias Canetti.
polización en São Paulo como ciudad Moderna
generales, son diferenciados por el nivel de disciplina con que ocurren y por su
capacidad de transmitir la posibilidad de tracción o rebelión. Avanzan o rebelan por-
que saben que juntos pueden lograr algo que el individuo aislado no puede lograr.
Debemos notar la diferencia entre las personas—interlocutoras legítimas en la
organización moderna de la ciudadanía—y las masas, con su desencadenamiento
inesperado. Esta distinción no implica que sean radicalmente opuestas las unas
a las otras, porque las personas tienen el potencial de volverse tanto masa como
multitud. En turno, las masas también pueden ser reconfiguradas en términos del
F ig . 70 tipo de reconocimiento que las provee de su legitimidad como personas. Manifes-
Antonio Berni, Public Demonstration, 1934.
tación (fig. 73)—prácticamente un mural portátil pintado por Antonio Berni en
Tempera on canvas, 715⁄8 × 97 7⁄16 in. (182 ×
247.5 cm). Colección MALBA, Museo de Arte 1934—representa un grupo compacto en una perspectiva acelerada que hace que el
Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires © Antonio espectador sienta la fuerza de su presión. Obreros en huelga, durante un abandono
Berni del trabajo, portan una frase que encapsula su demanda de “Pan y trabajo”. Entre
todos esos cuerpos, el espacio mismo se vuelve implausible. Esta no es una masa
Antonio Berni, Manifestación, 1934. Témpera
sobre tela, 715⁄8 × 97 7⁄16 in. (182 × 247.5 cm). deforme, descontrolada que ataque al orden establecido con su poder destructivo.
Colección MALBA, Museo de Arte Ocupa la anchura entera de la calle, como los edificios han sido dejados sin tocar. La
Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires © Antonio diversidad de las caras de los hombres y mujeres da cuenta de procesos históricos.
Berni
Es una masa de criollos, mestizos, negros e inmigrantes, algunos con piel oscura y
otros con pelo rubio y ojos claros. Una sociedad heterogénea en la que los jóvenes,
los ancianos y los niños se han juntado para protestar. Todos unidos bajo el edificio
rojo que funciona en código alegórico y político como una bandera.
El poder transformador de los cuerpos unificados se repite en varios extremos
del mural de David Alfaro Siqueiros en el Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (1939–
1940, fig. 74). Gente luchando y gente marchando. Algunos buscan la liberación,
otros buscan imponer su poder. Ningún otro mural ha podido destilar al poder opo-
sicional de las masas con tanta densidad. Las decisiones colectivas que los conducen
a luchar, marchar y morir. Suicidio colectivo (fig. 75), una pintura de Siqueiros de
1936, representa a más de 4.000 indígenas chichimecas que—rodeados por 1.500
españoles y 10.000 refuerzos mexicas y tlaxcaltecas—decidieron tirarse al abismo
desde la cima de una montaña cerca de Cuina.9 Una decisión extrema fue capaz de
llevar a las masas hacia delante. Decidieron terminar colectivamente sus vidas en
vez de rendirse al enemigo. A los bordes del panel central, se ven cientos de cuerpos
cayéndose del precipicio, repetidos con formas pintadas con esténcil. El poder del
F ig . 71
colectivo, en el cual cada persona es todos y todos son iguales.
David Alfaro Siqueiros, Portrait of the
Bourgeoisie, 1939–1940. Mexican union of Pero las masas también son fuerzas articuladas a nivel estatal. ¿Qué podría gene-
electricians, mural realized with piroxilina on rar mayor unidad que la construcción de una nueva ciudad? Brasilia representaba el
smooth cement, Mexico City. © 2017 Siqueiros caso excepcional, que estableció que este esfuerzo fuera entendido como un proyecto
David Alfaro/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
colosal de la gente brasileña. En las fotografías de Peter Scheier o Thomaz Farkas,
York / SOMAAP, Mexico
hay repetidas imágenes de cuerpos trabajando, sentados o alineados, esperando
David Alfaro Siqueiros, Retrato de la burguesía,
1939–1940. Sindicato Mexicano de los
electricistas, mural realizado con piroxilina 9 El informe es del cura Antonio Tello en su Histo rutas hacia Siqueiros, ed. Olivier Debroise
sobre cemento alisado, Ciudad de México. © ria de Nueva Galicia. Véase Joan Handwerg, “La (México, D. F.: INAA-CURARE, 1996), 147–65.
2017 Siqueiros David Alfaro/Artists Rights conquista como Kairos (¿o será quiasma?) y el
paradigma zilboorgiano primitivista”, en Otras
Society (ARS), New York /SOMAAP, Mexico
10 Lygia Pape, entrevistada por Fernando Cocchia- chita, el escudo y el bombo. Una historia cultural
rale y Anna Bella Geiger, Abstracionismo geomé de los emblemas del peronismo, de Perón a Cris
trico e informal: a vanguarda brasileira nos anos tina Kirchner (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2016).
cinqüenta (Rio de Janeiro: Funarte, 1987), 160. Adamovsky analiza la relación entre los bombos
Esta entrevista, además de la charla de Mário y el peronismo en “El origen de los sonidos del
Pedrosa y el proyecto de Lygia Pape, son men- peronismo,” Página/12, 3 de octubre de 2016,
cionados y analizados en el artículo de Vanessa consultado el 22 de enero de 2017, http://www
Rosa Machado, “Arte e espaço público nos .pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-310828-2016
filmes de Lygia Pape,” Risco: Revista de pesquisa -10-03.html
em arquitetura e urbanismo 7, no. 1 (2008): 13 El Festival de Viña del Mar llevado a cabo en
93–106. noviembre de 1969 trajo las noticias de un
11 Fundamentalmente, esta es una manifestación proyecto latinoamericano articulado alrededor
peronista. Para un análisis de este cuadro por el de la figura del pueblo—un cine que vincularía
artista mismo, véase Luis Felipe Noé, entrevis- la imagen con las acciones de los numerosos.
tado por Andrea Giunta en la Universidad Películas como La hora de los hornos de Fer-
Nacional de San Martín, vídeo de YouTube, nando Solanas y Octavio Getino (1973) fueron
publicado por Cultura Unsam, 12 de mayo de basadas en el potencial para la unidad entre la
2016, 1:18:55, https://www.youtube.com gente y lo real. Respecto al análisis de “los
/watch?v=qLtaU8Z7I_A, comenzando al 56:00. numerosos” en el cine, Gonzalo Aguilar propone
12 Respecto a los emblemas del peronismo, véase tres principios: 1) En cuanto a la cuestión de
Ezequiel Adamovsky y Esteban Buch, La mar cómo nombrarlos (¿masa, muchedumbre,
uso de tácticas conspiratorias que bordeban el espionaje, los pasos de una cam-
paña publicitaria, imagen, sonido, testimonio, gusto. Tanto la mente como el cuerpo
entero del espectador fueron llamados a transformar a los individuos pasivos en
sujetos revolucionarios. Se enfocaron en la farsa de la dictadura argentina del gene-
ral Onganía, quien promovió la consolidación de los ingenios de azúcar en el noreste
argentino. Fue un proyecto capitalista que resultó en el desempleo y la represión de
los trabajadores; las muertes de los obreros no fueron informadas en los periódicos
F ig . 76
como vinculadas a este conflicto, sino en la sección de reportajes criminales. El
Rubens Gerschman, Estudio para Não há vagas collage periodístico que produjo León Ferrari para Tucumán arde (fig. 84) se enfo-
(Study for No vacancies), 1965. Graphite, ink, caba en este nexo, uniendo lo que las secciones del periódico habían separado. ¿En
No and tempera on draft paper, 41 × 61 cm. qué medida podía extenderse a toda Argentina la conciencia de un evento específico
inches Colección MALBA, Museo de Arte
situado en una parte particular del país? Los artistas participantes se esforzaron
in this Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. Courtesy of
caption? the Rubens Gerchman Institute. en proveer respuestas. Viajaron a la provincia de Tucumán para hacer investigacio-
nes y reunir materiales documentales; ocultaron sus actividades, diciéndole a las
Rubens Gerschman, Estudo para Não há vagas
autoridades locales que sus investigaciones estaban conectadas a un programa de
(Estudio para No hay vacantes), 1965. Grafito,
tinta y témpera sobre papel calado, 41 × 61 cm.
compromiso cultural en la provincia de Tucumán; coordinaron sus actividades para
Colección MALBA, Museo de Arte juntar materiales; anunciaron las exhibiciones con afiches urbanos; interrumpieron
Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. Courtesy of proyecciones fílmicas en los cines; recurrieron a fuentes Pop y estrategias publicita-
the Rubens Gerchman Institute.
rias; unieron todos los materiales visuales y las entrevistas grabadas en la sede del
sindicato más combativo de Argentina en aquel momento (el CGTA); distribuyeron
informes y estadísticas desarrollados por sociólogos; repartieron café amargo como
manera de subrayar el papel del azúcar en la vida cotidiana. Todas sus tácticas se
dirigían hacia la conciencia del espectador. La exhibición buscaba convertir al obrero
en sindicalizado y al público que asistía a los eventos en sujetos revolucionarios—
una máquina poética más que una táctica eficaz.
El observador distante que observa a las multitudes desde arriba es lo que se
encuentra en los nueve paneles de la serie Lo que vendrá (1972, fig. 85) de la argen-
tina Diana Dowek. Coches incendiados, manifestantes corriendo y señales de tráfico
pintadas en las calles indican que la escena más importante de dichas movilizacio-
nes es la ciudad. Pinturas de la insurrección (1973, fig. 86) representa gráficamente
las acciones de las masas, las varas y el fuego. En los cuadros, lo que era visible era la
experiencia del Mayo Argentino—el Cordobazo—una insurrección popular contra
la dictadura militar de Juan Carlos Onganía.
En la película Multitud 7x7 (1974–76), Leandro Katz pausa sobre la masa para
observar su estructura—ver la multitud desde distintas ópticas: tomas largas; repe-
ticiones en las que hay una vuelta al principio de la toma (runbacks), aceleraciones
de la acción (4 imágenes por segundo); cámara lenta (48 y 72 imágenes por segundo).
La alternativa es eliminarlas. La desaceleración y aceleración del tiempo agrava una
F ig . 77
Claudio Tozzi, O Publico (The Public), 1968. grabación emocionalmente intensa. No es una demonstración política. No hay lemas
No Acrylic on eucatex, 79.2 × 119 × 3.6 cm. ni pancartas. Es una procesión de Semana Santa en la Plaza de San Francisco de
inches Collection Eduardo F. Costantini, Buenos Aires. Quito, filmada en 1974—siete tomas de la muchedumbre grabadas desde la escalera
in this
caption? Claudio Tozzi, O Publico (El Público), 1968. de la iglesia, repetidas siete veces. La procesión incluía a gente en capuchos llevando
Acrílico sobre eucatex, 79.2 × 119 × 3.6 cm. togas violetas, penitentes que portaban cruces de cacto y un altar de la Virgen de
Colección Eduardo F. Costantini, Buenos Aires. Quito que habían llevado por toda la ciudad hacia la plaza. Katz recuerda que “el
rumor entre la gente era de que una imagen de Cristo con los rasgos físicos de Che
Guevara iba a ser revelado.”14 Las intervenciones hechas en el archivo documental de
las masas complican la información sobre su estructura—tanto la densidad como
la inmensidad, su presencia en el espacio urbano—mediante un documental de
observación, tal como lo define Bill Nichols. Las técnicas de ensamblaje realzan la
impresión de una temporalidad auténtica. El documentalista simplemente observa
y graba lo que ocurre por delante de su cámara. No hay referencias a líderes, ni al
peligro o al goce que registran las muchedumbres.15 Las herramientas cinematográ-
ficas conducen a una intensidad exacerbada.
Unirse con el otro también significaba separarse de la clase de uno mismo. Pocos
esfuerzos parecen ser más extremos y fracasados que el beso que la escritora chilena
F ig. 78
Diamela Eltit le dio a un hombre indigente, un esquizofrénico sin techo, en Zona de
Claudio Tozzi, Guevara morto (Dead Guevara),
dolor (1981, fig. 67). Durante años, la fotografía de esta reunión pseudo-romántica 1967. Acrylic on canvas and iron sheet frame,
se encontró circulando con él sobre el regazo de ella en una pacífica posición. El 50 × 50 cm. Collection MALBA, Museo de Arte No
video revela el conflicto, el exceso del otro cuando el hombre se mueve hacia la boca Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. inches
de Eltit, rompiendo el efecto de conciliación que ella había buscado. Eltit se aparta in this
Claudio Tozzi, Guevara morto (Guevara muerto), caption?
rápidamente de su avance. No es tan sencillo como cuando ella siente la piel del otro, 1967. Acrílico sobre tela y marco de chapa de
su humedad, su deseo. hierro, 50 × 50 cm. Colección MALBA, Museo
Nuestras propias contradicciones se encienden cuando hacemos frente a las de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.
masas. La película Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968) de Tomás Gutiérrez Alea fun-
ciona como punto de partida y como prisma para acercarase a la trama compleja
de sucesos y sentimientos en un momento clave durante la Revolución Cubana. La
acción se centra en el período que comienza con la invasión de Playa Girón en 1961
y termina con la crisis cubana de los misiles en 1962. Distintos grupos de personas
se siguen entre ellos en la película desde el inicio, con el ritmo frenético de baile,
canto, percusión y disparos. Cuerpos negros, cadáveres, sangre, represión. Tam-
bién hay multitudes en el aeropuerto huyendo del país, mutitudes en las calles,
multitudes de estudiantes en sus aulas de clase, manifestaciones suprimidas con
camiones de agua en los tiempos de Batista. Sergio Malabra, un hombre burgués que
decide quedarse en Cuba, se mueve entre estos tiempos y estas escenas, como un
flâneur entre la muchedumbre. “Todos aparecen como elementos dislocados de un
sentido global que nadie asume completamente,” dice en un monólogo interior en
curso. Ante todos los demás, permanece un individuo distinto. Compare esta dife-
renciación con el llamado por la unidad popular en el discurso que dio Fidel Castro
durante la crisis de los misiles: “Todos, hombres y mujeres, jóvenes y viejos, todos
somos uno en esta hora de peligro. ¡Y nuestra—de todos, de los revolucionarios, de
los patriotas—será la misma suerte, y de todos será la victoria! ¡Patria o muerte!” F ig. 79
Grupo de Artistas de Vanguardia, Tucumán is
La distancia le permite a Sergio actuar como un eje y un espejo en el que los otros
Burning, Stage 3: Exhibition at the CGTA, Rosario
cuerpos, agitándose con vidas diferentes, giran y refractan. Desde una distancia, 1968. Photo: Carlos Militello. Archive Graciela
Carnevale.
14 Leandro Katz, mensaje de correo electrónico a 15 Bill Nichols, La representación de la realidad. Grupo de Artistas de Vanguardia, Tucumán
la autora, 10 de octubre de 2016. Cuestiones y conceptos sobre el cine documental, Arde, 3a etapa: Exposición en la CGTA, Rosario
trad. Josetxo Cerdán y Eduardo Iriarte (Buenos 1968. Foto: Carlos Militello. Archivo Graciela
Aires: Paidós, 1997).
Carnevale.
16 Esta fue la primera película posrevolucionaria 17 Magali Kabous, “Memorias del subdesarrollo &
proyectada en Estados Unidos. Debemos recor- Memorias del desarrollo de la política cubana,”
dar que Alea escribió un manifiesto en forma de Cinémas d’Amérique latine (en línea) 21 (2013),
una carta a Alfredo Guevara, fechada el 3 de consultado el 12 de octubre de 2016, http://
febrero de 1968 en La Habana, titulada Para un cinelatino.revues.org/248 ; DOI: 10.4000
cine marginal, en la que arguye a favor de un /cinelatino.248
cine didáctico como “el instrumento más ade- 18 Aparentemente fue el crítico oficialista José
cuado para rendir informes sobre determinados Antonio Portuondo, vicepresidente de la
aspectos conflictivos del desarrollo de la Revo- UNEAC (Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artis-
F ig . 81 lución (de la vida) en el país [. . .] Aquí el cine tas de Cuba), quien evitó que recibiera el pre-
Diana Dowek, Paintings of the Insurrection, jugaría el papel de un instrumento de explora- mio. Luego de este episodio, Eiriz dejó de
1973. Acrylic on canvas, polyptych, 80 × 90 cm. ción y análisis en profundidad. Sería una espe- exhibir sus obras durante veinte años y pasó
each. Courtesy of the artist. cie de bisturí que penetrara en la carne misma tiempo enseñando técnicas de papel maché y
de nuestra realidad y nos permitiera llegar al teatro comunitario con sus vecinos en el barrio
punto donde se puede señalar una anomalía de Juanelo. Heberto Padilla le dedicó un poema
Diana Dowek, Pinturas de la insurrección, 1973. determinada.” Alea, Volver sobre mis pasos, Una en su libro Fuera de juego, publicado en La
Acrílico sobre tela, políptico, 80 × 90 cm. cada selección epistolar de Mirta Ibarra (Madrid: Habana en 1968, en el que declara que se siente
uno. Cortesía de la artista. Sociedad General de Autores, 2007), 167. “tan cerca de esos demagogos que ella pinta”
(poema Antonia Eiriz). El libro recibió el premio minado por medios de comunicación contrarre-
Julián del Casal de la poesía, otorgado por el volucionarios. El Susurro de Tatlin ya había
jurado a pesar de la presión de la UNEAC, que ocasionado tensiones cuando Bruguera lo
consideraba a este libro y otros “ideológica- montó durante la X Bienal de La Habana en
mente opuestos a nuestra Revolución”. El caso 2009. Tamara Díaz Briga, “Tribunas de La
Padilla culminó en el encarcelamiento del poeta Habana,” L’Internationale, 9 de febrero de
y su aceptación de culpabilidad en el caso. 2015, consultado el 6 de octubre de 2016,
Estos eventos fueron denunciados internacio- http://www.internationaleonline.org
nalmente por muchos intelectuales que hasta /opinions/19_tribunas_de_la_habana
aquel momento habían sido defensores de la
revolución. Como Tamara Díaz Briga ha seña-
lado, la plataforma vacía pintada por Eiriz y su
rechazo por la UNEAC evocan al llamado frus-
trado de Tania Bruguera de que la gente se
expresara libremente durante un minuto con un
micrófono el 29 de diciembre de 2015, en la
Plaza de la Revolución. Este llamado por la
participación fue denunciado porque fue dise-
19 Paraguay (1954–1989), Brasil (1964–1985), Perú Moreno Galván de México, quien tenía conexio-
(1968–1980), Bolivia (1971–1978), Chile (1973– nes desde el principio con el Instituto de Arte
1988), Uruguay (1973–1988) y Argentina (1966– Latinoamericano, dirigido por Miguel RoJas Mix
1976 y 1976–1983), la guerra civil en Guatemala en la Universidad de Chile. Véase Museo de la
(1960–1996) y en El Salvador en la década de Solidaridad 40 años. Fraternidad, Arte y Política,
1980. La historia de la violencia y las desapari- Claudia Zaldívar (Santiago de Chile: Museo de
ciones también está basada en la Operación la Solidaridad, 2013).
Cóndor, que coordinó actividades entre los 21 La recopilación de fuentes sobre las circunstan-
regímenes dictatoriales del Cono Sur (Argen- cias difíciles vividas por el museo fue editada
tina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay, y por Claudia Zaldívar, “Museo de la Solidaridad”
a veces Colombia, Ecuador, Perú y Venezuela) (tesis de subgraduado, Universidad de Chile,
con la participación de la CIA norteamericana. Facultad de Artes, Departamento de Teoría e
20 Esta iniciativa se originó con la Operación Ver- HIstoria del Arte, Santiago de Chile, 1991).
dad, a partir de la sugerencia de José María
clara y definitiva entre una masa legítima y una masa ilegítima. El pueblo puede
mutarse en turba. Las clasificaciones y jerarquías son establecidas no solo por los
que actúan desde adentro de distintas formaciones, sino también por los que ana-
lizan sus representaciones. Si la masa solicita las emociones, la crítica atiende con
mayor frecuencia a visiones distantes, de cierta manera escéptica sobre los niveles
más literales y emocionales de multitud, masa o pueblo.22 En este sentido, la pelí-
cula Memorias del subdesarrollo representa un ejemplo cada vez más importante
debido a su distanciamiento aún más extremo para exponer distintas facetas de un
problema político, presente desde la aparición de aquel sujeto amorfo y en muchas
maneras impredecible que representa la masa: ¿quién puede apropiarse del poder
de construir su propio poder, y cómo lo hace? Esta es una de las grandes preguntas
de la historia cultural y política de las décadas de 1960 y 1970.
La multitud en la ultratumba
La masa, como un fenómeno de cuerpos reunidos, está presente en las escenas
deslumbrantes del Apocalipsis que divide los destinos de todos en la ultratumba.
El infierno ha inspirado representaciones desgarradoras de multitudes en sufri-
miento—desde los cuadros de Hans Memling, los Hermanos Limbourg, Giovanni
de Modena, el Bosco o Giotto, entre los siglos XIV y XV, continuando hasta los frescos
de Miguel Ángel en la Capilla Sixtina en el siglo XVI. El destino de muchos puede ser
el destino de un individuo, hasta en una hora tan abstracta y temida como el período
después de la vida. Las representaciones que ilustran los futuros de los justos y de
los pecadores, además de las representaciones en la Biblia, condujeron al argentino
León Ferrari a emprender una reflexión intensa sobre los derechos humanos para
las multitudes en la ultratumba. Apostándose en oposición a la moralidad cristiana
que condena a los que son diferentes, Ferrari abogó por los derechos de los peca-
dores, aquellos para quienes la moralidad cristiana presagia tormentos horribles.
Hacia estos fines, escribió cartas al Papa solicitando que pidiera a Jesús la abolición
del Juicio Final y la destrucción del infierno. Las cartas fueron enviadas con las
firmas de cientos de intelectuales latinoamericanos en 1997 y 2001.23 La valoración
visual de Ferrari de este tormento, imaginado y deseado por creyentes mortales, se
refería a la colaboración de aves y palomas que defecan sobre las representaciones
del infierno de los grandes maestros del arte. De esta manera expresó su sorpresa
ante la emoción estética sentida por el público cuando vieron las representaciones
excepcionales de las técnicas de tortura, y mientras llamó a los espectadores a unirse
en defensa de los derechos humanos en la ultratumba, para poner fin a la condena-
ción de la diferencia. Abogó por este estilo de cultura en que ni los individuos ni las
masas serían considerados sujetos para el castigo o la discriminación—una cultura
22 Gonzalo Aguilar, Más allá del pueblo, 186–88. Bienal de São Paulo en 2014. Véase también
23 El texto de las cartas y las firmas incluidas León Ferrari. Retrospectiva, 1954–2004, ed.
puede ser consultado en CIHABAPAI, http:// Andrea Giunta (Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural
www.arteuna.com/panel/CIHABAPAI.htm. La Recoleta/MALBA, 2004).
solicitud ha sido reactivada recientemente
también por la cooperativa Etcétera en la 31
Lo que ilustra el presente ensayo es la fragilidad de las fronteras entre las ideas de
pueblo, masa y multitud, según la clasificación que se ha utilizado, incluso históri-
camente, para nombrar la unión desconcertante de los cuerpos—una conexión que
encuentra expresión en la historia de las imágenes que simultáneamente revelan su
complejidad. En vez del significado transparente y definitivo del concepto de “pue-
blo”, lo que se muestra es su verdadera ambigüedad. Estas obras actualizan valores
positivos y negativos respecto a estas agrupaciones. La cuestión de la legitimidad,
del prestigio y del valor de las masas fue uno de los problemas centrales para la
política y la cultura en las décadas de 1960 y 1970. En vez de apoyar la idea de repre-
sentaciones correctas o incorrectas, juzgadas a posteriori desde el presente, busco
revelar una complejidad histórica profunda. Esta complejidad muestra que, durante
esas mismas décadas, la historia presentó a la sociedad con distintas ideas sobre
cómo utilizar la fuerza derivada de la unión de individuos en forma del pueblo, las
masas o las multitudes. Muchas personas se sentían motivadas a hacer preguntas
profundas sobre la naturaleza y los usos de estos sujetos colectivos.
reproduction, playing with and appropriating language and popular imagery. The
artist has created public art works that address human rights and that are con-
cerned with pedagogy and education, such as Proyecto Coquito (1979), a collabora-
tive work with Martín Biduera, Guillermo Bolaños, Lucy Angulo, Mercedes Idoyaga
(Emei), Rolf Knippenberg, and Gigi Stenner.
F ig . 83
Lina Bo Bardi, SESC Pompeia, photograph of At ho s B ulcão (B r a z il , 1 91 8– 2 0 0 8)
the exhibition space with Rio San Francisco, A prominent artist and designer in Brazil, Bulcão is well known for his collaboration
1977–1988. Color photograph. Photo: Sérgio on the construction of Brasília. Bulcão’s work can be seen on the surface of Niemey-
Gicovate, 1983. Courtesy of Instituto Lina Bo e
er’s modern architecture throughout the city. In addition to his graphically designed
P.M. Bardi archive.
tile wall murals, his work also included designing subtle exterior wall reliefs and
Lina Bo Bardi, SESC Pompeia, fotografia del interior room dividers.
espacio de expocisiones con Rio San Francisco,
1977–1988. Fotografía en color. Foto: Sérgio
Tere sa B urg a (Pe ru, b. 1 935 )
Gicovate, 1983. Cortesía del Instituto Lina Bo e
P.M. Bardi archive. Teresa Burga was a member of the Grupo Arte Nuevo and studied in Chicago in the
late 1960s. She returned to Peru during the Velasco Alvarado military regime. Her
work Perfil de la mujer peruana, made in collaboration with Marie-France Cathelat,
takes a sociological approach to investigate subjects of femininity, the female body,
and the relationship to labor and mass media. Burga often uses empirical data and
research, creating diagrams, charts, and drawings and working in collaboration
with psychologists.
Sus grabados recalcan la capacidad que tiene el medio para comunicar mediante la
reproducción masiva, jugando con el lenguaje y las imágenes populares, apropián-
dose de ellas. El artista ha creado obras de arte públicas que abordan los derechos
humanos y que muestran un interés en la pedagogía y la educación, como Coquito
(1979), una obra colaborativa con Martín Biduera, Guillermo Bolaños, Lucy Angulo,
Mercedes Idoyaga (Emei), Rolf Knippenberg y Gigi Stenner.
C ol ecti vo de Accion es de A rt e (CADA) (Ch il e , 1 979–1 985 ) Elda Cerrato, Serie Geo-historiografía: América
Fragmentada, 1973. Tinta de India sobre papel,
CADA fue un grupo activista de artistas y escritores (Raúl Zurita, Fernando Balcells,
13 3⁄8 × 11 1⁄4 in. (34 × 28.5 cm). Colección
Diamela Eltit, Lotty Rosenfeld y Juan Castillo) que usaban las performances y la tea- privada, cortesía de Henrique Faria, New York &
tralidad para cuestionar y enfrentar al gobierno militar de Pinochet. Estas acciones Buenos Aires.
Ju r ac i D óre a (B r a z il , b. 1 944)
Juraci Dórea lives and works in Feira de Santana, Bahia, far removed from the major
urban centers of Brazil and a gateway to the Sertão of northeast Brazil. Throughout
his career he has been committed to using local traditions and materials, such as his
use of leather in much of his work. His Projeto Terra (1980), looked to empower local,
rural populations through public art. The artist created large, ephemeral spaces for
people to have art experiences together with local traditions.
Di am e la E lt it (Ch il e , b. 1 967)
Diamela Eltit is a writer and artist, and was a member of the Chilean collective
CADA. Through her work in criticism and literature as well as her performances,
Eltit’s work intervenes into everyday life and calls attention to social and political
issues, including issues of oppression, feminism, and marginalized people.
J esus Ru i z Du ran d (Pe rú, n. 1 940) Juan Downey, imagen fija de Chicago Boys,
1983. Cortesía de Estate of Juan Downey, New
Jesús Ruiz Durand es particularmente conocido por sus obras en el arte Pop, acu-
York.
ñando el término pop achorado, produciendo prolíficamente durante el régimen
militar de Velasco Alvarado. Los cartels producidos por el artista durante esta época
promovían la reforma social y política. Los Afiches de difusión de la reforma agraria,
por ejemplo, utilizó el arte pop y las imágenes vernáculas para crear una estrategia
propagandística que promoviera la reforma agraria del gobierno militar.
M arc e l G aut h e ro t (B ra z il , b. F r a nc e , 1 91 0 –1 9 9 6 )
Marcel Gautherot moved to Brazil in 1939, where he worked as a photographer and
documented the architecture in the country. Some of his most iconic photographs
depict the construction of Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasília project.
An na B e lla G e ig e r (B r a z il , b. 1 933)
One of the most influential contemporary artists from Brazil, Anna Bella Geiger has
produced conceptual art in a range of media from painting and drawing to sculpture
F ig . 93
Anna Bella Geiger, still from Bureaucracy, 1982. and photography. Geiger is well known for exploring territory and identity in which
Video, 0:38 min. Courtesy of the artist and mapmaking is central. As her work challenges ideas of borders and citizenship, she
Henrique Faria, New York & Buenos Aires. investigates the relationship between decolonization, geography, and culture.
Car lo s L e p p e (Ch il e , b. 1 95 2)
Carlos Leppe’s work, influenced by conceptual art, calls attention to the violations
against human rights under Pinochet’s military dictatorship. Using performance
de los Trece y el CAyC, Victor Grippo comenzó a estudiar ciencias antes de dedicarse
Beatriz Gonzalez, Esta bienal es un lujo que un
al arte, aunque continuó combinando las dos disciplinas a lo largo de su carrera. país subdesarrollado no se debe dar, 1981.
En 1966, el artista comenzó a trabajar en su importante y conocida serie Analogías. Serigrafía en tela, 3 15⁄16 × 19 11⁄16 in. (10 × 50 cm).
Estas esculturas e instalaciones combinan el mundo natural con objetos sustraídos Cortesía de la artista y Galería Casas Riegner.
de la vida diaria, como los voltímetros y el carbón, para explorar la energía potencial
de la papa común, una comida indígena de América Latina.
and the body, the artist’s actions were critical of the government while maintaining
a poeticism that went against conceptual art’s formalism and attempt to maintain
objectivity.
Ci ld o M e ire le s (B ra z il , b. 1 948)
Cildo Meireles is a Brazilian artist whose conceptual work is known for its political
engagement. The artist’s father worked for the Serviço de Proteção ao Índio, and as a
child, Meireles moved throughout rural Brazil. Indeed the marginalization of indig-
enous people in Brazil is addressed in some of the artist’s works. His two Inserções
em Circuitos Ideológicos projects (1970) address how wealth and commodities, often
symbols of Western imperialism, circulate globally. For the Projeto Coca-Cola (Coca-
Cola Project), Meireles modified the branded soda bottles with political statements
or with instructions for political action and then put the bottles back into market
F ig . 99 circulation.
Antonio Manuel, still from Semi Ótica, 1975.
35 mm film and digitized 16 mm film, 7 min.
Hélio Oit ic ica (B ra z il , 1 937–1 980)
Courtesy of the artist.
Hélio Oiticica was one of the most prominent Brazilian artists of the twentieth
Antonio Manuel, imagen fija de Semi Ótica, century. Oiticica, like other artists of his generation, studied under Ivan Serpa at
1975. Película de 35 mm y película de 16 mm MAM-Rio and went on to form part of concrete and neoconcrete movements of the
digitalizada, 7 min. Cortesía del artista.
1950s in Río de Janeiro. During the 1960s Oiticica became interested in the spa-
tial deployment of his experiments with color and form, producing works that he
defined as forming part of an “environmental program.” Guided by the imperatives
of invention (invenção), and experience (vivência) Oiticica went on to produce some
of the most groundbreaking works of the 1960s and 1970s, notably exemplified by
the installation Tropicália and his Parangolés. Oiticica lived for periods of time in
London during the 1960s, where he was actively involved with the Signals gallery
and magazine. In 1969 he had a solo exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in Lon-
don. After participating in MoMA’s Information exhibition, organized by Kynaston
McShine, Oiticica lived in New York between 1971 and 1978, where he developed his
interests in the non-narrative potential of narrative forms, including cinema. His
collaboration with Neville d’Almeida, Block Experiments in Cosmococa, was exem-
plary of what he described as “quasi-cinema.”
Lyg ia Pa p e (B r a z il , 1 92 7– 2 0 0 4)
Lygia Pape was one of the most influential Brazilian artists of the twentieth century,
creating work in a variety of media from sculpture and printmaking to film and
installation to bring together art and everyday life. Pape’s early work in the 1950s,
part of the Concretist movement, developed out of an interest in European abstrac-
tion. Pape and her peers began to combine their formal interests with social and
political ideas, a movement that came to be known as Neo-Concretism. Works such
as Book of Creation involve viewer participation and engagement, as each person is
intended to handle the unbound pages themselves. By the end of the 1960s, much
of the artist’s work was created in response to the repressive political conditions in
Brazil. During this time, she also worked designing the lettering and posters for a
number of films, working with the group Cinema Novo.
Lu i s Pa zo s (A rg e n tina , b. 1 940)
F ig . 101
Luis Pazos is an artist and poet. In 1970 the artist founded Grupo La Plaza with Héc-
Catalina Parra, Smoking Mirror, 1977.
Rectangular case made of acrylic, mirrors, tor Puppo and Jorge Luján Gutiérrez. He then joined the CAyC as part of the Grupo
fermenting flour dough mass, white sterile de los Trece, participating in many of the CAyC exhibitions. His photoperformance
medical gauze, and white adhesive medical Transformaciones de masas en vivo (Live transformations of the masses) uses the
tape, 24 × 15 1⁄2 × 20 3⁄4 in. (61 × 39.4 × 52.7 cm).
staged performance of the body to create a series of symbols and images.
Courtesy of the artist and Isabel Soler Parra.
Catalina Parra, Espejo Humeante, 1977. Caja Claudio P e rna ( V e n e z ue l a , born I ta ly, 1 938–1 9 9 7)
rectangular de acrílico, espejos, masa de harina Son of Italian and Venezuelan parents, Claudia Perna moved to Venezuela in 1955,
fermentante, gasa médica estéril blanca y cinta
where he studied geography and was later a professor at the Universidad Central de
adhesiva blanca, 24 × 15 1⁄2 × 20 3⁄4 in. (61 ×
39.4 × 52.7 cm). Cortesía de la artista y Isabel Venezuela. Perna was one of the most significant figures of Venezuelan conceptual-
Soler Parra. ism, constantly intersecting his practices as a geographer and an artist to produce
esta época, también trabajó en el diseño de caligrafía y carteles para una variedad
de películas, trabajando con el grupo Cinema Novo.
en la que combinó los mitos populares con símbolos de otras religiones, como el
cristianismo. También fue integrante del CAyC y el Grupo de los Trece.
Listada de obras
Benjamin Abrahão en collaboración con Mercedes Idoy- Caixote Popular Diseño para el uniforme de los
Lampião e seu bando: Vila Nova, can aga, Guillermo Bolaños, Lucy 1978 empleados
gaceiro não identificado, Luís Angulo, Martín Biduera, Rolf heliográfica sobre papel offset acuarela, bolígrafo y grafito sobre
Pedro, Amoroso, Lampião, Cache Knippenberg y Gigi Stenner 19 15⁄16 × 26 7⁄8 in. (50.7 × 68.3 cm) cartulina y papel offset
ado, Maria Bonita, Juriti, canga Proyecto Coquito Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive 13 11⁄16 × 19 3⁄16 in. (34.7 × 48.7 cm)
ceiro não identificado e Quinta 1979
feira, Sertão nordestino cinco collages sobre papel Cadeira de beira de estrada Perspectiva del poste indicador
Lampião y su banda: Vila Nova, canga- cada uno de tres 20 1⁄2 × 149⁄16 in. (52 × Silla de la carretera acuarela, bolígrafo y tinta de la India
ceiro no identificado, Luís Pedro, 37 cm); cada uno de dos 337⁄16 × 1982 en cartulina
Amoroso, Lampião, Cacheado, 247⁄16 in. (85 × 62 cm) anotaciones de la exposición Design no 19 7⁄16 × 13 3⁄4 in. (49.3 × 35 cm)
Maria Bonita, Juriti, cangaceiro no Museo de Arte de Lima Brasil: historia e realidade (Diseño
identificado, and Quinta feira, Comité de Adquisiciones de Arte en Brasil: Historia y realidad); Perspectiva de la calle interna
Sertão del nordeste Contemporáneo 2012 heliográfica sobre papel 1977–88
1930s 8 1⁄4 × 5 5⁄8 in. (20.9 × 14.3 cm) acuarela, bolígrafo y grafito en
impresión de inyección de tinta con Lina Bo Bardi Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive cartulina
pigmentos minerals en papel Bahia de todos os santos 111⁄4 × 153⁄16 in. (28.5 × 38.5 cm)
100% algodón Bahía de todos los santos
7 7⁄8 × 11 13⁄16 in. (20 × 30 cm) 1960 Logotipo de la Fábrica SESC Pompéia
Coleção IMS / Acervo Instituto poster de película SESC Fábrica da Pompéia 1977–88
Moreira Salles / © ICCA e Socie- 38 × 26 in. (96.5 × 66 cm) SESC Fábrica de la Pompéia impresión hidrofáfica, gouache,
dade do Cangaço Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive 1977–88 grafito, nanquim y Letraset en
cartulina
Cristino Gomes da Silva Cleto, o Cadeira de beira estrada Perspectiva del edificio deportivo 1411⁄16 × 8 15⁄16 in. (37.3 × 22.7 cm)
Corisco, segundo homem mais Silla de la carretera acuarela, impresión hidrográfica,
importante no cangaço, Sertão 1967/2017 grafito y lápiz de color sobre Notas sobre el logotipo de SESC
nordestino madera, cuerda y clavos de hierro cartulina, pergamino y papel Fábrica de la Pompéia
Cristino Gomes da Silva Cleto, el aprox. 60 × 36 × 36 in. (152.4 × 91.4 × offset 1977–88
Corisco, el segundo hombre más 91.4 cm) 27 3⁄8 × 19 9⁄16 in. (69.5 × 49.7 cm) impresión hidrofáfica
importante en el cangaço, Sertão Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive 12 7⁄16 × 8 7⁄16 in. (31.6 × 21.5 cm)
del nordeste Estudio del snack bar, perspectiva del
1930s Cadeira de beira de estrada edificio deportivo Fotografía del espacio de exposición
impresión de inyección de tinta con Silla de la carretera acuarela, impresión hidrográfica, con Rio San Francisco
pigmentos minerals en papel 1967 grafito sobre cartulina 1982 in Eng-
100% algodón fotografía 19 11⁄16 × 27 9⁄16 in. (50 × 70 cm) fotografía en color
1113⁄16 × 7 7⁄8 in. (30 × 20 cm) 6 7⁄8 × 8 11⁄16 in. (17.5 × 22 cm) Foto: Antonio Saggese lish, the
Coleção IMS / Acervo Instituto Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive Primer diseño de color para un campo 197⁄8 × 289⁄16 in. (50.5 × 72.5 cm) dimen-
Moreira Salles / © ICCA e Socie- de juego en el edificio deportivo
dade do Cangaço Perspectiva e notas da cadeira bolígrafo, impresión hidrográfica y Fotografía del espacio de exposición sions
Perspectiva y notas de la silla gouache en cartulina con Rio San Francisco are of
Artur Barrio 1967 17 3⁄8 × 12 7⁄16 in. (44.2 × 31.6 cm) 1983
Manifesto impresión de hidrográfica sobre papel fotografía en color the work
1970 9 3⁄4 × 6 1⁄8 in. (24.8 × 15.5 cm) Diseño para uniforme de equipo de Foto: Sérgio Gicovate framed
reproducción de texto Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive fútbol 19 11⁄16 × 225⁄8 (50 × 47.5 cm)
Cortesía del artista y Galeria Millan bolígrafo, impresión hidrográfica y
A mão do povo brasileiro collage sobre cartulina y papel Athos Bulcão
Jacques Bedel La mano del pueblo brasileño offset Painel de azulejos, Torre TV brasília
Las Ciudades de Plata 1969 1111⁄16 × 71⁄2 in. (29.7 × 19 cm) Panel de azulejos, Torre TV Brasilia
1977 documentación de la exposición en el 1966
hierro y aluminio con material sinté- Museu de Arte de São Paulo Fotomontaje del cobertizo mostrando azulejos
tico, patinado gris oscuro y (MASP); impresiones en plata de actividades para niños aprox. 10 × 16 pies (30.5 m × 40.6 m)
encuadernación arpillera gelatina impresión hidrográfica y grafito en Fundação Athos Bulcão
27 9⁄16 × 1911⁄16 × 7 7⁄8 in. (70 × 50 × 20 Foto: Hans Gunter Flieg cartulina
cm) cerrado; 47 1⁄4 × 27 9⁄16 × 14 15⁄16 × 187⁄8 in. (38 × 48 cm) 15 3⁄8 × 22 5⁄16 in. (39 × 56.6 cm) Teresa Burga
15 3⁄4 in. (120 × 70 × 40 cm) Coleção Hans Gunter Flieg / Acervo Perfil de la mujer peruana
abierto Instituto Moreira Salles Elevación, plan y perspectiva de una 1980–81
Cortesía del artista y Florence Bedel silla de biblioteca y mesa para 18 bocetos y diagramas
Mil brinquedos para a criança brasileira niños cada uno aprox. 7 7⁄8 × 13 3⁄4 in. (20 ×
Fernando “Coco” Bedoya Mil juguetes para el niño brasileño bolígrafo, impresión hidrográfica y 35 cm)
Becerro de oro 1977–86 grafito sobre papel offset Cortesía de la artista y Galerie Barbara
1979 diseño de carteles para una 12 7⁄16 × 8 1⁄2 in. (31.6 × 21.6 cm) Thumm
catorce fotos documentando acción exposición; impresión hidrográ-
en las calles de Lima fica y collage sobre pergamino y
Foto: Rolf Knippenberg, Lima, 1979. papel gouche
11 13⁄16 × 15 3⁄4 in. (30 × 40 cm) 19 11⁄16 × 14 in. (50 × 35.6 cm)
Cortesía del artista
Chicago Boys Mariela Zevallos Thomaz Farkas Construção de Brasília, Distrito Federal
1983 Mujer que llora de Picasso Populares sobre cobertura do palácio Construction of Brasília, Federal
video with color and sound, 16 min. Picasso’s Weeping Woman do Congresso Nacional no dia da District
Courtesy of the Estate of Juan inauguração de Brasília, Distrito 1959
Downey, New York Francisco Mariotti Federal gelatin silver print
Motivo Huari People on the esplanade of the 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
Jesús Ruiz Durand Huari Motif National Congress on inaugura- Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Afiches de difusión de la Reforma tion day of Brasília, Federal Instituto Moreira Salles
Agraria Armando Williams District
Promotional Posters for the Agrarian Composición de Mondrian 1960 Esplanada dos Ministérios em con
Reform Mondrian Composition inkjet print with mineral pigments on strução, Brasília, DF
1969–1972 100% cotton paper The Monumental Axis in construction,
six offset prints on paper 1981 23 5⁄8 × 35 7⁄16 in. (60 × 90 cm) Brasília, Federal District
approx. 39 × 27 in. (100 × 70 cm) silkscreens on paper Coleção Thomaz Farkas / Acervo 1959
Museo de Arte de Lima each 913⁄16 × 65⁄16 in. (25 × 16 cm) Instituto Moreira Salles gelatin silver print
Contemporary Art Acquisitions Com- Museo de Arte de Lima 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
mittee 2007 Francisco Stastny Donation Memória do Cangaço Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Memory of the Cangaço Instituto Moreira Salles
E.P.S. Huayco Encuesta de preferencias estéticas para c. 1964
Arte al Paso un público urbano photographic documentation; five Esplanada dos Ministérios em con
Survey of Aesthetic Preferences for an inkjet print with mineral pigments strução, Brasília, DF
Mariela Zevallos Urban Audience on 100% cotton paper and four The Monumental Axis in construction,
¡Bajan en el Museo de Arte Moderno! 1981 gelatin silver prints Brasília, Federal District
facsimile prints on paper each 12 5⁄8 × 187⁄8 in. (32 × 48 cm) 1959
Juan Javier Salazar each 8 1⁄4 × 11 11⁄16 in. (21 × 29.7 cm) Coleção Thomaz Farkas / Acervo inkjet print with mineral pigments on
Algo va’ pasar Museo de Arte de Lima Instituto Moreira Salles 100% cotton paper
Francisco Mariotti Donation 39 3⁄8 × 393⁄8 in. (100 × 100 cm)
María Luy Caravana Farkas Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Oh cultura Arte al paso films directed by Paulo Gil Soares, Instituto Moreira Salles
1981 Geraldo Sarno, and Sérgio Muniz
Charo Noriega video, 30:11 min. produced by Thomaz Farkas Congresso Nacional em construção,
Sorpresas te da la vida Editing: Francisco Mariotti and durations variable Brasília, DF
Lorenzo Bianda Thomaz Farkas Estate National Congress in construction,
Francisco Mariotti Museo de Arte de Lima Brasília, Federal District
Qué buena concha Francisco Mariotti Donation León Ferrari 1959
Jaula con aves Cage from the series inkjet print with mineral pigments on
1980 Diamela Eltit Excrementos 100% cotton paper
silkscreens on paper Zona de dolor II/El beso Cage with Birds from the series 11 × 11 in. (28 × 28 cm)
each 39 3⁄8 × 27 3⁄8 in. (100 × 69.5 cm) Zone of Pain II/The Kiss Excrements Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Museo de Arte de Lima 1981 2004–08 Instituto Moreira Salles
Contemporary Art Acquisitions Com- video with sound, 3:05 min. cage (metal and wood), birds, Final
mittee 2007 Courtesy the artist Judgement prints (Giotto, Fra Congresso Nacional em construção,
Alfredo Barreda Donation Angelico, and El Bosco), plastic Brasília, DF
Eugenio Espinoza flowers, wood rods, and bird National Congress in construction,
Sarita Colonia Circunstancial (12 cocos) feeder Brasília, Federal District
1980 Circumstantial (12 coconuts) birdcage: 28 9⁄16 × 393⁄4 × 28 15⁄16 in. 1959
photograph of installation 1971 (72.5 × 101 × 73.5 cm); El Bosco gelatin silver print
Museo de Arte de Lima acrylic on canvas, coconuts, and rope print: 28 3⁄4 × 37 3⁄8 in. (73 × 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
59 × 59 × 10 in. (149.9 × 149.9 × 94.9 cm); Fra Angélico print: Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Encuesta de preferencias estéticas para 25.4 cm) 283⁄4 × 38 1⁄8 in. (73 × 96.9 cm); Instituto Moreira Salles
un público urbano Private Collection Giotto print: 283⁄4 × 29 in. (73 ×
Survey of Aesthetic Preferences for an 73.7 cm) Trabalhadores no Congresso Nacional,
Urban Audience Participaciones and Localizaciones Castagnino + macro Collection Brasília, DF
Particpations and Locations Workers at the National Congress,
María Luy 1973 Marcel Gautherot Brasília, Federal District
Cristo andino black and white photographs of Vistas aéreas de Brasília, Distrito c. 1959
Andean Christ performance Federal gelatin silver print
Courtesy the artist Aerial views of Brasília, Federal 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
Herbert Rodríguez District Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Cristo de Giotto 1958 Instituto Moreira Salles
Giotto Christ inkjet print with mineral pigments on
100% cotton paper
Charo Noriega 393⁄8 × 393⁄8 in. (100 × 100 cm)
Motivo Chavín Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Chavín Motif Instituto Moreira Salles
Chicago Boys Mariela Zevallos Thomaz Farkas Construção de Brasília, Distrito Federal
1983 Mujer que llora de Picasso Populares sobre cobertura do palácio Construcción de Brasilia, Distrito
vídeo con color y sonido, 16 min. do Congresso Nacional no dia da Federal
Cortesía del Estate of Juan Downey, Francisco Mariotti inauguração de Brasília, Distrito 1959
New York Motivo Huari Federal impresión en gelatina de plata
Populares sobre cobertura del palacio 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
Jesús Ruiz Durand Armando Williams del Congreso Nacional el día de la Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Afiches de difusión de la Reforma Composición de Mondrian inauguración de Brasilia, Distrito Instituto Moreira Salles
Agraria Federal
1969–72 1981 1960 Esplanada dos Ministérios em con
6 impresiones offset sobre papel silkscreen on paper impresión de inyección de tinta con strução, Brasília, DF
aprox. 39 × 27 in. (100 × 70 cm) 913⁄16 × 65⁄16 in. (25 × 16cm) pigmentos minerales sobre papel El eje monumental en construcción,
Museo de Arte de Lima Museo de Arte de Lima 100% algodón Brasilia, DF
Comité de Adquisiciones de Arte Donación Francisco Stastny 23 5⁄8 × 35 7⁄16 in. (60 × 90 cm) 1959
Contemporáneo 2007 Coleção Thomaz Farkas / Acervo impresión en gelatina de plata
Encuesta de preferencias estéticas para Instituto Moreira Salles 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
E.P.S. Huayco un público urbano Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Arte al Paso 1981 Memória do Cangaço Instituto Moreira Salles
impresiones sobre papel Memoria del Cangaço
Mariela Zevallos cada una: 8 1⁄4 × 11 11⁄16 in. (21 × 29.7 c. 1964 Esplanada dos Ministérios em con
¡Bajan en el Museo de Arte Moderno! cm) documentación fotográfica; cinco strução, Brasília, DF
Museo de Arte de Lima impresiones inyección de tinta El eje monumental en construcción,
Juan Javier Salazar Donación Francisco Mariotti con pigmentos minerales sobre Brasilia, DF
Algo va’ pasar papel 100% algodón y cuatro 1959
Arte al paso impresiones en gelatina de plata impresión de inyección de tinta con
María Luy 1981 12 5⁄8 × 187⁄8 in. (32 × 48 cm) pigmentos minerales sobre papel
Oh cultura vídeo, 30:11 min. Coleção Thomaz Farkas / Acervo 100% algodón
Edición: Francisco Mariotti and Instituto Moreira Salles 39 3⁄8 × 393⁄8 in. (100 × 100 cm)
Charo Noriega Lorenzo Bianda Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Sorpresas te da la vida Museo de Arte de Lima Caravana Farkas Instituto Moreira Salles
Donación Francisco Mariotti documentales dirigidas por Paulo Gil
Francisco Mariotti Soares, Geraldo Sarno, Sérgio Congresso Nacional em construção,
Qué buena concha Diamela Eltit Muniz Brasília, DF
Zona de dolor II/ El beso producida por Thomaz Farkas Congreso nacional en construcción,
1980 1981 duraciones variables Brasilia, DF
serigrafías sobre papel vídeo con sonido, 3:05 min. Thomaz Farkas Estate 1959
cada una: 39 3⁄8 × 27 3⁄8 in. (100 × Cortesía de la artista impresión de inyección de tinta con
69.5 cm) León Ferrari pigmentos minerales sobre papel
Museo de Arte de Lima Eugenio Espinoza Jaula con aves de la serie Excrementos 100% algodón
Comité de Adquisiciones de Arte Circunstancial (12 cocos) 2004–08 11 × 11 in. (28 × 28 cm)
Contemporáneo 2007 Alfredo 1971 jaula (metal y madera), pájaros, graba- Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Barreda Donation acrílico sobre lienzo, cocos y cuerda dos del Juicio Final (Giotto, Fra Instituto Moreira Salles
59 × 59 × 10 in. (149.9 × 149.9 × 25.4 Angélico y El Bosco), flores de
Sarita Colonia cm) plástico, barras de madera y Congresso Nacional em construção,
1980 Colección privada, Miami, FL alimentador de aves Brasília, DF
fotografía jaula: 28 9⁄16 × 393⁄4 × 28 15⁄16 in. (72.5 × Congreso nacional en construcción,
Museo de Arte de Lima Participaciones y Localizaciones 101 × 73.5 cm); impresión de El Brasilia, DF
1973 Bosco: 28 3⁄4 × 37 3⁄8 in. (73 × 1959
Encuesta de preferencias estéticas para fotografías en blanco y negro docu- 94.9cm); impresión de Fra Angé- impresión en gelatina de plata
un público urbano mentando acción lico: 283⁄4 × 38 1⁄8 in. (73 × 96.9 cm); 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
Cortesía de la artista impresión de Giotto: 283⁄4 × 29 in. Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
María Luy (73 × 73.7 cm) Instituto Moreira Salles
Cristo andino Castagnino + macro Collection
Trabalhadores no Congresso Nacional,
Herbert Rodríguez Marcel Gautherot Brasília, DF
Cristo de Giotto Vistas aéreas de Brasília, Distrito Trabajadores en el Congreso nacional,
Federal Brasilia, DF
Charo Noriega 1958 c. 1959
Motivo Chavín impresión de inyección de tinta con impresión en gelatina de plata
pigmentos minerales sobre papel 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
100% algodón Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
393⁄8 × 393⁄8 in. (100 × 100 cm) Instituto Moreira Salles
Coleção Marcel Gautherot / Acervo
Instituto Moreira Salles
Anna Bella Geiger A Cor na Arte Local da ação No. 1 Victor Grippo
Correntes Culturais Color in Art Place of action No. 1 Analogia I
Cultural Currents 1976 1980 Analogy I
1975 notebook, cover, and sample pages etching, edition 38 of 60 1970–71
ink on tracing paper 5 7⁄8 × 87⁄8 in. (15 × 22.5 cm) 243⁄16 × 20 7⁄8 in. (61.5 × 53 cm) electric circuits, electric meter and
8 1⁄4 × 115⁄8 in. (21 × 29.5 cm) Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist switch, potatoes, ink, paper,
Courtesy of the artist paint, and wood
Variáveis Ideología 181⁄2 × 611⁄2 × 41⁄16 in. (47 × 156.2 ×
Admissão Variables Ideology 10.3 cm)
Admission 1976/2010 1982 Private Collection
1975 drawing, screenprint, and embroidery video, 20 min.
notebook, cover, and sample pages on white linen, edition 9 of 18 performance: Noni Geiger, Rodolfo Eduardo Hernández
8 7⁄16 × 5 7⁄8 in. (21.5 × 15 cm) each 95⁄8 × 115⁄8 in. (24.4 × 29.5 cm) Capeto La letra con sangre entra
Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist videographer: Gustavo Hadba The Letter with Blood Enters
shot in Rio de Janeiro 1980
Historia do Brasil O espaço social da arte Courtesy of the artist and Henrique three digital printed photographs and
History of Brazil The Social Space of Art Faria, New York & Buenos Aires one text on paper
1975 1977 photographs framed together: 19 5⁄16 ×
notebook, cover, and sample pages silkscreen and typewriter on paper, Burocracia 36 5⁄8 × 19⁄16 in. (49 × 93 × 4 cm);
7 7⁄8 × 9 7⁄16 in. (20 × 24 cm) edition 20 of 60 Bureaucracy text, framed: 1911⁄16 × 259⁄16 ×
Courtesy of the artist 20 7⁄8 × 27 9⁄16 in. (53 × 70 cm) 1982 19⁄16 in. (50 × 65 × 4 cm)
Courtesy of the artist video, 0:38 min. Colleción Proyecto Bachué
Os dez mandamentos performance: Anna Bella Geiger, Noni
The Ten Commandments Amuleto Geiger, Paula Nogueira, Teresa Leon Hirszman
1975 Amulet Corçáo Maioria Absoluta
notebook, cover, and sample pages 1977 videographer: Gustavo Hadba Absolute Majority
115⁄8 × 8 1⁄4 in. (29.5 × 21 cm) graphite and color pencil on paper Courtesy of the artist and Henrique 1964
Courtesy of the artist 19 3⁄4 × 253⁄8 in. (50.2 × 64.5 cm) Faria, New York & Buenos Aires video, 18:44 min.
Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the Leon Hirszman family
A Alimentaçao do artista Rubens Gerchman
Food of the Artist O Novo Atlas no. 1 A Bela Lindonéia, a Gioconda dos Alfredo Jaar
1975 The New Atlas no. 1 subúrbios Intervenciones públicas (Estudios sobre
notebook, cover, and sample pages 1977 The Beautiful Lindonéia, the Gioconda la felicidad: 1979–1981)
81⁄4 × 1113⁄16 in. (21 × 30 cm) notebook, cover, and sample pages of the Suburbs Public Interventions (Studies on Hap-
Courtesy of the artist 87⁄16 × 123⁄16 in. (21.5 × 31 cm) 1966 piness: 1979–1981)
Courtesy of the artist serigraph 1981
Mapas elementares No. 1 19 7⁄8 × 197⁄8 in. (50.5 × 50.5 cm) eight c prints
Elementary Maps No. 1 O Novo Atlas no. 2 Rubens Gerchman Institute each 44 × 44 in. (111.8 × 111.8 cm)
1976 The New Atlas no.2 Courtesy of the artist, New York
black and white video, 3 min. 1977 Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas
Courtesy of the artist and Henrique notebook, cover, and sample pages La Hora de los hornos Estudios sobre la felicidad: 1979–1981
Faria, New York & Buenos Aires 8 7⁄16 × 12 3⁄16 in. (21.5 × 31 cm) The Hour of the Furnaces Studies on Happiness: 1979–1981
Courtesy of the artist 1968 1982
Mapas elementares No. 2 video, 84:56 min. digital print
Elementary Maps No. 2 O Pão Nosso de cada dia 48 × 69 in. (121.9 × 175.3 cm)
1976/2011 Our Daily Bread Carlos Ginzburg Courtesy of the artist, New York
video, black and white, 4:13 min. 1978 Le Tour du Monde du President Carter
Courtesy of the artist and Henrique bread bag and six postcards, limited President Carter’s World Tour Obra abierta y de registro continuo
Faria, New York & Buenos Aires edition 1979 An Open Work—A Non-Stop Record
24 1⁄2 × 28 7⁄16 in. (62.2 × 72.3 cm) nine gelatin silver prints on cardboard 1981 add panel
Mapas elementares No. 3 framed panels video, 50 min.
Elementary Maps No. 3 Courtesy of the artist each 7 1⁄8 × 91⁄2 in. (18.1 × 24.1 cm) Courtesy of the artist, New York dimens? (per
1976 Courtesy of the artist and Henrique spanish)
black and white video, 3 min. Ecuaciones Faria, New York & Buenos Aires Leandro Katz
videographer: Davi Geiger Equations Multitud 7 × 7
Courtesy of the artist and Henrique 1978 Beatriz Gonzalez Crowd 7 × 7
Faria, New York & Buenos Aires three drawings, graphite, and color Esta bienal es un lujo que un país sub 1974/2012
pencil on paper desarrollado no se debe dar digital video from original Super 8mm
Sobre a arte 9 1⁄8 × 12 3⁄4 in. (23.2 × 32.4 cm) This Biennial is a Luxury that an film, black and white, NTSC,
About Art Courtesy of the artist Underdeveloped Country Should silent, edition 1/5 + 2 AP
1976 Not Give Courtesy of the artist and Henrique
notebook, cover, and sample pages 1981 Faria, New York & Buenos Aires
7 11⁄16 × 10 1⁄4 in. (19.5 × 26 cm) silkscreen on fabric
Courtesy of the artist 315⁄16 × 19 11⁄16 in. (10 × 50 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Galería
Casas Riegner
Anna Bella Geiger A Cor na Arte Local da ação No. 1 Victor Grippo
Correntes Culturais Color en el arte Lugar de acción No. 1 Analogia I
Corrientes Culturales 1976 1980 Analogía I
1975 cuaderno, portada y páginas de aguafuerte, edición 38 de 60 1970–71
tinta sobre papel de calcar muestra 243⁄16 × 20 7⁄8 in. (61.5 × 53 cm) circuitos eléctricos, medidor e inter-
8 1⁄4 × 115⁄8 in (21 × 29.5 cm) 5 7⁄8 × 87⁄8 in. (15 × 22.5 cm) Cortesía de la artista ruptor eléctricos, papas, tinta,
Cortesía de la artista Cortesía de la artista papel, pintura y madera
Ideología 181⁄2 × 611⁄2 × 41⁄16 in. (47 × 156.2 × 10.3
Admissão Variáveis Ideology cm)
Admisión Variables 1982 Colección privada
1975 1976/2010 vídeo, 20 min.
cuaderno, portada y páginas de dibujo, serigrafía y bordado sobre lino performance: Noni Geiger, Rodolfo Eduardo Hernández
muestra blanco, edición 9 de 18 Capeto La letra con sangre entra
8 7⁄16 × 5 7⁄8 in. (21.5 × 15 cm) total 3011⁄16 × 32 11⁄16 in. (78 × 83 cm); videógrafo: Gustavo Hadba 1980
Cortesía de la artista cada uno 10 5⁄8 × 1113⁄16 in. (27 × filmada en Río de Janeiro tres fotografías digitales impresas y
30 cm) Cortesía de la artista y Henrique Faria, un texto sobre papel
Historia do Brasil Cortesía de la artista New York & Buenos Aires fotografías enmarcadas juntas: 19 5⁄16 ×
Historia de Brazil 36 5⁄8 × 19⁄16 in. (49 × 93 × 4 cm);
1975 O espaço social da arte Burocracia texto, enmarcado: 1911⁄16 × 259⁄16 ×
cuaderno, portada y páginas de El espacio social del arte 1982 19⁄16 in. (50 × 65 × 4 cm)
muestra 1977 vídeo, 0:38 min. Colección Proyecto Bachué
7 7⁄8 × 9 7⁄16 in. (20 × 24 cm) serigrafía y dactilografía sobre papel, performance: Anna Bella Geiger, Noni
Cortesía de la artista edición 20 de 60 Geiger, Paula Nogueira, Teresa Leon Hirszman
20 7⁄8 × 27 9⁄16 in. (53 × 70 cm) Corçáo Maioria Absoluta
Os dez mandamentos Cortesía de la artista videógrafo: Gustavo Hadba Mayoría Absoluta
Los diez mandamientos Cortesía de la artista y Henrique Faria, 1964
1975 Amuleto New York & Buenos Aires vídeo, 18:44 min.
cuaderno, portada y páginas de Amuleto Cortesía de la familia de Leon
muestra 1977 Rubens Gerchman Hirszman
115⁄8 × 8 1⁄4 in. (29.5 × 21 cm) grafito y lápiz de colores sobre papel A Bela Lindonéia, a Gioconda dos
Cortesía de la artista 19 3⁄4 × 253⁄8 in. (50.2 × 64.5 cm) subúrbios Alfredo Jaar
Cortesía de la artista La Bella Lindonéia, la Gioconda de los Intervenciones públicas (Estudios sobre
A Alimentaçao do artista suburbios la felicidad: 1979–1981)
La Alimentación del artista O Novo Atlas no. 1 1966 1981
1975 El nuevo atlas no. 1 serigrafía ocho impresiones cromogénicas
cuaderno, portada y páginas de 1977 19 7⁄8 × 197⁄8 in. (50.5 × 50.5 cm) cada una: 44 × 44 in. (111.8 ×
muestra cuaderno, portada y páginas de Cortesía del Rubens Gerchman 111.8 cm)
81⁄4 × 1113⁄16 in. (21 × 30 cm) muestra Institute Cortesía del artista, Nueva York
Cortesía de la artista 87⁄16 × 123⁄16 in. (21.5 × 31 cm)
Cortesía de la artista Octavio Getino y Fernando Solanas Estudios sobre la felicidad: 1979–1981
Mapas elementares No. 1 La Hora de los hornos 1982
Mapas elementarios No. 1 O novo atlas no. 2 1968 impresión digital
1976 El nuevo atlas no. 2 vídeo, 84:56 min. 48 × 69 in. (121.9 × 175.3 cm)
vídeo en blanco y negro, 3 min. 1977 Cortesía del artista, Nueva York
Cortesía de la artista y Henrique Faria, cuaderno, portada y páginas de Carlos Ginzburg
New York & Buenos Aires muestra Le Tour du Monde du President Carter Obra abierta y de registro continuo
8 7⁄16 × 12 3⁄16 in. (21.5 × 31 cm) La vuelta al mundo del Presidente 1981
Mapas elementares No. 2 Cortesía de la artista Carter vídeo, 50 min.
Mapas elementarios No. 2 1979 Cortesía del artista, Nueva York
1976/2011 O Pão Nosso de cada dia nueve impresiones de gelatina de
vídeo en blanco y negro, 4:13 min. El Pan Nuestro de cada día plata sobre paneles de cartón Leandro Katz
Cortesía de la artista y Henrique Faria, 1978 cada una: 7 1⁄8 × 91⁄2 in. (18.1 × Multitud 7 × 7
New York & Buenos Aires bolsa de papel para pan y seis post- 24.1 cm); panel de cartón: 9 1⁄4 × 1974/2012
ales, edición limitada 12 5⁄16 in. (23.5 × 31.3 cm) Super 8 transferido a DVD, B/N,
Mapas elementares No. 3 enmarcado: 24 1⁄2 × 28 7⁄16 in. (62.2 × Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, NTSC, sin sonido, edición 1/5 + 2
Mapas elementarios No. 3 72.3 cm) New York & Buenos Aires AP, 14 min.
1976 Cortesía de la artista Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria,
vídeo en blanco y negro, 3 min. Beatriz Gonzalez New York & Buenos Aires
videógrafo: Davi Geiger EquaçõesEcuaciones Esta bienal es un lujo que un país sub
Cortesía de la artista y Henrique Faria, 1978 desarrollado no se debe dar
New York & Buenos Aires tres dibujos, grafito y lápiz de color 1981
sobre papel serigrafía en tela
Sobre a arte 9 1⁄8 × 12 3⁄4 in. (23.2 × 32.4 cm) 315⁄16 × 19 11⁄16 in. (10 × 50 cm)
Sobre el arte Cortesía de la artista Cortesía de la artista y Galería Casas
1976 Riegner
cuaderno, portada y páginas de
muestra
7 11⁄16 × 10 1⁄4 in. (19.5 × 26 cm)
Cortesía de la artista
Carlos Leppe Sin título, Estadio Zulia, Venezuela Universidad Central de Venezuela, Sin título
Acción de la Estrella Untitled, Zulia Stadium, Venezuela Caracas, Venezuela Untitled
Star Performance c. 1953 Central University of Venezuela, Cara- n.d.
1979 gelatin silver print cas, Venezuela gelatin silver print
ten black and white photographs and 113⁄8 × 113⁄8 in. (28.9 × 28.9 cm) n.d. 7 15⁄16 × 101⁄16 in. (20.2 × 25.6 cm)
video of action, 21 min. Fundación Leo Matiz gelatin silver print Fundación Leo Matiz
video recording: Gonzalo Mezza 97⁄16 × 7 3⁄8 in. (23.9 × 18.7 cm)
audio, text and voice: Nelly Richard Petróleo, Colombia Fundación Leo Matiz Sin título
each of ten photographs: 97⁄16 × 7 1⁄16 in. Petroleum, Colombia Untitled
(24 × 18 cm) c. 1955 Estacionamiento de la Universidad n.d.
Colleción de Pedro Montes gelatin silver print Central de Venezuela, Caracas, gelatin silver print
9 13⁄16 × 7 13⁄16 in. (25 × 19.9 cm) Venezuela 10 1⁄8 × 7 11⁄16 in. (25.7 × 19.5 cm)
Antonio Manuel Fundación Leo Matiz Parking lot of Central University of Fundación Leo Matiz
Clandestinas Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela
Clandestines Constructores, Bogotá, Colombia n.d. Sin título
1973 Builders, Bogotá, Colombia gelatin silver print Untitled
nine newspapers c. 1960 9 1⁄2 × 7 3⁄8 in. (24.2 × 18.7 cm) n.d.
each 22 1⁄16 × 1415⁄16 × 1 3⁄4 in. (56 × 38 × gelatin silver print Fundación Leo Matiz gelatin silver print
4.5 cm) 91⁄8 × 7 9⁄16 in. (23.2 × 19.2 cm) 91⁄2 × 7 3⁄8 in. (24.2 × 18.7 cm)
Courtesy of the artist Fundación Leo Matiz Universidad Central de Venezuela, Fundación Leo Matiz
Caracas, Venezuela
Semi Ótica Puente de Angostura, Venezuela Central University of Venezuela, Cara- Sin título
1975 Angostura Bridge, Venezuela cas, Venezuela Untitled
35mm film/digitized 16mm film, 7 min. c. 1965 n.d. n.d.
Courtesy of the artist gelatin silver print gelatin silver print gelatin silver print
13 9⁄16 × 14 13⁄16 in. (34.5 × 37.6 cm) 9 7⁄16 × 7 in. (24 × 17.8 cm) 7 3⁄16 × 7 9⁄16 in. (18.2 × 19.2 cm)
Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz
En la zona de hierro, estamos construy
endo una ciudad humana. . . , Sin título Sin título Sin título
Guyana, Venezuela Untitled Untitled Untitled
In the area of iron, we are building a n.d. n.d. n.d.
human city . . . , Guyana, gelatin silver print gelatin silver print gelatin silver print
Venezuela 9 3⁄8 × 7 11⁄16 in. (23.8 × 19.5 cm) 10 3⁄16 × 8 in. (25.8 × 20.3 cm) 7 15⁄16 × 9 15⁄16 in. (20.1 × 25.3 cm)
1956 Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz
photomechanical print
15 7⁄8 × 13 7⁄8 in. (40.3 × 35.2 cm) Torre El Reloj en Plaza del rectorado de Sin título Sin título
Fundación Leo Matiz la Universidad Central de Venezu Untitled Untitled
ela, Caracas, Venezuela n.d. n.d.
Votante, Venezuela Clocktower in the Rector’s Plaza at the gelatin silver print gelatin silver print
Voter, Venezuela Central University of Venezuela, 9 5⁄8 × 5 9⁄16 in. (24.5 × 14.2 cm) 7 3⁄8 × 9 1⁄2 in. (18.8 × 24.2 cm)
1958 Caracas, Venezuela Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz
gelatin silver print n.d.
10 × 8 1⁄8 in. (25.4 × 20.6cm) gelatin silver print Sin título Sin título
Fundación Leo Matiz 10 1⁄16 × 8 in. (25.6 × 20.3 cm) Untitled Untitled
Fundación Leo Matiz n.d. n.d.
Construcción, Universidad Central de gelatin silver print gelatin silver print
Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela Universidad Central de Venezuela, 9 13⁄16 × 7 9⁄16 in. (25 × 19.2 cm) 10 1⁄8 × 7 15⁄16 in. (25.7 × 20.2 cm)
Construction, Central University of Caracas, Venezuela Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz
Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela Central University of Venezuela, Cara-
c. 1952 cas, Venezuela Sin título Sin título
gelatin silver print n.d. Untitled Untitled
1111⁄16 × 15 5⁄8 in. (29.7 × 39.7 cm) gelatin silver print n.d. n.d.
Fundación Leo Matiz 915⁄16 × 8 1⁄8 in. (25.3 × 20.6 cm) gelatin silver print gelatin silver print
Fundación Leo Matiz 9 13⁄16 × 67⁄8 in. (25 × 17.5 cm) 18 1⁄8 × 15 3⁄16 in. (46 × 38.5 cm)
Aula Magna, Ciudad Universitaria, Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz
Caracas, Venezuela Universidad Central de Venezuela,
Lecture hall, Univeristy City, Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela Sin título Sin título
Venezuela Central University of Venezuela, Cara- Untitled Untitled
c. 1952–53 cas, Venezuela n.d. n.d.
gelatin silver print n.d. gelatin silver print gelatin silver print
9 9⁄16 × 7 3⁄8 in. (24.3 × 18.8 cm) gelatin silver print 7 3⁄8 × 99⁄16 in. (18.7 × 24.3 cm) 18 × 12 1⁄16 in. (45.7 × 30.7 cm)
Fundación Leo Matiz 99⁄16 × 7 1⁄2 in. (24.3 × 19 cm) Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz
Fundación Leo Matiz
Carlos Leppe Sin título, Estadio Zulia, Venezuela Estacionamiento de la Universidad Sin título
Acción de la Estrella c. 1953 Central de Venezuela, Caracas, s.f.
1979 impresión en gelatina de plata Venezuela impresión en gelatina de plata
grabación de vídeo: Gonzalo Mezza 113⁄8 × 113⁄8 in. (28.9 × 28.9 cm) s.f. 7 3⁄16 × 7 9⁄16 in. (18.2 × 19.2 cm)
audio: guión y voz de Nelly Richard Fundación Leo Matiz impresión en gelatina de plata Fundación Leo Matiz
21 min. 97⁄16 × 7 3⁄8 in. (24.2 × 18.7 cm)
Colección de Pedro Montes Petróleo, Colombia Fundación Leo Matiz Sin título
c. 1955 s.f.
Acción de la Estrella impresión en gelatina de plata Universidad Central de Venezuela, impresión en gelatina de plata
1979 9 13⁄16 × 7 13⁄16 in. (25 × 19.9 cm) Caracas, Venezuela 7 15⁄16 × 9 15⁄16 in. (20.1 × 25.3 cm)
registro de la acción, diez fotos en Fundación Leo Matiz s.f. Fundación Leo Matiz
blanco y negro y vídeo, 21 min. impresión en gelatina de plata
grabación de vídeo: Gonzalo Mezza Constructores, Bogotá, Colombia 9 7⁄16 × 7 in. (24 × 17.8 cm) Sin título
audio, guión y voz: Nelly Richard c. 1960 Fundación Leo Matiz s.f.
cada uno de diez 97⁄16 × 7 1⁄16 in. (24 × impresión en gelatina de plata impresión en gelatina de plata
18 cm) 91⁄8 × 7 9⁄16 in. (23.2 × 19.2cm) Sin título 7 3⁄8 × 9 1⁄2 in. (18.8 × 24.2 cm)
Colección de Pedro Montes Fundación Leo Matiz s.f. Fundación Leo Matiz
impresión en gelatina de plata
Antonio Manuel Puente de Angostura, Venezuela 10 3⁄16 × 8 in. (25.8 × 20.3 cm) Sin título
Clandestinas c. 1965 Fundación Leo Matiz s.f.
1973 impresión en gelatina de plata impresión en gelatina de plata
nueve periódicos 13 9⁄16 × 14 13⁄16 in. (34.5 × 37.6 cm) Sin título 10 1⁄8 × 7 15⁄16 in. (25.7 × 20.2 cm)
cada uno de nueve: 22 1⁄16 × 1415⁄16 × Fundación Leo Matiz s.f. Fundación Leo Matiz
1 3⁄4 in. (56 × 38 × 4.5 cm) impresión en gelatina de plata
Cortesía del artista Sin título 9 5⁄8 × 5 9⁄16 in. (24.5 × 14.2 cm) Sin título
s.f. Fundación Leo Matiz s.f.
Semi Ótica impresión en gelatina de plata impresión en gelatina de plata
1975 9 3⁄8 × 7 11⁄16 in. (23.8 × 19.5 cm) Sin título 18 1⁄8 × 15 3⁄16 in. (46 × 38.5 cm)
película de 35 mm y película de 16 mm Fundación Leo Matiz s.f. Fundación Leo Matiz
digitalizada, 7 min. impresión en gelatina de plata
Cortesía del artista Torre El Reloj en Plaza del rectorado de 9 13⁄16 × 7 9⁄16 in. (25 × 19.2 cm) Sin título
la Universidad Central de Venezu Fundación Leo Matiz s.f.
Leo Matiz ela, Caracas, Venezuela impresión en gelatina de plata
En la zona de hierro, estamos construy s.f. Sin título 18 × 12 1⁄16 in. (45.7 × 30.7 cm)
endo una ciudad humana..., Guy impresión en gelatina de plata s.f. Fundación Leo Matiz
ana, Venezuela 10 1⁄16 × 8 in. (25.6 × 20.3 cm) impresión en gelatina de plata
1956 Fundación Leo Matiz 9 13⁄16 × 67⁄8 in. (25 × 17.5cm)
impresión fotomecánica Fundación Leo Matiz
15 7⁄8 × 13 7⁄8 in. (40.3 × 35.2 cm) Universidad Central de Venezuela,
Fundación Leo Matiz Caracas, Venezuela Sin título
s.f. s.f.
Votante, Venezuela impresión en gelatina de plata impresión en gelatina de plata
1958 915⁄16 × 8 1⁄8 in. (25.3 × 20.6 cm) 7 3⁄8 × 99⁄16 in.(18.7 × 24.3 cm)
impresión en gelatina de plata Fundación Leo Matiz Fundación Leo Matiz
10 × 8 1⁄8 in. (25.4 × 20.6 cm)
Fundación Leo Matiz Universidad Central de Venezuela, Sin título
Caracas, Venezuela s.f.
Construcción, Universidad Central de s.f. impresión en gelatina de plata
Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela impresión en gelatina de plata 7 15⁄16 × 101⁄16 in. (20.2 × 25.6 cm)
c. 1952 99⁄16 × 7 1⁄2 in. (24.3 × 19 cm) Fundación Leo Matiz
impresión en gelatina de plata Fundación Leo Matiz
1111⁄16 × 15 5⁄8 in. (29.7 × 39.7 cm) Sin título
Fundación Leo Matiz Universidad Central de Venezuela, s.f.
Caracas, Venezuela impresión en gelatina de plata
Aula Magna, Ciudad Universitaria, s.f. 10 1⁄8 × 7 11⁄16 in. (25.7 × 19.5 cm)
Caracas, Venezuela impresión en gelatina de plata Fundación Leo Matiz
c. 1952–53 97⁄16 × 7 3⁄8 in. (23.9 × 18.7 cm)
impresión en gelatina de plata Fundación Leo Matiz Sin título
9 9⁄16 × 7 3⁄8 in.(24.3 × 18.8 cm) s.f.
Fundación Leo Matiz impresión en gelatina de plata
91⁄2 × 7 3⁄8 in (24.2 × 18.7 cm)
Fundación Leo Matiz
Sin título Cildo Meireles Seja Marginal, seja heroi Livro da criação
Untitled Interções em Circuitos Ideolõgicos: Be an Outlaw, Be a Hero Book of Creation
n.d. Projeto Coca-Cola 1968 1967
gelatin silver print Insertions into Ideological Circuits: screenprint on fabric Super 8 transferred to DVD, 4:05 min.
15 × 14 1⁄8 in. (38.1 × 35.8 cm) Coca-Cola Project 41 5⁄16 × 35 7⁄16 in. (105 × 90 cm) Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and
Fundación Leo Matiz 1970/2017 César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Hauser & Wirth
text transferred on glass; three bottles Janeiro
Sin título each 7 1⁄16 × 31⁄8 in. (18 × 8 cm) Caixa das baratas
Untitled Courtesy of the artist and Galeria A cangaceira eletrônica Box of Cockroaches
n.d. Luisa Strina The Electronic Cangaceira 1967
gelatin silver print 1970 acrylic, mirror, mummified roaches
14 × 16 15⁄16 in. (35.6 × 43.1 cm) Hélio Oiticica twenty works on paper, sketches for 3 15⁄16 × 14 × 10 1⁄16 in. (10 × 35.5 ×
Fundación Leo Matiz Tropicália the set design for a film by Anto- 25.5 cm)
1966–67 nio Carlos Fontoura Colección de Fundação de Serralves,
Sin título plants, sand, birds, and poems by each approx. 7 7⁄8 × 1113⁄16 in. (20 × Museu de Arte Contemporânea,
Untitled Roberta Camila Salgado 30 cm) Porto, Portugal. Acquisition 2006
n.d. site specific Colección de Hecilda and Sérgio Fadel
gelatin silver print César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de O Ovo
15 7⁄8 × 19 7⁄8 in. (40.4 × 50.5 cm) Janeiro Carlos Mayolo Luis Ospina The Egg
Fundación Leo Matiz Agarrando Pueblo 1967/2017
PN2 Penetrável, A pureza é um mito The Vampires of Poverty three wood and paper cubes
Para hoy y para mañana..., Venezuela PN2 Penetrable, Purity Is a Myth 1978 dimensions variable
For Today and for Tomorrow, 1966 color film, 28 min. Courtesy of Lygia Pape and Hauser &
Venezuela oil on wood, birds, sand, and plastic Wirth
n.d. 86 5⁄8 × 51 15⁄16 × 53 9⁄16 in. (220 × Lygia Pape
photomechanical print 131.92 × 136.04 cm) Livro da criação Carnival in Rio
16 9⁄16 × 12 3⁄16 in. (42 × 30.9 cm) César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Book of Creation 1974
Fundación Leo Matiz Janeiro 1959 Super 8 transferred to DVD, 9:16 min.
gouache on cardboard, 18 elements Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and
Más riqueza de la tierra, Venezuela PN3 Penetrável, Imagético each 1113⁄16 × 11 13⁄16 in. (30 × 30 cm) Hauser & Wirth
More wealth from the earth, PN3 Penetrable, Imagetical Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and
Venezuela 1966–67 Hauser & Wirth Favela da Maré
n.d. wood, plastic, tissue, jute, and 1974–76
photomechanical print television Ganga Zumba Super 8 transferred to DVD, 5:11 min.
17 5⁄8 × 119⁄16 in. (44.8 × 29.3 cm) 82 11⁄16 × 99 5⁄8 × 78 3⁄8 in. (210.02 × 1962–65 Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and
Fundación Leo Matiz 253.04 × 199.07 cm) poster Hauser & Wirth
César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de 43 1⁄2 × 29 1⁄2 in. (110.5 × 75 cm)
Un mañana cuajado de realidades. . . , Janeiro Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and A mão do povo
Venezuela Hauser & Wirth The Hand of the People
A morning of realities taking shape. . . , P15 Parangolé capa 11, Incorporo a 1975
Venezuela revolta Vidas Secas 16mm film transferred to digital media
n.d. P15 Parangolé Cape 11, I Embody 1963 in black and white with sound,
photomechanical print Revolt poster 10 min.
16 9⁄16 × 12 7⁄8 in. (42.1 × 32.7 cm) 1967/2017 42 15⁄16 × 28 3⁄8 in. (109 × 72 cm) Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and
Fundación Leo Matiz paint, burlap, cotton fabric, straw, and Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and Hauser & Wirth
leather Hauser & Wirth
Esa máquina la maneja mi papá. . . , 35 7⁄16 × 23 5⁄8 × 3 15⁄16 in. (90 × 60 × Catiti Catiti, na terra dos Brasis
Guyana, Venezuela 10 cm) Trio do embalo maluco Catiti Catiti, on the Land of the Brasis
My dad operates that machine. . . , César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Crazy Rocking Trio 1978
Guyana, Venezuela Janeiro 1967 16mm film transferred to digital video
n.d. Betacam transferred to digital video, in black and white with sound,
photomechanical print P16 Parangolé capa 12, Da adversidade 1 min. 10 min.
15 13⁄16 × 13 7⁄8 in. (40.2 × 35.3 cm) vivemos Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and
Fundación Leo Matiz P16 Parangolé Cape 12, Of Adversity Hauser & Wirth Hauser & Wirth
We Live
En Guyana pensamos en grande, Guy 1967/2017 Espaços imantados Catalina Parra
ana, Venezuela paint, burlap, plastic bag, nylon mesh, Magnatized Spaces Espejo Humeante
In Guyana we think big, Guyana, and plastic ball foam flakes 1967 Smoking Mirror
Venezuela 53 3⁄16 × 23 5⁄8 × 3 15⁄16 in. (130 × 60 × fifteen photographs from film 1977
n.d. 10 cm) Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape and rectangular case made of acrylic,
photomechanical print César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Hauser & Wirth mirrors, fermenting flour dough
16 11⁄16 × 13 15⁄16 in. (42.4 × 35.4 cm) Janeiro mass, white sterile medical gauze,
Fundación Leo Matiz white adhesive medical tape
24 × 15 1⁄2 × 20 3⁄4 in. (61 × 39.4 ×
52.7 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Isabel Soler
Parra
Sin título Cildo Meireles Seja Marginal, seja heroi Livro da criação
s.f. Inserções em Circuitos Ideológicos: Sea Marginal, sea un héroe Libro de creación
impresión en gelatina de plata Projeto Coca-Cola 1968 1967
15 × 14 1⁄8 in. (38.1 × 35.8 cm) Inserciones en Circuitos Ideológicos: serigrafía sobre tela Super 8 transferido a DVD, 4:05 min.
Fundación Leo Matiz Proyecto Coca-Cola 41 5⁄16 × 35 7⁄16 in. (105 × 90 cm) Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y
1970/2017 César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Hauser & Wirth
Sin título transferencia de texto sobre vidrio; Janeiro
s.f. tres botellas Caixa das baratas
impresión en gelatina de plata cada una 7 1⁄16 × 31⁄8 in. (18 × 8 cm) A cangaceira eletrônica Caja de las cucarachas
14 × 16 15⁄16 in. (35.6 × 43.1 cm) Cortesía del artista y Galeria Luisa La Cangaceira electrónica 1967
Fundación Leo Matiz Strina 1970 acrílico, espejo y cucarachas
veinte obras en papel, bocetos para la momificadas
Sin título Hélio Oiticica escenografía de un film de Anto- 3 15⁄16 × 14 × 10 1⁄16 in. (10 × 35.5 ×
s.f. Tropicália nio Carlos Fontoura 25.5 cm)
impresión en gelatina de plata 1966–67 cada una aprox. 7 7⁄8 × 1113⁄16 in. (20 × Colección de Fundação de Serralves,
15 7⁄8 × 19 7⁄8 in. (40.4 × 50.5 cm) plantas, arena, pájaros y poemas por 30 cm) Museu de Arte Contemporânea,
Fundación Leo Matiz Roberta Camila Salgado Colección de Hecilda and Sérgio Fadel Porto, Portugal. Acquisition 2006
sitio específico
Para hoy y para mañana. . . , Venezuela César y Claudio Oiticica, Río de Janeiro Carlos Mayolo Luis Ospina O Ovo
s.f. Agarrando Pueblo El Huevo
impresión fotomecánica PN2 Penetrável, A pureza é um mito 1978 1967/2017
16 9⁄16 × 12 3⁄16 in. (42 × 30.9 cm) PN2 Penetrable, La pureza es un mito película en color, 28 min. tres cubos de madera y papel
Fundación Leo Matiz 1966 dimensiones variables
óleo sobre madera, pájaros, arena y Lygia Pape Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y
Más riqueza de la tierra, Venezuela plástico Livro da criação Hauser & Wirth
s.f. 86 5⁄8 × 51 15⁄16 × 53 9⁄16 in. (220 × Libro de creación
impresión fotomecánica 131.92 × 136.04 cm) 1959 Carnaval en Río
17 5⁄8 × 119⁄16 in. (44.8 × 29.3 cm) César y Claudio Oiticica, Río de Janeiro gouache sobre cartón, 18 elementos 1974
Fundación Leo Matiz cada uno 1113⁄16 × 11 13⁄16 in. (30 × Super 8 transferido a DVD, 9:16 min.
PN3 Penetrável, Imagético 30 cm) Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y
Un mañana cuajado de realidades..., PN3 Penetrable, Imagético Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y Hauser & Wirth
Venezuela 1966–67 Hauser & Wirth
s.f. madera, plástico, tejido, yute y Favela da Maré
impresión fotomecánica televisión Ganga Zumba 1974–76
16 9⁄16 × 12 7⁄8 in. (42.1 × 32.7 cm) 82 11⁄16 × 99 5⁄8 × 78 3⁄8 in. (210.02 × 1962–65 Super 8 transferido a DVD, 5:11 min.
Fundación Leo Matiz 253.04 × 199.07 cm) poster Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y
César y Claudio Oiticica, Río de Janeiro 43 1⁄2 × 29 1⁄2 in. (110.5 × 75 cm) Hauser & Wirth
Esa máquina la maneja mi papá..., Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y
Guyana, Venezuela P15 Parangolé capa 11, Incorporo a Hauser & Wirth A mão do povo
s.f. revolta La mano del pueblo
impresión fotomecánica P15 Parangolé capa 11, Incorporando Vidas Secas 1975
15 13⁄16 × 13 7⁄8 in. (40.2 × 35.3 cm) la revuelta 1963 película de 16mm transferida a medios
Fundación Leo Matiz 1967⁄2017 poster digitales en blanco y negro con
pintura, arpillera, tejido de algodón, 42 15⁄16 × 28 3⁄8 in. (109 × 72 cm) sonido, 10 min.
En Guyana pensamos en grande, Guy paja y cuero Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y
ana, Venezuela 35 7⁄16 × 23 5⁄8 × 3 15⁄16 in. (90 × 60 × Hauser & Wirth Catiti Catiti, na terra dos Brasis
s.f. 10 cm) Catiti Catiti, en la tierra de los Brasis
impresión fotomecánica César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Trio do embalo maluco 1978
16 11⁄16 × 13 15⁄16 in. (42.4 × 35.4 cm) Janeiro Trio del embulo loco película de 16mm transferida a medios
Fundación Leo Matiz 1967 digitales en blanco y negro con
P16 Parangolé capa 12, Da adversidade Betacam transferido a vídeo digital, 1 sonido, 10 min.
vivemos min.
P16 Parangolé capa 12, De la adversi- Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y Catalina Parra
dad vivimos Hauser & Wirth Espejo Humeante
1967/2017 1977
pintura, arpillera, bolsa de plástico, Espaços imantados caja rectangular de acrílico, espejos,
tejido de nylon y copos de Espacios imantados masa de harina fermentante, gasa
espuma de bolas de plástico 1967 médica estéril blanca y cinta
53 3⁄16 × 23 5⁄8 × 3 15⁄16 in. (130 × 60 × 10 quince fotografías de la película adhesiva blanca
cm) Cortesía de Projeto Lygia Pape y 24 × 15 1⁄2 × 20 3⁄4 in. (61 × 39.4 ×
César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Hauser & Wirth 52.7 cm)
Janeiro Cortesía de la artista y Isabel Soler
Parra
La deuda e(x)terna que la pague el Papa Courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York Osvaldo Romberg Estación Buenavista, Ciudad de México
Let the Pope Pay the E(x)ternal Debt & Buenos Aires El paisaje como idea Buenavista Station, Mexico City
1987 Landscape as Idea 1961
color photograph on paperboard and Sin título (Perna con escultura) 1970 digital print on photographic paper
two black texts printed on white Untitled (Perna with sculpture) lithograph with acrylic and mylar 11 × 14 in. (28 × 35.5 cm)
paperboard c. 1975 15 1⁄2 × 195⁄16 in. (39.4 × 49.1 cm) Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
photograph: 443⁄4 × 33 1⁄4 in. (113.7 × gelatin silver print Courtesy of the artist and Henrique Portugal
84.5 cm); text panels: 9 × 331⁄4 in. 7 7⁄8 × 913⁄16 in. (20 × 25 cm) Faria, New York & Buenos Aires
(22.9 × 84.5 cm) Courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York Instituto Politécnico Nacional,
Courtesy of the artist and Isabel Soler & Buenos Aires El paisaje como idea Zacatenco
Parra Landscape as Idea National Polytechnic Institute,
Alfredo Portillos c. 1970 Zacatenco
Luis Pazos Jabones para diferentes clases sociales burnt lithograph with yellow adhesive 1962
Transformación de masas en vivo Soaps for Different Social Classes 18 5⁄8 × 23 in. (47.3 × 58.4 cm) digital print on photographic paper
Live Transformation of Masses 1971 Courtesy of the artist and Henrique 11 × 14 in. (28 × 35.5 cm)
1972/2012 mixed media Faria, New York & Buenos Aires Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
eight black and white photographs Colleción de Raúl Naón Portugal
each 11 × 13 3⁄4 in. (28 × 35 cm) El paisaje como idea
Courtesy of the artist Altar latinoamericano Landscape as Idea Museo Nacional de Antropología e
Latin American Altar c. 1970 Historia, Ciudad de México
Dependencia / Liberación 1975 lithograph and yellow adhesive National Museum of Anthropology and
Dependency / Liberation photograph of installation 18 5⁄8 × 23 in. (47.3 × 58.4 cm) History, Mexico City
1974 Courtesy of the artist and Henrique 1964
rubber stamp and ink on paper Norberto Puzzolo Faria, New York & Buenos Aires digital print on photographic paper
10 5⁄8 × 97⁄16 in. (27 × 24 cm) Tucumán Arde 3
⁄4 × 2213⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
Courtesy of the artist Tucumán is Burning Armando Salas Portugal Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
1968 Torre de Rectoría y Salon del Consejo Portugal
Claudio Perna eight black and white photographs Universitario. Ciudad Universita
La Cosa (Médanos) and logo design for project ria, Ciudad de México Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
The Things (Médanos) Courtesy of the artist and Henrique Tower of Rectory and Salon of the López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
1972 Faria, New York & Buenos Aires University Council, University Ciudad de México
Super 8 film transferred to digital City, Mexico City 1965
video, single channel, color, silent, Glauber Rocha 1950 digital print on photographic paper
edition 1 of 5 + AP, 7:04 min. Black God, White Devil digital print on photographic paper 15 3⁄4 × 22 13⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
Courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York 1964 15 3⁄4 × 20 1⁄16 in. (40 × 51 cm) Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
& Buenos Aires video, 120 min. Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Portugal
Cinemateca Brasileira Portugal
Plantación adentro Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
Inside the Plantation Antonio das mortes Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
1973–74 1969 City University, Mexico City Ciudad de México
Super 8 film transferred to digital Video, 100 min. 1952 1965
video, single channel, color, silent, Cinemateca Brasileira digital print on photographic paper digital print on photographic paper
edition 1 of 5 + AP, 2:23 min. 13 3⁄4 × 133⁄4 in. (35 × 35 cm) 15 3⁄4 × 22 13⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
Courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York Eztétyka da fome Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
& Buenos Aires Aesthetics of Hunger Portugal Portugal
1965
República de Venezuela, mapa ecológico reproduced text Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
Republic of Venezuela, Ecological Map City University, Mexico City López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
1975 Entranced Earth 1952 Ciudad de México
graphite, ink, seal, slides, and 1967 digital print on photographic paper 1965
mechanic print on paper video (excerpt) 133⁄4 × 133⁄4 in. (35 × 35 cm) digital print on photographic paper
291⁄2 × 35 7⁄8 in. (74.9 × 91.1 cm) Courtesy of Cinemateca Brasileira Fundación Archivo Armando Salas 15 3⁄4 × 20 1⁄16 in. (40 × 51 cm)
Private Collection, Courtesy of Hen- Portugal Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
rique Faria, New York & Buenos Portugal
Aires Escuela de Ciencias Medicas, Centro
Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Ciudad Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
Sin título de México López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
Untitled School of Medical Science, 21st Cen- Ciudad de México
1975 tury National Medical Center, 1965
gelatin silver print Mexico City digital print on photographic paper
7 7⁄8 × 913⁄16 in. (20 × 25 cm) 1958 15 3⁄4 × 22 13⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
Courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York digital print on photographic paper Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
& Buenos Aires 15 3⁄4 × 201⁄16 in. (40 × 51 cm) Portugal
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
Alineamiento Portugal
Alignment
1976
gelatin silver print, wet stamp, and ink
on paper
7 7⁄8 × 9 13⁄16 in. (20 × 25 cm)
La deuda e(x)terna que la pague el Papa Osvaldo Romberg Estación Buenavista, Ciudad de México
1987 Sin título (Perna con escultura) El paisaje como idea 1961
fotografía en color sobre cartón y dos c. 1975 1970 impresión digital en papel fotográfico
textos negros impresos en cartu- impresión de plata de gelatina litografía con acrílico y Mylar 11 × 14 in. (28 × 35.5 cm)
lina blanca 7 7⁄8 × 913⁄16 in. (20 × 25 cm) 15 1⁄2 × 195⁄16 in (39.4 × 49.1 cm) Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
fotografía: 443⁄4 × 33 1⁄4 in. (113.7 × Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, Portugal
84.5 cm); paneles de texto: 9 × New York & Buenos Aires New York & Buenos Aires
331⁄4 in.(22.9 × 84.5 cm) Instituto Politécnico Nacional,
Cortesía de la artista y Isabel Soler Alfredo Portillos El paisaje como idea Zacatenco
Parra Jabones para diferentes clases sociales c. 1970 1962
1971 litografía quemada con adhesivo impresión digital en papel fotográfico
Luis Pazos técnica mixta amarillo 11 × 14 in. (28 × 35.5 cm)
Transformación de masas en vivo Colección de Raúl Naón 18 5⁄8 × 23 in. (47.3 × 58.4 cm) Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
1972/2012 Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, Portugal
ocho fotografías en blanco y negro Altar latinoamericano New York & Buenos Aires
cada una 11 × 13 3⁄4 in. (28 × 35 cm) 1975 Museo Nacional de Antropología e
Cortesía del artista documentación de la instalación El paisaje como idea Historia, Ciudad de México
c. 1970 1964
Dependencia / Liberación Norberto Puzzolo litografía con adhesivo amarillo impresión digital en papel fotográfico
1974 Tucuman Arde 18 5⁄8 × 23 in. (47.3 × 58.4 cm) 3
⁄4 × 2213⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
sello de goma y tinta sobre papel 1968 Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
10 5⁄8 × 97⁄16 in. (27 × 24 cm) ocho fotografías en blanco y negro y New York & Buenos Aires Portugal
Cortesía del artista diseño del logotipo por proyecto
Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, Armando Salas Portugal Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
Claudio Perna New York & Buenos Aires Torre de Rectoría y Salón del Consejo López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
La Cosa (Médanos) Universitario. Ciudad Universita Ciudad de México
1972 Glauber Rocha ria, Ciudad de México 1965
película de Super 8 transferido a vídeo MAMB, Não é Museu: é Escola e “Movi 1950 impresión digital en papel fotográfico
First Glauber
digital, un solo canal, color, silen- mento” Por Uma Arte Que Não impresión digital en papel fotográfico 15 3⁄4 × 22 13⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
Rocha missing cioso, edición 1 de 5 + AP, 7:04 Seja Desligada do Homem 15 3⁄4 × 20 1⁄16 in. (40 × 51 cm) Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
min. MAMB, No es museo: Es escuela y Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Portugal
from English?
Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, “Movimiento” para un arte que no Portugal
New York & Buenos Aires sea desactivado del hombre Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
1958 Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
Plantación adentro artículo impreso por Diário de Noticías, 1952 Ciudad de México
1973–74 Cidade de Salvador impresión digital en papel fotográfico 1965
película de Super 8 transferido a vídeo 16 3⁄4 × 22 15⁄16 in. (42.5 × 58.3 cm) 13 3⁄4 × 133⁄4 in. (35 × 35 cm) impresión digital en papel fotográfico
digital, un solo canal, color, silen- Cortesía de Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Fundación Archivo Armando Salas 15 3⁄4 × 22 13⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
cioso, edición 1 de 5 + AP, 2:23 Bardi archive Portugal Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
min. Portugal
Cortesía de la artista y Henrique Faria, Deus e o Diabo na terra do sol Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México
New York & Buenos Aires Dios y el diablo en la tierra del sol 1952 Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
1964 impresión digital en papel fotográfico López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
República de Venezuela, mapa ecológico vídeo 13 3⁄4 × 133⁄4 in. (35 × 35 cm) Ciudad de México
1975 Cortesía de Cinemateca Brasileira Fundación Archivo Armando Salas 1965
grafito, tinta, sello, diapositivas e Portugal impresión digital en papel fotográfico
impresión mecánica sobre papel Antonio das mortes 15 3⁄4 × 20 1⁄16 in. (40 × 51 cm)
291⁄2 × 35 7⁄8 in. (74.9 × 91.1 cm) 1969 Escuela de Ciencias Médicas, Centro Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
Colección privada, Cortesía de Hen- vídeo Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Ciudad Portugal
rique Faria, Fine Art Cortesía de Cinemateca Brasileira de México
1958 Conjunto Urbano Presidente Adolfo
Sin título Eztétyka da fome impresión digital en papel fotográfico López Mateos, Nonoalco Tlatelolco,
Untitled Estética del hambre 15 3⁄4 × 201⁄16 in. (40 × 51 cm) Ciudad de México
1975 1965 Fundación Archivo Armando Salas 1965
impresión de plata de gelatina reproducción de texto Portugal impresión digital en papel fotográfico
7 7⁄8 × 913⁄16 in. (20 × 25 cm) 15 3⁄4 × 22 13⁄16 in. (40 × 58 cm)
Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, Terra em Transe Fundación Archivo Armando Salas
New York & Buenos Aires Tierra en Transe Portugal
1967
Alineamiento vídeo (extracto)
1976 Cortesía de Cinemateca Brasileira
impresión de plata de gelatina, sello y
tinta sobre papel
7 7⁄8 × 9 13⁄16 in. (20 × 25 cm)
Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria,
New York & Buenos Aires
VII Congreso Mundial del Petroleo Eixo rodoviário Sul, com edifício resi El fuego y la noche antes II Artur Barrio
Unidad de Academias y Congresos dencial de superquadra ao fundo, The Fire and the Night before II .. PÃO .... BREAD ....
Médicos del Centro Médico Nacio Brasília, DF 1974 1970
nal Siglo XXI, Ciudad de México South road axis, with residential build- burned printed map offset print and pen on postcard
VII World Petroleum Congress Acad- ing of superquadra in the back- 18 1⁄2 × 12 7⁄16 in. (47 × 31.6 cm) 4 5⁄16 × 5 7⁄8 in. (11 × 15 cm)
emies and Medical Congresses ground, Brasília, Federal District Courtesy of the artist and Henrique
Unit of the 21st Century National 1960 Faria New York & Buenos Aires Untitled
Medical Center, Mexico City gelatin silver print n.d.
1967 215⁄8 × 13 3⁄4 in. (55 × 35 cm) Deformaciones y hundimientos I, II, III, black and white photograph on paper
digital print on photographic paper Coleção Peter Scheier / Acervo Insti- y IV 97⁄16 × 6 15⁄16 in. (23.9 × 17.6 cm)
11 × 14 in. (28 × 35.5 cm) tuto Moreira Salles Deformations and subsidences I, II, III,
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas and IV Mirella Bentivoglio
Portugal Comércio popular, Brasília, DF 1974 eclisse
Popular trade, Brasília, Federal acrylic and graphite on paper Eclipse
VII Congreso Mundial del Petroleo District 15 3⁄4 × 47 1⁄4 in. (40 × 120 cm) n.d.
Unidad de Academias y Congresos c. 1960 Courtesy of the artist and Henrique offset print and typing on paper
Médicos del Centro Médico Nacio gelatin silver print Faria New York & Buenos Aires 8 1⁄2 × 81⁄2 in. (21.6 × 21.6 cm)
nal Siglo XXI, Ciudad de México 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm)
VII World Petroleum Congress Acad- Coleção Peter Scheier / Acervo Insti- Interferencias Irma Blank
emies and Medical Congresses tuto Moreira Salles Interferences Untitled
Unit of the 21st Century National 1974 n.d.
Medical Center, Mexico City Regina Silveira ink on printed map unidentified medium on paper
1967 Brazil Today: Brazilian Birds 18 1⁄2 × 8 7⁄16 in. (47 × 21.4 cm) 8 7⁄16 × 8 7⁄16 in. (21.5 × 21.5 cm)
digital print on photographic paper Courtesy of the artist and Henrique
7 7⁄8 × 10 1⁄16 in. (20 × 25.5 cm) Brazil Today: Indians from Brazil Faria New York & Buenos Aires J. Boden
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Untitled
Portugal Brazil Today: Natural Beauties Obstrucción del sur 1981
Obstruction of the South envelope with watercolor pen, graph-
VII Congreso Mundial del Petroleo Brazil Today: The Cities 1974 ite, and crayon
Unidad de Academias y Congresos ink on printed map 45⁄16 × 9 7⁄16 in. (10.9 × 24 cm)
missing
Médicos del Centro Médico Nacio 1977 18 1⁄2 × 119⁄16 in. (47 × 29.4 cm)
from nal Siglo XXI, Ciudad de México postcard books Courtesy of the artist and Henrique Paulo Bruscky
Span- VII World Petroleum Congress Acad- each 41⁄16 × 6 3⁄16 × 3⁄8 in. (10.3 × 15.7 × Faria New York & Buenos Aires ESTOU ME CONSERVANDO
emies and Medical Congresses 1 cm) I Am Taking Care of Myself
ish? Unit of the 21st Century National Courtesy of the artist and Luciana 1977
Medical Center, Mexico City Brito Galeria MAIL ART black and white photograph, stamp,
1967 and typing on paper
digital print on photographic paper Taller 4 Rojo 3 Nós 3 7 3⁄16 × 43⁄4 in. (18.2 × 12.1 cm)
7 7⁄8 × 101⁄16 in. (20 × 25.5 cm) Valla Campesina INTERVERSÃO URBANA
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Peasant Signboard Urban Intervention O EU COMIGO
Portugal c. 1972 1980 I Am With Myself
silkscreen on paper (12 panels) offset print on postcard 1977
Vista sur oriente de la Ciudad de México overall 157 1⁄2 × 110 1⁄4 in. (400 × 5 1⁄2 × 7 7⁄8 in. (14 × 20 cm) black and white photograph, stamp,
Southeast View of Mexico City 280 cm); each 403⁄16 × 283⁄8 × and typing on paper
1976 19⁄16 in. (102 × 72 × 4 cm) Untitled 7 3⁄16 × 411⁄16 in. (18.2 × 11.9 cm)
digital print on photographic paper Collection of Proyecto Bachué n.d.
19 11⁄16 × 23 5⁄8 in. (50 × 60 cm) offset print on postcard O QUE É A ARTE? PARA QUE SERVE?
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Luis Arias Vera 5 3⁄8 × 43⁄16 in. (13.6 × 10.7 cm) What is Art? What is it For?
Portugal Carrera del chasqui 1978
Chasquis Race Anna Banana black and white photograph, stamp,
Peter Scheier 1974 GLOBAL POSTALE 84 and typing on paper
Parada de ônibus, Brasília, DF photographic documentation of action Global Postcard 84 7 3⁄16 × 4 3⁄4 in. (18.3 × 12 cm)
Bus stop, Brasília, Federal District Courtesy of the Arias Vera Family 1978
1958 xerograph, photograph, and stamp on A dream for Pet
gelatin silver print Horacio Zabala paper 1980
17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm) Deformaciones, Tensiones, 8 7⁄16 × 5 3⁄8 in. (21.5 × 13.7 cm) xerograph, watermark and stamp on
Coleção Peter Scheier / Acervo Insti- Hundimientos paper
tuto Moreira Salles Deformations, Tensions, Subsidences Diego Barboza 9 3⁄8 × 6 1⁄8 in. (23.8 × 15.5 cm)
1973 Muestra conmemorativa de los 10 años
graphite on paper de la poesía de acción de Diego FUMBLE APALPAR
each of four 207⁄8 × 2413⁄16 in. (53 × Barboza 1981
63 cm) Commemorative exhibition of the 10 envelope with stamp and ballpoint pen
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina years of the poetry of action of 47⁄16 × 8 13⁄16 in. (11.3 × 22.4 cm)
Sofía, Madrid Diego Barboza
1980
offset print on poster
18 1⁄2 × 12 3⁄16 in. (47 × 30.9 cm)
VII Congreso Mundial del Petróleo Eixo rodoviário Sul, com edifício resi El fuego y la noche antes II Artur Barrio
Unidad de Academias y Congresos dencial de superquadra ao fundo, 1974 .. PÃO .... BREAD ....
Médicos del Centro Médico Nacio Brasília, DF mapa impreso quemado PAN…
nal Siglo XXI, Ciudad de México Eje de carretera sud, con edificio 18 1⁄2 × 12 7⁄16 in. (47 × 31.6 cm) 1970
1967 residencial de supercuadra al Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, impresión offset y bolígrafo sobre
impresión digital en papel fotográfico fondo, Brasilia, DF New York & Buenos Aires postal
11 × 14 in. (28 × 35.5 cm) 1960 4 5⁄16 × 5 7⁄8 in. (11 × 15 cm)
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas impresión en gelatina de plata Deformaciones y hundimientos I, II, III,
Portugal 215⁄8 × 13 3⁄4 in (55 × 35 cm) y IV Sin título
Coleção Peter Scheier / Acervo Insti- 1974 s.f.
VII Congreso Mundial del Petróleo tuto Moreira Salles acrílico y grafito sobre papel fotografía en blanco y negro sobre
Unidad de Academias y Congresos 15 3⁄4 × 47 1⁄4 in. (40 × 120 cm) papel
Médicos del Centro Médico Nacio Comércio popular, Brasília, DF Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, 97⁄16 × 6 15⁄16 in.(23.9 × 17.6 cm)
nal Siglo XXI, Ciudad de México Comercio popular, Brasilia, DF New York & Buenos Aires
1967 c. 1960 Mirella Bentivoglio
impresión digital en papel fotográfico impresión en gelatina de plata Interferencias eclisse
7 7⁄8 × 10 1⁄16 in. (20 × 25.5 cm) 17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm) 1974 s.f.
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Coleção Peter Scheier / Acervo Insti- tinta sobre mapa impreso impresión offset y mecanografía en
Portugal tuto Moreira Salles 18 1⁄2 × 8 7⁄16 in. (47 × 21.4 cm) papel
Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria, 8 1⁄2 × 81⁄2 in. (21.6 × 21.6 cm)
VII Congreso Mundial del Petróleo Regina Silveira New York & Buenos Aires
Unidad de Academias y Congresos Brazil Today: Brazilian Birds Irma Blank
Médicos del Centro Médico Nacio Brasil hoy: pájaros brasileños Obstrucción del sur Sin título
nal Siglo XXI, Ciudad de México 1974 s.f.
1967 Brazil Today: Indians from Brazil tinta sobre mapa impreso medio no identificado sobre papel
impresión digital en papel fotográfico Brasil hoy: indígenas de Brasil 18 1⁄2 × 119⁄16 in. (47 × 29.4 cm) 8 7⁄16 × 8 7⁄16 in. (21.5 × 21.5 cm)
7 7⁄8 × 10 1⁄16 in. (20 × 25.5 cm) Cortesía del artista y Henrique Faria,
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas Brazil Today: Natural Beauties New York & Buenos Aires J. Boden
Portugal Brasil hoy: bellezas naturales Sin título
1981
Vista sur oriente de la Ciudad de México Brazil Today: The Cities MAIL ART sobre con pluma de acuarela, grafito y
1976 Brasil hoy: las ciudades crayón
impresión digital en papel fotográfico 3 Nós 3 45⁄16 × 9 7⁄16 in. (10.9 × 24 cm)
19 11⁄16 × 23 5⁄8 in. (50 × 60 cm) 1977 INTERVERSÃO URBANA
Fundación Archivo Armando Salas libro de postales Intervención urbana Paulo Bruscky
Portugal 41⁄16 × 6 3⁄16 × 3⁄8 in. (10.3 × 15.7 × 1 cm) 1980 ESTOU ME CONSERVANDO
Cortesía de la artista y Luciana Brito impresión offset sobre postal Me estoy conservando
Peter Scheier Galeria 5 1⁄2 × 7 7⁄8 in. (14 × 20 cm) 1977
Parada de ônibus, Brasília, DF fotografía en blanco y negro, sello y
Parada de ómnibus, Brasilia, DF Taller 4 Rojo Sin título mecanografía sobre papel
1958 Valla Campesina s.f. 7 3⁄16 × 43⁄4 in. (18.2 × 12.1 cm)
impresión en gelatina de plata c. 1972 impresión offset sobre postal
17 11⁄16 × 17 11⁄16 in. (45 × 45 cm) serigrafía sobre papel (12 paneles) 5 3⁄8 × 43⁄16 in. (13.6 × 10.7 cm) O EU COMIGO
Coleção Peter Scheier / Acervo Insti- total 157 1⁄2 × 110 1⁄4 in. (400 × 280cm); El yo conmigo
tuto Moreira Salles cada una 403⁄16 × 283⁄8 × 19⁄16 in. Anna Banana 1977
(102 × 72 × 4 cm) GLOBAL POSTALE 84 fotografía en blanco y negro, sello y
Colección de Proyecto Bachué Postal global 84 mecanografía en papel
1978 7 3⁄16 × 411⁄16 in. (18.2 × 11.9 cm)
Luis Arias Vera xerógrafo, fotografía y sello sobre
Carrera del chasqui papel O QUE É A ARTE? PARA QUE SERVE?
1974 8 7⁄16 × 5 3⁄8 in. (21.5 × 13.7 cm) Que es el arte? Para que sirve?
documentación fotográfica de acción 1978
Cortesía de la familia de Luis Arias Diego Barboza fotografía en blanco y negro, sello y
Vera Muestra conmemorativa de los 10 años mecanografía en papel
de la poesía de acción de Diego 7 3⁄16 × 4 3⁄4 in. (18.3 × 12 cm)
Horacio Zabala Barboza
Deformaciones, Tensiones, 1980 A dream for Pet
Hundimientos impresión offset sobre poster Un sueño para Pet
1973 18 1⁄2 × 12 3⁄16 in. (47 × 30.9 cm) 1980
grafito sobre papel xerógrafo, marca de agua y sello en
cada uno de cuatro 207⁄8 × 2413⁄16 in. papel
(53 × 63 cm) 9 3⁄8 × 6 1⁄8 in. (23.8 × 15.5cm)
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina
Sofía, Madrid FUMBLE APALPAR
1981
sobre con sello y bolígrafo
47⁄16 × 8 13⁄16 in. (11.3 × 22.4 cm)
Guglielmo Achille Cavellini Klaus Groh Sin título Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona
Sin título Hommage à Klaus Groh s.f. amb simbolismes fal . lics: La
1981 Homenaje a Klaus Groh impresión y sello sobre postal T(. . .) de Gràcia (segle XIX) Xero-
sobre con sello, mecanografía, sello, 1981 311⁄16 × 5 11⁄16 in. (9.3 × 14.5 cm) copias de postales de Barcelona
etiqueta y pluma de acuarela impresión offset, crayón, etiqueta, con símbolos fálicos: La T(. . .) de
9 1⁄8 × 9 in. (23.2 × 22.9 cm) grapa y embalaje sobre papel Sin título Gracia (siglo XIX)
16 5⁄8 × 115⁄8 in. (42.2 × 29.5 cm) s.f. s.f.
INFORMAZIONE impresión y sello sobre postal impresión offset sobre postal
Información Gastão Magalhães 3 3⁄4 × 5 7⁄8 in. (9.6 × 14.9 cm) 57⁄8 × 4 in. (15 × 10.2 cm)
s.f. Sin título
adhesiva e impresión no identificada s.f. Atelier Rabascall Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona
sobre papel fotografía en blanco y negro, lápiz de Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona amb simbolismes fal . lics: Temple
3 5⁄16 × 415⁄16 in. (8.4 × 12.5 cm) grafito y acuarela sobre papel amb simbolismes fal . lics: Monu de la Sagrada Família (segle XIX/
41⁄8 × 65⁄16 in. (10.5 × 16 cm) ment a Colom (segle XIX) XX)
TEN WAYS TO MAKE YOURSELF Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona
FAMOUS Jonier Marín con símbolos fálicos: Monumento con símbolos fálicos: Templo de la
Diez maneras de hacerse más famoso Sin título a Colón (siglo XIX) Sagrada Familia (siglo XIX/XX)
s.f. 1981 s.f. s.f.
impresión offset sobre postal mecanografía, pluma de acuarela y impresión offset sobre postal impresión offset sobre postal
6 × 43⁄16 in. (15.2 × 10.7 cm) lápiz de color en la carta 5 7⁄8 × 41⁄16 in. (15 × 10.3 cm) 57⁄8 × 41⁄16 in. (15 × 10.3 cm)
10 13⁄16 × 83⁄8 in. (27.5 × 21.2 cm)
Guillermo Deisler Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona
Sin título Who really is Jonier Marín? amb simbolismes fal . lics: Monu amb simbolismes fal . lics: Barri
s.f. ¿Quién es realmente Jonier Marín? ment a Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer Gótic de Barcelona (segle XIII/XV)
fotografía en blanco y negro, impre- s.f. (segle XX) Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona
sión offset y grafito sobre postal pluma de acuarela y escribir en el Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona con símbolos fálicos: Barrio
41⁄8 × 5 15⁄16 in. (10.4 × 15.1 cm) sobre con símbolos fálicos: Monumento Gótico de Barcelona (siglo XIII/
cada una: 7 1⁄4 × 5 7⁄8 in. (18.4 × 15 cm) a Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer (siglo XV)
de la serie, HABITAT XX) s.f.
s.f. Graciela G. Marx s.f. impresión offset sobre postal
impresión desconocida, impresión POETRY IS OUR UTOPIAN MARGINAL impresión offset sobre postal 5 7⁄8 × 4 1⁄16 in. (15 × 10.3 cm)
offset y grafito sobre postal RESISTENCE 5 7⁄8 × 41⁄16 in. (15 × 10.3 cm)
315⁄16 × 5 7⁄8 in. (10 × 15 cm) La poesía es nuestra resistencia mar- Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona
ginal utópico Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona amb simbolismes fal . lics: Pan
de la serie, HABITAT s.f. amb simbolismes fal . lics: Monu oràmica del
s.f. grabado en madera, lápiz de acuarela, ment a Parc Güell (segle XX) Parc de Montjuïc (segle XX)
impresión desconocida, impresión grafito, raspado y costura sobre Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona
offset y grafito sobre postal papel con símbolos fálicos: Monumento con símbolos fálicos: Panorámica
5 13⁄16 × 315⁄16 in. (14.7 × 10 cm) 329⁄16 × 21 15⁄16 in. (82.7 × 55.7 cm) a Parc Güell (siglo XX) del Parc de Montjuïc (siglo XX)
s.f. s.f.
de la serie, HABITAT No Grupo impresión offset sobre postal impresión offset sobre postal
s.f. Menú 5 7⁄8 × 41⁄16 in. (15 × 10.3 cm) 41⁄16 × 57⁄8 in. (10.3 × 15 cm)
impresión desconocida, impresión s.f.
offset y grafito sobre postal impresión y sello sobre papel Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona
5 13⁄16 × 3 7⁄8 in. (14.8 × 9.8 cm) 12 1⁄8 × 85⁄8 in. (30.8 × 21.9 cm) amb simbolismes fal . lics: Le Tres amb simbolismes fal . lics: Castell
xemeneies del Paral . lel (segle XIX) de Montjuïc (segle XVII)
de la serie, HABITAT Clemente Padín Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona
s.f. Sin título con símbolos fálicos: Le tres con símbolos fálicos: Castillo de
impresión desconocida, impresión s.f. chimeneas de Paralelo (siglo XIX) Montjuïc (siglo XVII)
offset y grafito sobre postal impresión y sello sobre postal s.f. s.f.
57⁄8 × 37⁄8 in. (15 × 9.8 cm) 3 3⁄4 × 57⁄8 in. (9.5 × 14.9 cm) impresión offset sobre postal impresión offset sobre postal
4 × 5 7⁄8 in. (10.2 × 15 cm) 4 × 5 7⁄8 in. (10.2 × 15 cm)
de la serie, HABITAT Sin título
s.f. s.f. Xerocópies de postals de Barcelona Sin título
impresión desconocida, impresión impresión y sello sobre postal amb simbolismes fal . lics: Obelisc s.f.
offset y grafito en postal 37⁄8 × 57⁄8 in. (9.8 × 14.9 cm) de la Victória, “ell llapis” (segle XX) impresión sobre papel
315⁄16 × 57⁄8 in. (10 × 14.9 cm) Xerocopias de postales de Barcelona 12 3⁄16 × 5 7⁄8 in. (30.9 × 15 cm)
Sin título con símbolos fálicos: Obelisco de
Fernanda Fedi s.f. la Victoria, “el lápiz” (siglo XX) Manuel Víctor Sánchez Ogaz
SPACE impresión y sello sobre postal s.f. C(ART)A No. 11
Espacio 3 11⁄16 × 5 13⁄16 in. (9.4 × 14.7 cm) impresión offset sobre postal s.f.
s.f. 5 7⁄8 × 4 in. (15 × 10.2 cm) xerógrafo sobre papel
tela, adhesivo, metal, tinta, sello, Sin título 11 × 87⁄16 in. (27.9 × 21.5 cm)
pluma de acuarela y bolígrafo s.f.
sobre postal impresión y sello sobre postal
39 5⁄8 × 513⁄16 in. (100.7 × 14.7 cm) 3 15⁄16 × 5 7⁄8 in. (10 × 15 cm)
UN PUEBLO POETIC MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS Edgardo Antonio Vigo Artesanato gana força com os Caixotes
A Town OF “ANNACAROLIN” Diagonal Cero de Arte
n.d n.d. Diagonzal Zero Craftsmanship gains strength with
offset print and stamp on postcard collage, woodcut, stamp and crayon n. 1, 2, 11, 13, 23, 28 Caixotes de Arte
4 × 6 in. (10.1 × 15.2 cm) on paper 1962–69 17 January 1978
141⁄2 × 21 5⁄8 in. (36.9 × 54.9 cm) coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo, article published in Folha de São Paulo
ilegal Brazil Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive
Illegal
n.d. BOOKS AND MAGAZINES Hexágono ‘71 Centro de Arte y Comunicación
clipping and stamp on paper Hexagon ’71 (CAyC)
31⁄4 × 7 3⁄8 in. (8.2 × 18.7 cm) Guillermo Deisler a, ab*, b*d, cf, de, df, e Archival documents and books
Ediciones Mimbre 1971–75 Colleción de Raúl Naón
MAIL ART coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo,
n.d. Omar Lara Brazil Paulo Freire
offset print on postcard Los Enemigos Slide projections from the National
43⁄16 × 6 1⁄4 in. (10.7 × 15.9 cm) The Enemies Poema/Processo Program for Literacy for Angicos,
1967 (Wlademir Dias-Pino, Álvaro de Sá, Brasília, and Rio de Janeiro
Guy Schraenen coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo, Neide Dias de Sá, Falves Silva and digital slide projections and facsimile
Untitled Brazil others) archival materials
1981 Ponto: Revista de poemas de proceso Rio de Janeiro illustrated by Francisco
offset print, stamp, and watercolor Enrique Valdés Point: Magazine of Process Poems Brennand
pen on letter Permanencias n. 1 and 2 Courtesy of Instituto Paulo Freire
11 11⁄16 × 8 5⁄16 in. (29.7 × 21.1 cm) Permanences c. 1967
1968 Archivo Lafuente Glauber Rocha
Supplement to LIBELLUS 8 coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo, MAMB, Não é Museu: é Escola e “Movi
1981 Brazil mento” Por Uma Arte Que Não
offset stamp and graphite on paper ARCHIVAL MATERIAL Seja Desligada do Homem
11 11⁄16 × 8 1⁄4 in. (29.7 × 20.9 cm) Luis Weinstein (MAMB, Not a Museum: It is School
Año nuevo del dos mil [no author] and “Movement” for an Art that is
Saturo Shoji New Year of 2000 Fragments of documentary Obras para not Disconnected from Man
Red line in the photograph 1970 México 1958
1980 coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo, Conjunto Urbano Presidente López article published in Diário de Noticías,
black and white photograph, water- Brazil Mateos Ciudad de México and Cidade de Salvador
color pen, and clipping on paper Banco Nacional Hipotecario Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive
(five parts) Plinio Mendoza Neira Urbano y de Obras Públicas, S. A.
each 5 × 615⁄16 in. (12.7 × 17.7 cm) Así es Caracas, Venezuela, El mes 1960–64
financiero y económico de Production and direction: Manuel de
Falves Silva Venezuela Sevilla
Untitled This is Caracas, Venezuela, The Finan- video, 7:31 min.
1981 cial and Economic Month of
collage, watercolor pen, stamp and Venezuela Television advertisement on the sale
stencil on envelope 1951 of suite apartments in Conjunto
9 × 1213⁄16 in. (22.9 × 32.6 cm) Fundación Leo Matiz Urbano Presidente Adolfo López
Mateos, Ciudad de México
WANTED FALVESPOST Clemente Padín c. 1964
n.d. Los Huevos del Plata video, 1:10 min.
offset stamp on paper n. 0, 2/3, 7
4 × 8 1⁄8 in. (10.1 × 20.7 cm) 1965–67 Nordeste
Archivo Lafuente Northeast
Edgardo Antonio Vigo 1963
21 SET 1974 OVUM 10 brochure for exhibition, Museu de Arte
1981 n. 1, 2, 8, 9 Popular do Unhão, Salvador,
offset print, stamp, and watercolor 1969–71 Bahia
pen on postcard Archivo Lafuente Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive
43⁄4 × 7 7⁄16 in. (12 × 18.9 cm)
OVUM 2ª época, n. 1. Planejamento Ambiental, “desenho” no
SET FREE PALOMO FIRST DAY c. 1972 impasse
COVER Archivo Lafuente Environmental Planning, “drawings” in
n.d. the impasse
collage, woodcut, stamp and crayon Ramón Paolini December 1975–January/February
on paper Caracas: una quimera urbana, Venezu 1976
95⁄16 × 8 1⁄8 in. (23.7 × 20.7 cm) ela, Arte newspaper article published in Mala
Caracas: an urban chimera, Venezuela, sartes No. 2
Art Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive
1985
Fundación Leo Matiz
UN PUEBLO POETIC MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS Poema/Processo Artesanato gana força com os Caixotes
s.f. OF “ANNACAROLIN” (Wlademir Dias-Pino, Álvaro de Sá, de Arte
impresión offset y sello sobre postal Análisis matemático poético de Neide Dias de Sá, Falves Silva y Artesanía gana fuerza con Caixotes de
4 × 6 in. (10.1 × 15.2 cm) “ANNACAROLIN” otros) Arte
s.f. Ponto: Revista de poemas de processo 17 enero 1978
ilegal collage, grabado en madera, sello y n. 1 and 2 artículo impreso en Folha de São Paulo
s.f. crayón sobre papel c. 1967 Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive
recorte y sello sobre papel 141⁄2 × 21 5⁄8 in. (36.9 × 54.9 cm) Archivo Lafuente
31⁄4 × 7 3⁄8 in. (8.2 × 18.7 cm) Centro de Arte y Comunicación
Edgardo Antonio Vigo (CAyC)
MAIL ART Diagonal Cero documentos y libros archivos
Arte correo LIBROS Y REVISTAS n. 1, 2, 11, 13, 23, 28 Collection Raúl Naón
s.f. 1962–69
impresión offset sobre postal Sebastião de Carvalho y Wlademir coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo, Paulo Freire
43⁄16 × 6 1⁄4 in. (10.7 × 15.9 cm) Dias-Pino Brazil Diapositivas del Programa Nacional de
Processo 1 Alfabetización de Angicos, Brasília
Guy Schraenen noviembre 1969 Hexágono ‘71 y Río de Janeiro
Sin título Archivo Lafuente a, ab*, b*d, cf, de, df, e proyecciones de diapositivas digitales
1981 1971–75 y materiales de archivo facsímil
impresión offset, sello y pluma de Guillermo Deisler coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo, Río de Janeiro ilustrado por Francisco
acuarela sobre carta Ediciones Mimbre Brazil Brennand
11 11⁄16 × 8 5⁄16 in. (29.7 × 21.1 cm) Cortesía del Instituto Paulo Freire
Omar Lara
Supplement to LIBELLUS 8 Los Enemigos
Suplemento a LIBELLUS 8 1967 MATERIAL DE ARCHIVO
1981 coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo,
sello offset y grafito sobre papel Brazil [sin autor]
11 11⁄16 × 8 1⁄4 in. (29.7 × 20.9 cm) Fragmentos de la documental Obras
Enrique Valdés para México
Saturo Shoji Permanencias Conjunto Urbano Presidente López
Red line in the photograph 1968 Mateos Ciudad de México and
Línea roja en la fotografía coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo, Banco Nacional Hipotecario
1980 Brazil Urbano y de Obras Públicas, S. A.
fotografía en blanco y negro, pluma de 1960–64
acuarela y recorte sobre papel (5 Luis Weinstein Producción and dirección: Manuel de
partes) Año nuevo del dos mil Sevilla.
cada una 5 × 615⁄16 in (12.7 × 17.7 cm) 1970 vídeo, 7:31 min.
coleção moraes barbosa, São Paulo,
Falves Silva Brazil Anuncio televiso sobre la venta de
Sin título departamentos tipo suite en
1981 Plinio Mendoza Neira Conjunto Urbano Presidente
collage, pluma de acuarela, sello y Así es Caracas, Venezuela, El més Adolfo López Mateos, Ciudad de
plantilla en el sobre financiero y económico de México
9 × 1213⁄16 in. (22.9 × 32.6 cm) Venezuela c. 1964
1951 vídeo, 1:10 min.
WANTED FALVESPOST Fundación Leo Matiz
Querido – Falves-Post Nordeste
s.f. Clemente Padín 1963
sello offset sobre papel Los Huevos del Plata folleto de exposición, Museu de Arte
4 × 8 1⁄8 in. (10.1 × 20.7 cm) n. 0, 2/3, 7 Popular do Unhão, Salvador,
1965–67 Bahia
Edgardo Antonio Vigo Archivo Lafuente Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive
21 SET 1974
1981 OVUM 10 Planejamento Ambiental, “desenho” no
impresión offset, sello y pluma de n. 1, 2, 8, 9 impasse
acuarela sobre postal 1969–71 Planificación Ambiental, “diseño” en el
43⁄4 × 7 7⁄16 in. (12 × 18.9 cm) Archivo Lafuente impasse
diciembre 1975–enero/febrero 1976
SET FREE PALOMO FIRST DAY OVUM 2ª época, n. 1. artículo de periódico impreso en Mala
COVER c. 1972 sartes No. 2
Set free Palomo Primer día cubierta Archivo Lafuente Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi archive
s.f.
collage, grabado en madera, sello y Ramón Paolini
crayón sobre papel Caracas: una quimera urbana, Venezu
95⁄16 × 8 1⁄8 in. (23.7 × 20.7 cm) ela, Arte
1985
Fundación Leo Matiz
academic art, 37–38, 46 Heads of a Man and a Woman, 73 Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1900), on surfaces of sculpture, 15–16,
Aiken, Conrad, 14 Henri Rouart devant son usine (Henri 105, 127 20–21, 23, 26, 28, 31–32
Alexis, Marie-Louise, 100, 126 Rouart in front of his factory), 103 and tactility, 28
Alexis, Paul, 125 De Quincey, Thomas, 120n19 Fabro, Luciano, 57, 68 temporal effects of, 31
Ambrosini, Luigi, 38 Desbordes-Valmore, Marceline, 14 Filippi, Filippo, 125 Light Room, 87–90
Ando, Tadao, 13 Dickinson, Emily, 76, 76, 77, 79 Fles, Etha, 29, 116, 128, 130, 131, 132 lost-wax casting process. See cire
Apollinaire, Guillaume, 14, 131 Drawings Frisby, David, 81 perdue casting process
art, statements by Rosso about, Billiard Game, 139 Futurism, 81, 131 Lys, Georges de, L’arantelle (The spi-
37–40, 45, 48, 51–54, 57–58, 87, 98 Cheval montant la route (Horse der web), 130
Aurel, 30 ascending the road), 80, 81, 139 Galleria d’Arte Moderne, Florence, 42
Effet dessus la toiture (Effect from Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 124 Macchiaioli, 16
Balfour, Charles, 125 above the roof), 139 Germain, Alphonse, 94 Mallarmé, Stéphane, 14
Balla, Giacomo, 128 Effetti–Caffé du Roche/Ristorante Giacometti, Alberto, 28, 103 “Loisirs de la poste,” 85n32
Banville, Théodore de, 14 del Rocher (Effects–Café du Roche Diego au chandail, 26, 26 Mancini, Antonio, 131
Barr, Margaret Scolari, 109 [sic]/Rocher Restaurant, 139 Goncourt, Edmond de, 125 Manet, Édouard, 114
Baudelaire, Charles, 17, 30, 40, 46, 54, Effetto in un omnibus genti [sic] visto Grandi, Giuseppe, 16 Olympia, 96
71–72, 96, 99, 120n19, 123 di dietro (Effect of an omnibus Graul, Richard, 129 Matisse, Henri, La conversation, 109
Bayard, Émile, 94 people seen from behind), 80, 81, Grubicy, Alberto, 125 Mauclair, Camille, 19, 127
Benjamin, Walter, 81 139 Guilbert, Yvette, 32, 114, 127 Mayrhofer, Johann, 14
Beretta, Milo, 127 Figure, 139 Gutherz, Harald, 128 Meier-Graefe, Julius, 30, 83, 94, 128,
Bergamo, Luigi, 104, 106, 132 Figure Leaning over a Balcony, 139 Guys, Constantin, 71 129
Bernatzik, Wilhelm, 129 Flowers, 139 Two Grisettes, 72 Entwicklungsgeschichte der mod
Bervin, Jen, 76–77 Forest, 140 ernen Kunst (Modern Art: Being a
Boccioni, Umberto, 81, 131 Homme qui fait la valise (Man pack- Haussmann, Georges-Eugène, 82 Contribution to a New System of
Bono, Luigia (mother), 123, 125 ing his suitcase), 140 Haweis and Cole, photograph of Aesthetics), 129
Borghi, Mino, 108 Impression of a Seascape, 140 Rodin’s Kiss, 20 Memnon (mythological figure), 14–15,
Brancusi, Constantin, 129 Interior with Figure seen from a Head from a large female statuette 30–31, 35n23
Le supplice (Torment), 111 Window, 140 (Cycladic), 22, 23 Memnon, Ethiopian pupil of writer
Tête d’enfant endormi (Head of a Kepp a Londra (London cab), 74, 74, Hecker, Sharon, 48, 63, 74, 76, 82, 83 Herodes Atticus, 14, 15
sleeping child), 111 81, 140 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 17 Michelangelo, 16
Brenson, Michael, 98 Landscape, 140 Hemsterhuis, Frans, 15 Medici Madonna, 96
bronze casting, 20 Leonessa–Effet Londres (Lioness– Herder, Johann Gottfried, 52 modernity, 71–72, 79, 97, 100, 114
Effect London), 140 Hevesi, Ludwig, 130 modern sculpture, 15, 29–32, 98, 113.
Cameroni, Felice, 17, 97, 124, 125, 126 Lionne (Lioness), 82, 83, 140 Hildebrand, Adolf von, 46 See also sculpture
Canova, Antonio, 37 Man Seen from Behind, 140 Hugo, Victor, 14, 82, 94 Mola, Paola, 30
Carabelli, Carlo, 125 Mountain Landscape, 141 Mond, Alfred William, 29, 119, 130
Carrà, Carlo, 132 Mountain Road, 74, 75, 141 Ibels, André, L’arantelle (The spider Mond, Angela, 119, 130
Carrière, Eugène, 19 Rooftops, 141 web), 130 Mond, Emile, 119, 130
Cellini, Benvenuto, 46 Seaside Landscape, 141 Impressionism, 16, 87, 93, 96, 97, 98, Moore, Henry, Suckling Child, 100
Chateaubriand, François-René de, 14 Self-Portrait, 141 99, 114 Morice, Charles, 31–32, 126
Child, Lydia Maria, Frugal Housewife, Two Figures in the Street, 70, 71–73, impressions, 39, 57, 87, 97, 100 Muñoz, Juan, 57
76 81, 141 installation of works Mussolini, Benito, 132
children and childhood, 100, 111 View of a Boulevard, 81, 81, 141 light as concern for, 15–16, 19, 87
circumnavigation, of sculpture, 45–54 Woman before a Mirror, 77, 79, 141 space as concern for, 42, 45 Noblet, Anne, 117
cire perdue casting process, 20, 48 Woman on a Bed, 141 Noblet, Louis-Sylvain, 117, 127
Claris, Edmond, 117, 128 drawings, 71–84, 139 Keats, John, 14 non finito, 16
Clemenceau, Georges, 29, 130, 132 Dreyfus Affair, 106 Keyzer, Frances, 108 Novalis, 15
Cooper, Harry, 41–42, 65–66, 68 Druet, Eugène, photograph of Rodin’s Kozloff, Max, 28, 116
Corcos, Vittorio Matteo, Conver Eve, 20, 21 Krauss, Rosalind, 40, 98 Onnis, Vincenzo Brusco, 125
sazione nei Giardini di Luxembourg Duranty, Edmond, 72 Osthaus, Karl Ernst, 128
(Conversation in the Luxembourg Laforgue, Jules, 14
Gardens), 109 effects, 57, 72 Leonardo da Vinci, 16–17 painting, compared to sculpture,
Cotter, Holland, 76 Einstein, Albert, 38 Licht, Fred, 109 16–17, 45–46, 52
Courselles-Dumont, Henri, Tous les emotion, 28, 38–39, 52–53 light Pelez, Fernand, 111
soirs aux Ambassadeurs: Yvette envelopes, 72–84, 84n8 darkness in relation to, 30–31 La bouchée de pain, 108
Guilbert (Every night at the Ambas- Esposizione Internazionale, Rome, 131 as essential component in installa- Un martyr: Le marchand de violettes
sadeurs: Yvette Guilbert), 114 Esposizione Internazionale d’Art, tion of works, 13, 15–16, 19, 87 (A martyr: The violet seller), 111
Cragg, Tony, 57 Venice, 131 incandescent, 19, 87 Un nid de misère (A nest of misery),
Curletti, Pietro, 124 Esposizione Nazionale, Rome, 124 modern sculpture characterized by 111
Esposizione Nazionale Artistica, Ven- interaction with, 31 Sans asile (Homeless), 111
darkness, 30–31 ice, 95, 125 in painting vs. sculpture, 16–17 perception
Daumier, Honoré, 16, 97, 114 Evans, Frederick H., 61 perceptual effects of, 23–26, 28–29, light’s effect on, 23–26, 28–29, 32,
Intérieur d’omnibus: Entre un homme Interior, Gloucester, 61 32, 87 87
ivre et un charcutier, 95 Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1889), photography and, 19 Rosso on, 57
Ratapoil (“Rat Skin”), 112–13 94, 125 poetics of, 29–32 temporality of, 57–58, 68
Degas, Edgas, 72, 113, 114 Rosso’s sensitivity to, 15, 17, 19 types of, 53
Photographs Monument to Balzac, 99, 113 Enfant malade (Sick child), 26, 28, temporal effects of, 21, 24
Aetas aurea (Golden age), 64, 98, 142 Torso, 20, 104, 126, 130 28, 48, 110, 111, 126, 128, 131, 137 surveillance, 58, 60, 68
Bambino ebreo (Jewish boy), 107 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 119 Fin (End), 124
Birichino (Ragamuffin), 94 Rosso, Domenico (father), 123 Fine, 125 tactility, 28, 51
Bookmaker, 81, 81, 83, 83, 112 Rosso, Francesco (son), 98, 125, 132, Il genio dell’umanità (The genius of temporality
Carne altrui (Flesh of others), 16, 18, 136 humanity), 124 light and, 31
64, 96, 142, 143 Rothschild, Oscar Ruben von, 106 Gli innamorati sotto il lampione (Lov- in perception and understanding of
Ecce puer (Behold the child), 64, Rouart, Henri, 103, 126 ers under the lamppost), 124 Rosso’s work, 57–58, 68
118, 143 Rousseau, James, Physiologie de la Grande rieuse, 126 surface effects of sculpture and,
Empereur éthiopien (Ethiopian portière, 97 Head of an Ancient Roman, 127 21, 24
emperor), 31, 31 Head of Vitellius, 128 Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 14
Enfant à la bouchée de pain (Child in Sainte Croix, Camille de, 127 Henri Rouart, 26, 26, 41, 103, 126, Toledo, Bianca de, 104
the soup kitchen), 108 Salon, Paris, 19, 94 134, 137 Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 114
Enfant au sein (Child at the breast), Salon d’Automne, 13, 15, 15, 128, 129, Impression de boulevard. La femme à Trebini, Giovanni Francesco, 128
101, 143 130 la voilette (Impression of the bou- Treu, Georg, 128
Enfant au soleil (Child in the sun), Salon de la Société des Indépendants, levard. The woman with the veil), Troubetzkoy, Paolo, 128
105 125 32, 32, 79, 126, 130 Turot, Henri, 19
Henri Rouart, 102 Salon des Champs Èlysèes, 126 Impression de boulevard. Paris la nuit
Lionne (Lioness), 82, 83 Salon du Groupe des Artistes Indépen- (Impression of a boulevard. Paris Van Gogh, Vincent, La diligence de Tar
Madame Noblet, 117 dants, 125 at night), 79, 117, 127 ascon (Tarascon stagecoach), 127
Madame X, 116, 143 Salone, Accademia di Belle Arti di Impressione d’omnibus (Impression Vauxcelles, Louis, 129
Malato all’ospedale (Sick man in the Brera, 94, 124 of an omnibus), 78, 79, 124 Vela, Vincenzo, Les derniers jours
hospital), 99 Sarfatti, Margherita, 132 Madame Noblet, 24, 25, 26, 117, 127, de Napoléon I (The last days of
Portinaia (Concierge), 61–63, 62–63, Scapigliatura, 16 138 Napoléon), 99
65, 97, 143, 144 Schubert, Franz, 14 Madame X, 22, 23, 116, 127, 138 Venice Biennale, 104
Rieuse (Laughing woman; now as Schütte, Thomas, 57 Malato all’ospedale (Sick man in the Verlaine, Paul, 14, 31–32
Petite rieuse), 104 sculpture hospital), 24, 24, 51, 53, 99, 126, Vittucci, Fabio, 30
Sculptures in the studio of the artist, circumnavigation of, 45–54 137
78, 79 criticisms of, 40, 46 Portinaia (Concierge), 15, 56, 58, 59, Werner, Marta, 74, 77, 79
Sculptures on view in the home of painting compared to, 16–17, 45–46, 97, 124, 136 Wilde, Oscar, 14
Etha Fles, 30 52 La riconoscenza (Gratitude), 15–16,
Se la fuss grappa! (If only it were space in relation to, 45–54, 81 124 Zola, Émile, 17, 19, 94, 100, 124, 125,
grappa!), 95 tactility as feature of, 51–53 Riconoscenza, eccitazione, promessa 126
Une conversation (A conversation), See also modern sculpture; relief (Gratitude, excitement, promise), Nana, 96
109 sculpture 124 Pot-bouille, 97
Yvette Guilbert, 115, 144 Sculptures Rieuse (Laughing woman), known Note: Page numbers in italics indicate
photography Aetas aurea (Golden age), 21, 41, 51, as Petite rieuse, 42, 45–46, 104, illustrations.
“defects” in, 68 65–66, 66, 67, 98, 125, 130, 136 126, 137
and light, 19 L’allucinato (The hallucinator), 123 Se la fuss grappa! (If only it were academic art, 37–38, 46
mounting practices in, 61–62 Amor materno (Maternal love), 98, grappa!), 95, 124, 125, 136 Aiken, Conrad, 14
Rosso’s, 19, 29, 60–68, 87, 129, 131, 124 Une conversation (A conversation), Alexis, Marie-Louise, 100, 126
142 Bambina che ride (Young girl laugh- 79, 79, 92, 93, 109, 126, 128, 137 Alexis, Paul, 125
surveillance associated with, 60 ing), 126 Uomo che legge (Man reading), 26, Ambrosini, Luigi, 38
Piérard, Louis, 130 Bambino ebreo (Jewish boy), 26, 28, 27, 112–13, 113, 126, 138 Ando, Tadao, 13
Poe, Edgar Allan, 14 28, 51, 52, 106, 126, 137 Il vecchio (The old man), 124 Apollinaire, Guillaume, 14, 131
poetry, 14, 31–32 Bersagliere (Marksman), 124 Yvette Guilbert, 32, 33, 114, 127, 138 art, statements by Rosso about,
Pozzi, Giuditta, 98, 125 Birichino (Ragamuffin), 21, 23, 41, 93, Segantini, Giovanni, 127 37–40, 45, 48, 51–54, 57–58, 87, 98
Prendergast, Christopher, 82 94, 124, 126, 136 Seurat, Georges, Covered Cart and a Aurel, 30
Prezzolini, Dolores, 116 Bookmaker, 26, 48, 50, 51, 112–13, Dog, 74, 75
Prezzolini, Giuseppe, 116 126, 137 sewers, 82 Balfour, Charles, 125
prostitutes, 96 Cantante a spasso (Unemployed Soffici, Ardengo, 29, 81, 129, 130, 131 Balla, Giacomo, 128
Prudhomme, Sully, 14 singer), 124 space, 37–54 Banville, Théodore de, 14
Pusterla, Attilio, Le cucine economiche Carne altrui (Flesh of others), 15, 16, as essential component in installa- Barr, Margaret Scolari, 109
di Porta Nuova (The soup kitchen of 17, 45, 47, 96, 124, 136 tion of works, 42, 45 Baudelaire, Charles, 17, 30, 40, 46, 54,
Porta Nuova), 108 Ecce puer (Behold the child), 13, 14, physics and phenomenology of, 71–72, 96, 99, 120n19, 123
28, 29, 31, 40, 86, 87–90, 88–91, 38–39, 54 Bayard, Émile, 94
ragpickers, 81 93, 119, 130, 132, 138 relief sculpture’s relation to, 40–46 Benjamin, Walter, 81
Rathenau, Walther, 128 Empereur éthiopien (Ethiopian sculpture in relation to, 45–54, 81 Beretta, Milo, 127
Realism, 93, 94, 96, 97, 111, 112, 114 emperor), 13–14, 15, 31 Steichen, Edward, photographs of Bergamo, Luigi, 104, 106, 132
relief sculpture, 40–46 Emperor Vitellius, 127 Rodin’s Balzac, 20 Bernatzik, Wilhelm, 129
reproductions of ancient art, 13–14 Enfant à la bouchée de pain (Child in Stevens, Wallace, 31 Bervin, Jen, 76–77
Rictus, Jehan, 19, 29, 103, 127, 131 the soup kitchen), 21, 41–42, 41, surface Boccioni, Umberto, 81, 131
Rimbaud, Arthur, 14 108, 126, 137 irregularities of, 20–21, 46, 48, 53 Bono, Luigia (mother), 123, 125
Rodin, Auguste, 16, 19–21, 40, 76, 98, Enfant au sein (Child at the breast), light’s effect on, 15–16, 20–21, 23, Borghi, Mino, 108
104, 113, 126, 128, 131 26, 42, 43, 100, 126, 137 26, 28, 31–32 Brancusi, Constantin, 129
Eve, 20, 21 Enfant au soleil (Child in the sun), 15, modern sculptors’ treatments of, Le supplice (Torment), 111
Iris, Messenger of the Gods, 100 15, 46, 48, 48, 49, 105, 137 19–20 Tête d’enfant endormi (Head of a
Kiss, 20 and tactility, 28 sleeping child), 111
Brenson, Michael, 98 Landscape, 140 Herder, Johann Gottfried, 52 modernity, 71–72, 79, 97, 100, 114
bronze casting, 20 Leonessa–Effet Londres (Lioness– Hevesi, Ludwig, 130 modern sculpture, 15, 29–32, 98, 113.
Effect London), 140 Hildebrand, Adolf von, 46 See also sculpture
Cameroni, Felice, 17, 97, 124, 125, 126 Lionne (Lioness), 82, 83, 140 Hugo, Victor, 14, 82, 94 Mola, Paola, 30
Canova, Antonio, 37 Man Seen from Behind, 140 Mond, Alfred William, 29, 119, 130
Carabelli, Carlo, 125 Mountain Landscape, 141 Ibels, André, L’arantelle (The spider Mond, Angela, 119, 130
Carrà, Carlo, 132 Mountain Road, 74, 75, 141 web), 130 Mond, Emile, 119, 130
Carrière, Eugène, 19 Rooftops, 141 Impressionism, 16, 87, 93, 96, 97, 98, Moore, Henry, Suckling Child, 100
Cellini, Benvenuto, 46 Seaside Landscape, 141 99, 114 Morice, Charles, 31–32, 126
Chateaubriand, François-René de, 14 Self-Portrait, 141 impressions, 39, 57, 87, 97, 100 Muñoz, Juan, 57
Child, Lydia Maria, Frugal Housewife, Two Figures in the Street, 70, 71–73, installation of works Mussolini, Benito, 132
76 81, 141 light as concern for, 15–16, 19, 87
children and childhood, 100, 111 View of a Boulevard, 81, 81, 141 space as concern for, 42, 45 Noblet, Anne, 117
circumnavigation, of sculpture, 45–54 Woman before a Mirror, 77, 79, 141 Noblet, Louis-Sylvain, 117, 127
cire perdue casting process, 20, 48 Woman on a Bed, 141 Keats, John, 14 non finito, 16
Claris, Edmond, 117, 128 drawings, 71–84, 139 Keyzer, Frances, 108 Novalis, 15
Clemenceau, Georges, 29, 130, 132 Dreyfus Affair, 106 Kozloff, Max, 28, 116
Cooper, Harry, 41–42, 65–66, 68 Druet, Eugène, photograph of Rodin’s Krauss, Rosalind, 40, 98 Onnis, Vincenzo Brusco, 125
Corcos, Vittorio Matteo, Conver Eve, 20, 21 Osthaus, Karl Ernst, 128
sazione nei Giardini di Luxembourg Duranty, Edmond, 72 Laforgue, Jules, 14
(Conversation in the Luxembourg Leonardo da Vinci, 16–17 painting, compared to sculpture,
Gardens), 109 effects, 57, 72 Licht, Fred, 109 16–17, 45–46, 52
Cotter, Holland, 76 Einstein, Albert, 38 light Pelez, Fernand, 111
Courselles-Dumont, Henri, Tous les emotion, 28, 38–39, 52–53 darkness in relation to, 30–31 La bouchée de pain, 108
soirs aux Ambassadeurs: Yvette envelopes, 72–84, 84n8 as essential component in installa- Un martyr: Le marchand de violettes
Guilbert (Every night at the Ambas- Esposizione Internazionale, Rome, 131 tion of works, 13, 15–16, 19, 87 (A martyr: The violet seller), 111
sadeurs: Yvette Guilbert), 114 Esposizione Internazionale d’Art, incandescent, 19, 87 Un nid de misère (A nest of misery),
Cragg, Tony, 57 Venice, 131 modern sculpture characterized by 111
Curletti, Pietro, 124 Esposizione Nazionale, Rome, 124 interaction with, 31 Sans asile (Homeless), 111
Esposizione Nazionale Artistica, Ven- in painting vs. sculpture, 16–17 perception
darkness, 30–31 ice, 95, 125 perceptual effects of, 23–26, 28–29, light’s effect on, 23–26, 28–29, 32,
Daumier, Honoré, 16, 97, 114 Evans, Frederick H., 61 32, 87 87
Intérieur d’omnibus: Entre un homme Interior, Gloucester, 61 photography and, 19 Rosso on, 57
ivre et un charcutier, 95 Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1889), poetics of, 29–32 temporality of, 57–58, 68
Ratapoil (“Rat Skin”), 112–13 94, 125 Rosso’s sensitivity to, 15, 17, 19 types of, 53
Degas, Edgas, 72, 113, 114 Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1900), on surfaces of sculpture, 15–16, Photographs
Heads of a Man and a Woman, 73 105, 127 20–21, 23, 26, 28, 31–32 Aetas aurea (Golden age), 64, 98, 142
Henri Rouart devant son usine (Henri and tactility, 28 Bambino ebreo (Jewish boy), 107
Rouart in front of his factory), 103 Fabro, Luciano, 57, 68 temporal effects of, 31 Birichino (Ragamuffin), 94
De Quincey, Thomas, 120n19 Filippi, Filippo, 125 Light Room, 87–90 Bookmaker, 81, 81, 83, 83, 112
Desbordes-Valmore, Marceline, 14 Fles, Etha, 29, 116, 128, 130, 131, 132 lost-wax casting process. See cire Carne altrui (Flesh of others), 16, 18,
Dickinson, Emily, 76, 76, 77, 79 Frisby, David, 81 perdue casting process 64, 96, 142, 143
Drawings Futurism, 81, 131 Lys, Georges de, L’arantelle (The spi- Ecce puer (Behold the child), 64,
Billiard Game, 139 der web), 130 118, 143
Cheval montant la route (Horse Galleria d’Arte Moderne, Florence, 42 Empereur éthiopien (Ethiopian
ascending the road), 80, 81, 139 Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 124 Macchiaioli, 16 emperor), 31, 31
Effet dessus la toiture (Effect from Germain, Alphonse, 94 Mallarmé, Stéphane, 14 Enfant à la bouchée de pain (Child in
above the roof), 139 Giacometti, Alberto, 28, 103 “Loisirs de la poste,” 85n32 the soup kitchen), 108
Effetti–Caffé du Roche/Ristorante Diego au chandail, 26, 26 Mancini, Antonio, 131 Enfant au sein (Child at the breast),
del Rocher (Effects–Café du Roche Goncourt, Edmond de, 125 Manet, Édouard, 114 101, 143
[sic]/Rocher Restaurant, 139 Grandi, Giuseppe, 16 Olympia, 96 Enfant au soleil (Child in the sun),
Effetto in un omnibus genti [sic] visto Graul, Richard, 129 Matisse, Henri, La conversation, 109 105
di dietro (Effect of an omnibus Grubicy, Alberto, 125 Mauclair, Camille, 19, 127 Henri Rouart, 102
people seen from behind), 80, 81, Guilbert, Yvette, 32, 114, 127 Mayrhofer, Johann, 14 Lionne (Lioness), 82, 83
139 Gutherz, Harald, 128 Meier-Graefe, Julius, 30, 83, 94, 128, Madame Noblet, 117
Figure, 139 Guys, Constantin, 71 129 Madame X, 116, 143
Figure Leaning over a Balcony, 139 Two Grisettes, 72 Entwicklungsgeschichte der mod Malato all’ospedale (Sick man in the
Flowers, 139 ernen Kunst (Modern Art: Being a hospital), 99
Forest, 140 Haussmann, Georges-Eugène, 82 Contribution to a New System of Portinaia (Concierge), 61–63, 62–63,
Homme qui fait la valise (Man pack- Haweis and Cole, photograph of Aesthetics), 129 65, 97, 143, 144
ing his suitcase), 140 Rodin’s Kiss, 20 Memnon (mythological figure), 14–15, Rieuse (Laughing woman; now as
Impression of a Seascape, 140 Head from a large female statuette 30–31, 35n23 Petite rieuse), 104
Interior with Figure seen from a (Cycladic), 22, 23 Memnon, Ethiopian pupil of writer Sculptures in the studio of the artist,
Window, 140 Hecker, Sharon, 48, 63, 74, 76, 82, 83 Herodes Atticus, 14, 15 78, 79
Kepp a Londra (London cab), 74, 74, Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 17 Michelangelo, 16 Sculptures on view in the home of
81, 140 Hemsterhuis, Frans, 15 Medici Madonna, 96 Etha Fles, 30
Se la fuss grappa! (If only it were space in relation to, 45–54, 81 Riconoscenza, eccitazione, promessa Zola, Émile, 17, 19, 94, 100, 124, 125,
grappa!), 95 tactility as feature of, 51–53 (Gratitude, excitement, promise), 126
Une conversation (A conversation), See also modern sculpture; relief 124 Nana, 96
109 sculpture Rieuse (Laughing woman), known Pot-bouille, 97
Yvette Guilbert, 115, 144 Sculptures as Petite rieuse, 42, 45–46, 104, Note: Page numbers in italics indicate
photography Aetas aurea (Golden age), 21, 41, 51, 126, 137 illustrations.
“defects” in, 68 65–66, 66, 67, 98, 125, 130, 136 Se la fuss grappa! (If only it were
and light, 19 L’allucinato (The hallucinator), 123 grappa!), 95, 124, 125, 136 academic art, 37–38, 46
mounting practices in, 61–62 Amor materno (Maternal love), 98, Une conversation (A conversation), Aiken, Conrad, 14
Rosso’s, 19, 29, 60–68, 87, 129, 131, 124 79, 79, 92, 93, 109, 126, 128, 137 Alexis, Marie-Louise, 100, 126
142 Bambina che ride (Young girl laugh- Uomo che legge (Man reading), 26, Alexis, Paul, 125
surveillance associated with, 60 ing), 126 27, 112–13, 113, 126, 138 Ambrosini, Luigi, 38
Piérard, Louis, 130 Bambino ebreo (Jewish boy), 26, 28, Il vecchio (The old man), 124 Ando, Tadao, 13
Poe, Edgar Allan, 14 28, 51, 52, 106, 126, 137 Yvette Guilbert, 32, 33, 114, 127, 138 Apollinaire, Guillaume, 14, 131
poetry, 14, 31–32 Bersagliere (Marksman), 124 Segantini, Giovanni, 127 art, statements by Rosso about,
Pozzi, Giuditta, 98, 125 Birichino (Ragamuffin), 21, 23, 41, 93, Seurat, Georges, Covered Cart and a 37–40, 45, 48, 51–54, 57–58, 87, 98
Prendergast, Christopher, 82 94, 124, 126, 136 Dog, 74, 75 Aurel, 30
Prezzolini, Dolores, 116 Bookmaker, 26, 48, 50, 51, 112–13, sewers, 82
Prezzolini, Giuseppe, 116 126, 137 Soffici, Ardengo, 29, 81, 129, 130, 131 Balfour, Charles, 125
prostitutes, 96 Cantante a spasso (Unemployed space, 37–54 Balla, Giacomo, 128
Prudhomme, Sully, 14 singer), 124 as essential component in installa- Banville, Théodore de, 14
Pusterla, Attilio, Le cucine economiche Carne altrui (Flesh of others), 15, 16, tion of works, 42, 45 Barr, Margaret Scolari, 109
di Porta Nuova (The soup kitchen of 17, 45, 47, 96, 124, 136 physics and phenomenology of, Baudelaire, Charles, 17, 30, 40, 46, 54,
Porta Nuova), 108 Ecce puer (Behold the child), 13, 14, 38–39, 54 71–72, 96, 99, 120n19, 123
28, 29, 31, 40, 86, 87–90, 88–91, relief sculpture’s relation to, 40–46 Bayard, Émile, 94
ragpickers, 81 93, 119, 130, 132, 138 sculpture in relation to, 45–54, 81 Benjamin, Walter, 81
Rathenau, Walther, 128 Empereur éthiopien (Ethiopian Steichen, Edward, photographs of Beretta, Milo, 127
Realism, 93, 94, 96, 97, 111, 112, 114 emperor), 13–14, 15, 31 Rodin’s Balzac, 20 Bergamo, Luigi, 104, 106, 132
relief sculpture, 40–46 Emperor Vitellius, 127 Stevens, Wallace, 31 Bernatzik, Wilhelm, 129
reproductions of ancient art, 13–14 Enfant à la bouchée de pain (Child in surface Bervin, Jen, 76–77
Rictus, Jehan, 19, 29, 103, 127, 131 the soup kitchen), 21, 41–42, 41, irregularities of, 20–21, 46, 48, 53 Boccioni, Umberto, 81, 131
Rimbaud, Arthur, 14 108, 126, 137 light’s effect on, 15–16, 20–21, 23, Bono, Luigia (mother), 123, 125
Rodin, Auguste, 16, 19–21, 40, 76, 98, Enfant au sein (Child at the breast), 26, 28, 31–32 Borghi, Mino, 108
104, 113, 126, 128, 131 26, 42, 43, 100, 126, 137 modern sculptors’ treatments of, Brancusi, Constantin, 129
Eve, 20, 21 Enfant au soleil (Child in the sun), 15, 19–20 Le supplice (Torment), 111
Iris, Messenger of the Gods, 100 15, 46, 48, 48, 49, 105, 137 and tactility, 28 Tête d’enfant endormi (Head of a
Kiss, 20 Enfant malade (Sick child), 26, 28, temporal effects of, 21, 24 sleeping child), 111
Monument to Balzac, 99, 113 28, 48, 110, 111, 126, 128, 131, 137 surveillance, 58, 60, 68 Brenson, Michael, 98
Torso, 20, 104, 126, 130 Fin (End), 124 bronze casting, 20
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 119 Fine, 125 tactility, 28, 51
Rosso, Domenico (father), 123 Il genio dell’umanità (The genius of temporality Cameroni, Felice, 17, 97, 124, 125, 126
Rosso, Francesco (son), 98, 125, 132, humanity), 124 light and, 31 Canova, Antonio, 37
136 Gli innamorati sotto il lampione (Lov- in perception and understanding of Carabelli, Carlo, 125
Rothschild, Oscar Ruben von, 106 ers under the lamppost), 124 Rosso’s work, 57–58, 68 Carrà, Carlo, 132
Rouart, Henri, 103, 126 Grande rieuse, 126 surface effects of sculpture and, Carrière, Eugène, 19
Rousseau, James, Physiologie de la Head of an Ancient Roman, 127 21, 24 Cellini, Benvenuto, 46
portière, 97 Head of Vitellius, 128 Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 14 Chateaubriand, François-René de, 14
Henri Rouart, 26, 26, 41, 103, 126, Toledo, Bianca de, 104 Child, Lydia Maria, Frugal Housewife,
Sainte Croix, Camille de, 127 134, 137 Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 114 76
Salon, Paris, 19, 94 Impression de boulevard. La femme à Trebini, Giovanni Francesco, 128 children and childhood, 100, 111
Salon d’Automne, 13, 15, 15, 128, 129, la voilette (Impression of the bou- Treu, Georg, 128 circumnavigation, of sculpture, 45–54
130 levard. The woman with the veil), Troubetzkoy, Paolo, 128 cire perdue casting process, 20, 48
Salon de la Société des Indépendants, 32, 32, 79, 126, 130 Turot, Henri, 19 Claris, Edmond, 117, 128
125 Impression de boulevard. Paris la nuit Clemenceau, Georges, 29, 130, 132
Salon des Champs Èlysèes, 126 (Impression of a boulevard. Paris Van Gogh, Vincent, La diligence de Tar Cooper, Harry, 41–42, 65–66, 68
Salon du Groupe des Artistes Indépen- at night), 79, 117, 127 ascon (Tarascon stagecoach), 127 Corcos, Vittorio Matteo, Conver
dants, 125 Impressione d’omnibus (Impression Vauxcelles, Louis, 129 sazione nei Giardini di Luxembourg
Salone, Accademia di Belle Arti di of an omnibus), 78, 79, 124 Vela, Vincenzo, Les derniers jours (Conversation in the Luxembourg
Brera, 94, 124 Madame Noblet, 24, 25, 26, 117, 127, de Napoléon I (The last days of Gardens), 109
Sarfatti, Margherita, 132 138 Napoléon), 99 Cotter, Holland, 76
Scapigliatura, 16 Madame X, 22, 23, 116, 127, 138 Venice Biennale, 104 Courselles-Dumont, Henri, Tous les
Schubert, Franz, 14 Malato all’ospedale (Sick man in the Verlaine, Paul, 14, 31–32 soirs aux Ambassadeurs: Yvette
Schütte, Thomas, 57 hospital), 24, 24, 51, 53, 99, 126, Vittucci, Fabio, 30 Guilbert (Every night at the Ambas-
sculpture 137 sadeurs: Yvette Guilbert), 114
circumnavigation of, 45–54 Portinaia (Concierge), 15, 56, 58, 59, Werner, Marta, 74, 77, 79 Cragg, Tony, 57
criticisms of, 40, 46 97, 124, 136 Wilde, Oscar, 14 Curletti, Pietro, 124
painting compared to, 16–17, 45–46, La riconoscenza (Gratitude), 15–16,
52 124 darkness, 30–31
Facilities
James Patocka, Senior Facilities Manager
Michael Sitz, Lead Facilities Technician
Daniel Musser, Facilities Technician
Security Services
David Mesa, Security Manager
George Garcia, Lead Security Supervisor
Lori Watson, Lead Security Supervisor
Thierry Valbin, Security Supervisor