Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

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 [...]

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 “ [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The artists who had called for boycotting the 1968 Premio Braque (promoted by the French embassy in Argentina) stated their condemnation of its censorship in the midst of the awards ceremony, which was carried out in the Museo Nacional de Bellas [...]

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 [...]

The text presented by Juan Pablo Renzi at the Primer Encuentro Nacional de Arte de Vanguardia [First National Encounter of Vanguard Art] is defined as an “attempt to bring about the grounds for the proposed agenda” and presents a framework for [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Política Obrera [Working Class Politics], a Trotskyite faction’s journal, published a lengthy article reporting on the incidents at the opening ceremony of the 1968 Braque Prize by the French Embassy in Argentina. The article suggests that the [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

This article refers to the circumstances surrounding the opening of the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] exhibition?that was created by members of the Comisión de Acción Artística de la CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo de los Argentinos [...]

The article begins with a description of the work-of-art/event Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] that was held at the headquarters of the CGT (Confederacón General del Trabajo de los Argentinos [General Confederation of Labor of the Argentine [...]

CGT, the official weekly journal of the CGT de los Argentinos [the CGT of the Argentine people]?the labor union that opposed the dictatorship of Lieutenant General Juan Carlos Onganía (1966-70)?directed by Rodolfo Walsh, the writer and journalist, [...]

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 [...]

This exhibition essay by Julia P. Herzberg discusses twelve Chilean artists working in experimental and avant-garde modalities (from the late 1970s to early 1990s). These artists are lesser known outside Chile because they stayed in the country [...]

Francisco Zegers wrote the introduction to Desacato (Disobedience), the book about Lotty Rosenfeld, which he edited. Zegers begins by explaining that Desacato is about Rosenfeld’s work, how it was produced, and the interpretations it suggests [...]

This is Lotty Rosenfeld’s written commentary on her video-performance Proposiciones para (entre) cruzar espacios límites [Proposals for Intertwining/crossing Borderlands], which refers to the two frontiers involved in her project. First [...]

This is Lotty Rosenfeld’s written commentary on her video Una herida Americana [An American Wound]. She refers to the three interventions she performed, two of which involved painting crosses on roads. The first of the latter two took place in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

In her essay “Trama urbana y fugas utópicas” (Urban Fabric and Utopian Flights), Nelly Richard discusses CADA (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) two decades after the group launched its program of urban actions in Santiago. She describes the [...]

This is Nelly Richard’s “Introduction” to her book Margins and Institutions. Art in Chile Since 1973, in which she outlines the concept of the Escena de Avanzada. The “advanced scene” flourished in an unofficial sector [...]

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 [...]

María Eugenia Brito discusses Lotty Rosenfeld’s project Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento [A Mile of Crosses on the Pavement]. She addresses the artist’s intervention of traffic lines painted on city roads from what she [...]

This text is about Lotty Rosenfeld’s work, beginning with Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento [A Mile of Crosses on the Pavement]. In his essay, Gonzalo Muñoz discusses the interest that Rosenfeld’s action stirred up as a [...]

In this text, the CADA art action group appeals to artists all over the world, urging them to take part in a “collective art project.” This appeal grew out of a determined response to the violence and destruction caused by the imperialist [...]

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 1985 C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) and the Movimiento Unitario Mujeres por la Vida joined forces to publish an insert in Análisis magazine. The insert featured a photograph of a woman whose husband had been murdered by agents [...]

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 [...]

In this text the writer Diamela Eltit discusses her artistic activities. She refers to the series of art actions called Zona de dolor (Painful Zone), which acknowledge the physical exclusion and marginalization with which she identifies her otherness [...]

Lotty Rosenfeld describes the process for Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento [A Thousand Crosses on the Pavement], an action she began in 1979. It consisted of adding a horizontal white line to the broken lines painted on paved roads, thus [...]

In this essay, Nelly Richard discusses Carlos Altamirano’s exhibition, Tránsito suspendido. The text includes aphorisms that refer to the organizing structure of the review. It also takes an experimental approach by alternating words in [...]

In this essay, Justo Pastor Mellado reviews Tránsito suspendido, an art action presented by Carlos Altamirano. The work consists of a number of moments that are referred to in a newspaper story that the author uses to explain the steps [...]

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 [...]