Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This unsigned article reviews the works of the Colectivo Acciones de Arte (CADA), the art action group that took the name used as the title of the article in question: Para no morir de hambre en el arte (To Avoid Dying of Hunger [or Starving to [...]

This document was part of the action with the same name—¡Ay sudamerica! 400.000 Textos sobre Santiago—[Ay, South America! 400,000 Texts over Santiago] carried out by C.A.D.A. (Colectivo de Acciones de Arte) [Art Action Collective] in 1981 in [...]

This short news item was prepared as sketchy materials for press release  shortly after the inauguration of the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] exhibition at the CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo) in Rosario. The circumstances of the [...]

León Ferrari writes a detailed evaluation of Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning], framing it within the previous events (Itinerario del ’68) [Timetable for 1968]. In it he points out that “its purpose was to make art into a revolutionary tool, [...]

This article, published in the young newsmagazine Boom (Rosario, Argentina, November 1968), narrates what happened during the “lock-up” action carried out by Graciela Carnevale at the “Ciclo de Arte Experimental” [Experimental Practices of [...]

This chronology begins in January and February of 1968, the starting point of the vanguard artists’ radicalization of that year, with a series of informal discussions about “the possibility of creating a cultural phenomenon” that would be “ [...]

[Literary critic and intellectual] Nicolás Rosa presented this text for discussion at the Primer Encuentro Nacional del Arte de Vanguardia [First National Encounter of Avant-garde Art] (Rosario, Argentina, 1968). It appeals to the communications [...]

This early declaration—most likely written when Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] was taking shape (early October 1968)—presents some of the basic ideas behind the group’s collective work. First, it denounces General Juan Carlos Onganía’s [...]

The first phase of the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] campaign began with the appearance of advertising posters bearing the word “Tucumán” pasted on walls in Rosario, especially in the industrial workers’ neighborhoods. The posters [...]

This declaration presents a series of definitions upon which the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] exhibition was founded. It defines it as “a collective work that, as it employs new channels of communication and expression, empowers the creation [...]

This page done by the group C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) [Art Action Collective] was political commentary in the form of a magazine insert. Such an insertion was included among the activities specified in the art action, Para no morir de [...]

In the declaration they issued as a companion statement to the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] exhibition in Buenos Aires, the artists condemn the regime’s violent excesses that, though subtle when applied to the arts, are nonetheless intent on [...]

The letter sent by artist Nicolás Rubió to Samuel Paz expresses his dissatisfaction due to the impossibility of carrying out Operación corpiño [The Bra Operation], an action that consisted of depositing a collection of bras and panties at the [...]

Pablo Suarez’s letter is defined as a work of art. It is, at the same time, a quit of his participation in the exhibition, which he handed out to the attending public at the Experiencias 1968 [The 1968 Visual Practices]. The author starts by [...]

Glusberg’s article describes (with a few inaccuracies) Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] (1968), the landmark artwork/event produced by the avant-garde of Rosario, Argentina, during the period spanning 1966–68. In terms of the work involved, [...]

The sociologist Fernando Balcells wrote this essay for the catalogue for Te devuelvo tu imagen, ocupación, the exhibition of works by Juan Castillo (who, like Balcells, was a member of the group Colectivo Acciones de Arte [CADA, Art Action [...]

In his proposal/script Acerca de la poesía de acción the Venezuelan artist Diego Barboza explains the importance of this urban project. The performance is a collective experience in which participants wear (red and blue) hats which, in his opinion [...]

This unsigned report, published in Sobre Nº 1 [Envelope no. 1], documents the experiences of a group of artists who joined the strike committee of Fabril Financiera in February 1969. It discusses the difference between producing a work of art or an [...]

This article includes the most significant sections of the report prepared by Miguel Murmis, Silvia Sigal, and Carlos Waisman, the sociologists and members of the CICSO (Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales [Social Sciences Research Center [...]

This United States academic journal disseminates the translation of the Cronología [Chronology] prepared by the artists reporting on the events that occurred throughout 1968, as well as other documents of their timetable, although with modified [...]

In this essay, critic and performer Silvio de Gracia explains the importance of and provides context for “action art” in Latin America. He demonstrates its specificity in the region, showing how it differs from similar tendencies in Europe and [...]

This brief note, which appeared in Rosario’s most important daily newspaper, reports on the inauguration of the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] show at the CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo) headquarters in Rosario on November 3, 1968. It [...]

This extensive article first appeared in La Gaceta [The Gazette], Tucuman’s most important newspaper, reporting on the first press conference given by the artists upon arriving at Tucumán for their second research trip in October 1968. Accompanied [...]

This prescient op-ed takes the events at the 1968 Braque Prize (sponsored by the French embassy in Argentina) as a starting point and uses them to arrive at the conclusion that the finest artwork was the “uproar” that occurred due to the [...]

In this text, the work is presented as a joint production of the Grupo de Artistas Argentinos de Vanguardia (this is the only document in which they use that exact name) and the labor union. The basis of their denunciation of the government policy is [...]

This note appeared in La Gaceta [The Gazette],Tucumán’s most important newspaper, reporting on the Rosario artists’ first exploratory trip to Tucumán in September 1968.  The trip had repercussions in the media, as seen by this account in the [...]

This short notice in La Tribuna, a Rosario daily newspaper, records the beginning of the artists’ journey to Tucumán. The work in progress is proposed as a collective effort that would integrate artists from different disciplines. Moreover, the [...]

Under the title “Basta de mistificaciones” [Enough with the mystifications] the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) [Visual Arts Research Group] signed a manifesto that would become the basis of the present-day relationship between [...]

In her essay “Cada 20 años” (Every 20 Years), Diamela Eltit reviews the art activities organized by C.A.D.A. (Colectivo de Acciones de Arte; Art Action Collective) during the two decades since the group was started in 1979. She [...]

The text announces and describes an act to be performed simultaneously by an artist in Buenos Aires and another in the United States. Working in synch on June 15, 1971, Hugo de Soto and Genys Dignac will research the nature of fire as an aesthetic [...]

This circular, signed by the regional secretary and the secretary for Press and Propaganda of the CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo) [General Work Confederation] of Rosario is addressed to the union members in order to inform them on the [...]

This article—a summary of Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] when it was still in the process of being realized—is of interest because it identifies the work as belonging to “Arte y comunicación de masas” [Art and mass communications], [...]

Diamela Eltit and María Eugenia Brito coauthored this essay about Lotty Rosenfeld’s project Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento [A Mile of Crosses on the Pavement]. The text includes a prologue and eight chapters, each identified with [...]

In this gallery text, Venezuelan artist Antonieta Sosa describes the action Del Cuerpo al Vacío [From My Body to the Void], which was structured into three interrelated parts. Part I, performed in the courtyard of the Galería de Arte Nacional (GAN [...]

Diamela Eltit writes about Lotty Rosenfeld’s intervention, which consisted of altering the intermittent lines painted on streets to create traffic lanes. The text is arranged in a non-traditional layout that testifies to its poetic, reflective [...]

This report includes an extensive unsigned article as well as a number of important documents and photos. It begins by presenting the placement and positions of “the boldest artists of their country…and one of the most brilliant teams of the [...]

Antonio Caro describes the recipe for mountain papaya jam, which he calls “Dulce Zipacón” [Zipacón Jam] after the ranch that he had in Zipacón, a town in the Department of Cundinamarca in the savannah near Bogotá. The recipe and a design [...]

In the introduction to his proposal, Eduardo Favario stresses that the public should play an active role by means of intervention. He encourages those who had responded to his invitation to set off on an excursion (from the closed venue to another [...]

Eduardo Ruano’s leaflet denounces the “cultural machine,” identifies a number of recent acts of censorship at different official art institutions (the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires), and denounces the [...]

This text was presented by León Ferrari (1920–2013) for discussion at the Primer Encuentro Nacional del Arte de Vanguardia [First National Conference of Vanguard Art] (Rosario, Argentina, 1968); it proposed what he called an “arte de los [...]

This poetic text refers to the art actions that Juan Castillo produced in 1981. The Chilean artist’s project, titled Te devuelvo tu imagen (I Return Your Image), was photographed by Lotty Rosenfeld. The text describes Rosenfeld’s filming [...]

This article reports on Eduardo Ruano’s budding artistic career, which was interrupted by his violent political actions at the museum. It also shows that the authorities were mistaken in believing that Ruano’s work was actually the panel that had [...]

Emilio Ghilioni and Rodolfo Elizalde describe their happening as an endeavor in tandem, the result of endless rounds of critical reexamination of both avant-garde art and the deteriorating state of the traditional nexus between the artwork and the [...]

This document by the Equipo de Contrainformación [Counter-information Team] (the only material written by the group) is divided into three sections. The first is a declaration of principles; the second is the script for the historical account ( [...]

Daniel Gutman points out that the Argentine Government apologizes to the artists censored in the II Certamen Nacional de Investigaciones Visuales[Second National Competition of Visual Research] and, although it will not return the amount of the [...]

This text, written by Graciela Carnevale, explains her intention to lock the public into the exhibition space. She recalls being helped by Nicolás Rosa, and that the text was not circulated to the public until the happening was over. Carnevale makes [...]

Written in a mocking, ironic tone, this article describes the details of a supposed happening that never actually happenedincluding where it took place, who was there, what they were doing, etc. A strange item is mentioned: the happening was supposed [...]

In this apocryphal newspaper article, the author relies on a number of the standard stereotypes that were used in the Argentine press at that time to refer to experimental art: snobbishness, frivolousness, madness, partying, irrationality, [...]

The theorist Justo Pastor Mellado outlines his curatorial approach for the exhibition 1973–2000: Transferencia y densidad. He begins by defining concepts such as “curator,” discussing the term’s evolution in Chile and its [...]

Twenty years after the production of Para no morir de hambre en el arte —the first art action performed by CADA (Colectivo Acciones de Arte, Art Actions Collective)—one of the members of the group, Fernando Balcells, discusses its works, [...]