Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text-manifesto, argentine artist Rubén Santantonín presents the conceptual principles of his work. “No pretendo unir pintura con escultura. Trato de colocarme lejos de esas dos disciplinas en cuanto pueden ser método, sistema, medio. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The author of this text, Juan Pablo Renzi, introduces the happening of one of his fellow members of the Grupo de Arte de Vanguardia de Rosario, Argentina, just as he had done for Norberto Púzzolo. In the case of [artist] Jaime Rippa, Renzi points [...]

Análisis, an important weekly publication covering general information, publishes a chronicle of two “primary structures” exhibitions produced simultaneously in two galleries in Buenos Aires by a group of artists (many of them members of the [...]

This is a review of an exhibition of new art that was held at the Faculty of Medicine during a symposium on social psychopathology. The event was a means of acknowledging the positive role taken by “dissatisfied youth,” both in visual arts’ [...]

The statement written by Fernández Bonina concerning the happening he presented at the Series is a brief description of the procedure (bring the viewers into an empty room, where there are no objects or other distractions of any kind). He also [...]

For their first presentation in the Ciclo de Arte Experimental [Experimental Practices of Art Series], this group of artists in Rosario, Argentina, printed a new flier that they all signed. The text outlined the premises and claims upon which the [...]

The foreword to this catalogue was written by Hugo Parpagnoli—the director of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires, at that time—highlights the important role played by Dr. Isidoro Slullitel, the private art collector. He was a rare [...]

The note presents the group as a conglomeration of “sniper artists” from Rosario that provokes strong shock in the sleepy local culture. It describes the reactions of the surprised public to the event proposed by Puzzolo: an inverted audience [...]

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 [...]

Martha Greiner’s text suggests a Utopian world—in addition to quoting an excerpt from La revolución de las comunicaciones [The Communications Revolution] by Father Neil P. Hurley S. J.—which is connected by the recent advances in communication [...]

Rubén Naranjo’s statement concerning the happening he presented at the Ciclo de Arte Experimental [Experimental Practices of Art Series] is sketchy. Rather than discuss the work itself—which is only referred to by its title—Naranjo explains [...]

Lía Maisonnave explains her intervention, which was laid out on the floor of the exhibition space, by stating that her intention is to shatter “the static, conventional artwork/viewer link, because here the viewer is no longer in front of and [...]

In his review of the work presented by Norberto Puzzolo in the first installment of the Ciclo de Arte Experimental [Experimental Practices of Art Series], Juan Pablo Renzi begins with a description of Puzzolo’s idea. Then, he goes on to refer to [...]

This article sketches the origins of the Grupo de Arte de Vanguardia de Rosario—referring to the various subgroups that merged between 1965 and 1966—and comments on its links to the previous generation. The article mentions the old enmity between [...]

This is one of the key documents bringing to the fore the increasingly political radicalization of the late 1960s Argentinean avant-garde artists, as was demonstrated dramatically by a number of groups in a crucial year: 1968. The document is written [...]

The short text in which Noemí Escandell presents her installation quotes from sections of the speech given recently—on Argentinean Flag Day, June 20—by the mayor of the city of Rosario. The speech is a clear example of the worn-out appeals to [...]

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 [...]

Under the signature of a hypothetical and ephemeral Comité Coordinador de la Imaginación Revolucionaria [Coordinating Committee of the Revolutionary Imagination], Roberto Jacoby writes this declaration in which he synthesizes the route of the avant [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Stemming from the idea (very advanced at that time) that the media invents events, those who are writing this decide to inform—by way of social news snippets, altered photos, and apocryphal testimonies—about a happening that never took [...]

León Ferrari writes to Leopoldo Maler about the London stage production of his book, Palabras ajenas [Other People’s Words].  He agrees to the new title of the English version, Listen Here Now, while proposing that it include the word “Vietnam [...]

León Ferrari writes to Leopoldo Maler about Palabras ajenas [Other People’s Words], to discuss the staging of the London production and to critique European culture. He talks about the presentation of Tucumán Arde at the Rosario and Buenos Aires [...]

León Ferrari writes to Leopoldo Maler about the London stage production of Palabras ajenas [Other People’s Words]. He discusses the polyphonic work involving the various texts in the book, and talks about the economic situation and the student [...]

León Ferrari writes to Leopoldo Maler about the London stage production of Palabras ajenas [Other People’s Words]. He discusses the polyphonic work involving the various texts in the book, and talks about the staging, the visual elements, the [...]

León Ferrari discusses certain aspects of the press coverage of his book, Palabras ajenas [Other People’s Words]. He writes about the artistic milieu and the controversy stirred up by artists in response to the Torcuato Di Tella Institute’s [...]

The catalogue for Juan Carlos Romero’s Violencia [Violence] exhibition (Buenos Aires: Centro de Arte y Comunicación [Art and Communication Center], April 1973). In his essay in the catalogue, Jorge Glusberg states that Romero has always challenged [...]

Aracy Amaral, the Brazilian art critic, discusses the formal qualities of León Ferrari’s work, referring to his inventive use of a machine as a means of reproduction. She can see how Ferrari’s production was affected by the urban environment of [...]

León Ferrari exhibits his work in Brazil, explaining the technical side of the instrument as well as the theoretical aspects of visual, auditory, and tactile relationships. He ponders some possibilities of expression in the curved lines of space, [...]

León Ferrari presents his sonorous sculpture Percanta, with technical explanations about the instrument, the title of the work, and non-figurative music. His mention of the use of the inverted pendulum in a series of sculptures formed with steel [...]

León Ferrari composes a poetic description of his method of working: from the line on the plane of the paper through its development in space [...]

Brazilian critic Fábio Magalhães writes about the works of León Ferrari based on the nexus between artistic internationalization and the artwork’s efficiency in accounting for specific local realities. He also weighs the problem regarding the [...]

Roberto Jacoby — the conceptual artist, editor, and critic — analyzes León Ferrari’s work in terms of its political content and visual features, highlighting a number of aspects such as the relationship between the heretical and the erotic. He [...]

León Ferrari discusses one of the works he produced in 1964, as he prepares his collection for the exhibition at Galería Lirolay in Buenos Aires [...]

León Ferrari records his thoughts on the visual aspects of projects he will soon be working on, specifically the writings and the boxes. He defines concepts regarding what is visible and what is ambiguous [...]

León Ferrari sketches his idea for the Christ mounted on a fighter jet for the piece he submitted to the Torcuato Di Tella Institute’s 1965 National and International Prize. This work would be known as Civilización Occidental y [...]

León Ferrari prepares a sketch to send to theTorcuato Di Tella Institute’s 1965 National and International Prize.  [...]