Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This newsletter announces that Argentina and the United States have plans for a joint art action to take place sometime in the future. The subject of this exchange will be the use of fire as an aesthetic medium. Hugo de Soto and Geny Dignac will take [...]

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 [...]

In this review of La caja del cachicamo, the action art event Diego Barboza presented at the Parque del Este (Caracas, October 1974), the Venezuelan artist describes its purpose and its components. The goal of the event is that the participants’ [...]

Entitled “Por devoción al arte,” this article published on April 18, 1994 was written by Olga Marín Arango, editor of La guía, the cultural section of the Bogotá-based newspaper El Espectador. It reviews the Primer Premio del XXXV Salón [...]

The article PerfoArtNet. Encuentro Internacional de Performance [PerfoArtNet: International Performance Meeting], written by Ricardo Arcos-Palma was published in the Vistazos Críticos [Critical Views] section of the online edition of the Colombian [...]

The manuscript by María José Arjona entitled “Proyecto Abierto 360º ejercicios sobre la imagen (obra en proceso)” was written as a proposal for the traveling exhibition Actos de Fabulación (2000), curated by Consuelo Pabón. The proposal [...]

This text by María Inés Rodríguez was published in the Catálogo General de Exposiciones de la Alianza Francesa de Bogotá under the title “Nuevas Propuestas Arte en Colombia 2005–2006.”It provides information about Cuando el Rio Suena, an [...]

This article entitled “Los Siete Ganadores de los Salones Regionales” was published in the “Lecturas de fin de semana,” or weekend readings section of the Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo, on November 4, 2001. It consists of brief texts on the [...]

This text is the closing chapter of Consuelo Pabón’s essay “Actos de Fabulación. Arte, Cuerpo y Pensamiento Año 2000: Memorias de una Itinerancia.” In 2005, it was awarded the prize given by the Colombian Ministerio de Cultura to a [...]

In this text, Consuelo Pabón provides a detailed chronological description and a curatorial rereading of the actions that formed part of the project Actos de Fabulación – Arte, Cuerpo y Pensamiento (2000), an exhibition that toured different [...]

In this text, Colombian artist Juan Mejía recounts in the first person his experience at the Primer Festival Municipal de Performance y Acción Plástica(1997) in the city of Cali. As an organizer and as a viewer of the event, Mejía describes in [...]

This is the catalogue for the event organized by the Venezuelan artists Yeni and Nan (Jennifer Hackshaw and María Luisa González), which included Integraciones en agua, the performance work they presented at the Galería de Arte Nacional (Caracas, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Researcher María Elena Ramos includes two interviews in her “Presentación” of the book Acciones frente a la Plaza. Reseñas y documentos de siete eventos para una nueva lógica del arte venezolanos, the first with historian Bélgica Rodríguez [...]

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 [...]

Within the context of the historic reparation received by Gabriela Bocchi—who created Celda [Cell] in tandem with Jorge de Santa María (deceased)—and by Hugo Pereyra—who in turn conceived Made in Argentina with Ignacio Colombres (deceased)— [...]

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 [...]

The program for the Une journée dans la rue [One day on the street] action plan points out the different places around the city where activities, which will seek the participation of the inhabitants, will be carried out. The proposal emphasizes that [...]

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 [...]

The text sets out the general proposals of the GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel) [Experimental Visual Arts Research Group] with respect to the relationships between the artist and society, the traditional value of visual art, as well as the [...]

This article chronicles the verdict handed down by the Supreme Court, which denied the lawsuit filed by Ignacio Colombes and Hugo Pereyra, the creators of the work of art that was awarded the Grand Runner-Up Prize at the II Certamen de [...]

This article reports on the 1973 verdict that denied the suit filed by the creators of Made in Argentina (Ignacio Colombes and Hugo Pereyra). The verdict stated that the government was under no obligation as regards the findings of the contest jury, [...]

This article explains that, eight days after the opening of the II Certamen de Investigaciones Visuales [2nd Visual Research Contest] in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1971, the public was informed about Decree 5696, which partially acknowledged the [...]

This article reviews the alternative opening of the II Certamen Nacional de InvestigacionesVisuales [2nd National Visual Research Contest] in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1971, which took place after the scheduled date and did not include the censored [...]

In the Declaration that accompanied the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] exhibition, the artists denounce “the hidden truth behind this Operation”: the attempt to destroy the unions and guilds of the northeastern part of Argentina through the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This entire issue of the magazine Ovum 10 is dedicated to a report on Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning]. The brief introduction, which precedes the documentary anthology, presents the work as “one of the most important and explosive actions [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The article begins by stating the importance that study-abroad scholarships had for young Argentinean artists, emphasizing in particular the role played by the prize awarded by the Asociación Ver y Estimar [To See and Ponder Magazine Association]. [...]

After describing the inauguration of Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] in Rosario, Cousté goes back to the middle of 1968 in order to point out a series of episodes that can be seen as antecedents of both the subsequent uprising [Tucumán Arde] as [...]

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 reports on the awards ceremony for the 1968 Braque Prize (sponsored by the French embassy in Argentina). It was interrupted by the actions of “a group of painters and poets” that were members of the Frente Antiimperialista de [...]

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], [...]

This new pamphlet, titled “La Nueva Moda” [“The New Style”], demonstrates the inherent contradiction between participating in an exhibition and, at the same time, formulating an extreme critique to be produced within that art institution.  [...]

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 ( [...]

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 [...]

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 brief but significant assessment of Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] entitled “Límites de lo legal” [The Limits of Legality] was published in the magazine Sobre Nº 1. The text, that was signed by the Grupo de Artistas de Vanguardia of [...]

This text is an article regarding the exhibition put forward by a group of artists from Rosario (Graciela Carnevale, Lía Maisonnave, Noemí Escandell and Fernández Bonina) at the Galería Lirolay [in Buenos Aires] in June 1968. According to the [...]

[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 document is a summary containing statistical data (percentages and numbers) of several relevant variables that demonstrate the magnitude of the Tucumán crisis. Actualized data was obtained from different sources (some official and some from [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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 text is a detailed report prepared by the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] organizers that informed the press about the exhibition’s objectives, sent out briefly before the show’s inauguration at the CGT (Confederación General del [...]