United States of Latin America

United
States of
Latin
America
United
States of
Latin
America
Curated by Participating artists
Jens Hoffmann Pablo Accinelli

Pablo León de la Barra Edgardo Aragón
Juan Araujo
Felipe Arturo
Nicolás Bacal
Milena Bonilla
Paloma Bosquê
Pia Camil
Mariana Castillo Deball
Benvenuto Chavajay
Marcelo Cidade
Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker
Nicolás Consuegra
Minerva Cuevas
Elena Damiani
Ximena Garrido-Lecca
Federico Herrero
Voluspa Jarpa
Runo Lagomarsino
Adriana Lara
Engel Leonardo
Valentina Liernur
Mateo López
Renata Lucas
Nicolás Paris
Amalia Pica
Pablo Rasgado
Pedro Reyes
Gabriel Sierra
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
Clarissa Tossin
Adrián Villar Rojas
Carla Zaccagnini
Contents
10 Preface
Elysia Borowy-Reeder, MOCAD
11 Foreword
Vincent Worms, Kadist Art Foundation
12 Works in the Exhibition
17 What’s in a Title?
Jens Hoffmann and Pablo León de la Barra in Conversation
26 Participating Artists
Pablo Accinelli, Edgardo Aragón, Juan Araujo, Felipe Arturo,
Nicolás Bacal, Milena Bonilla, Paloma Bosquê, Pia Camil,
Mariana Castillo Deball, Benvenuto Chavajay, Marcelo Cidade,
Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, Nicolás Consuegra,
Minerva Cuevas, Elena Damiani, Ximena Garrido-Lecca,
Federico Herrero, Voluspa Jarpa, Runo Lagomarsino, Adriana Lara,
Engel Leonardo, Valentina Liernur, Mateo López, Renata Lucas,
Nicolás Paris, Amalia Pica, Pablo Rasgado, Pedro Reyes,
Gabriel Sierra, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Clarissa Tossin,
Adrián Villar Rojas, Carla Zaccagnini
93 An Incomplete Glossary of Latin America
109 The Exhibition
124 After the Fact

Jens Hoffmann
129 Filling in the Blanks

A conversation between Stefan Benchoam, Fernanda Brenner,
Eduardo Carrera, Camila Marambio, and Marina Reyes Franco,
moderated by Heidi Rabben
141 Contributors
142 Acknowledgments
10 11
Preface Foreword
At the core of MOCAD’s exhibition It was wonderful to see this collabo- This publication accompanies United The exhibition presents more than
programs is the guiding principle of ration unfold between MOCAD and the States of Latin America, an exhibition that forty artworks, many of which are drawn
supporting and nurturing artists who are Kadist Art Foundation, another entity brings together thirty-four artists, two from the Kadist collection. Our collection
not yet household names. The exhibition committed to fostering the careers and curators, two institutions, and discursive serves as the departure point for Kadist’s
United States of Latin America serves creativity of rising artists. And we are contributions from many other artists ambitious programming—exhibitions,
as a paradigmatic example of this mission, grateful as well to the Taubman Founda- and curators working in Latin America residency programs, screenings, perfor-
featuring as it does works by thirty-four tion, which has further reinforced the and elsewhere, to form a multidimen- mances, workshops, conversations, and
artists who have not yet had significant importance of MOCAD’s bold move in sional dialogue about the current state of other events—and directly supports artists
exposure, drawn from the Kadist Art the creation of an exhibition program contemporary art in the region. Kadist Art from various backgrounds through the
Collection. These individuals are emerg- dedicated to supporting artists who are Foundation is truly honored to be working acquisition of new work and program-
ing as leaders in the field, expanding their at a unique point in their careers—artists with the exhibition’s curators, who have based commissions. Operating as a nexus
practices in ways that are groundbreaking whose work MOCAD is happy to sup- made this particular dialogue possible: our of cultural producers in terms of knowl-
on many levels. The show is predicated port and make available to our incredibly dear friends and advisors, Jens Hoffmann edge, practices, social worlds, and spaces,
upon a series of lively conversations, thoughtful community. and Pablo León de la Barra. Through their Kadist is guided by the dynamic tension
studio visits, and extensive research car- ongoing research and expertise, they have and complex intermingling of multiple
ried out by its two curators, Jens Hoffmann Elysia Borowy-Reeder demonstrated their investment in support- voices. We believe that the arts make a
and Pablo León de la Barra. For me, this Executive Director, Museum of ing groundbreaking artistic practices in fundamental contribution to a progres-
project also serves to highlight curators Contemporary Art Detroit Latin America and beyond. We are deeply sive society, and our mission foregrounds
as thought leaders, as they are experts in grateful to them for their collaboration and the development of collaborations and
convening artists, discovering creativity, for choosing to show the works of these conversations that reflect the global scope
finding the underrepresented, and engag- artists in the United States, as many of of contemporary art and artists.
ing in deep and meaningful relationships them are exhibiting here for the first time. United States of Latin America
with artists and their work. United States of Latin America has represents a significant installment in an
I owe my deepest thanks to the art- also resulted in a new partnership with ongoing series of collaborations between
ists for their enthusiastic participation. I a pioneering institution in the United Kadist and other organizations and indi-
am grateful as well to MOCAD’s senior States, the Museum of Contemporary Art viduals around the world, in which artists
curator at large, Jens Hoffmann, and Detroit. We are thrilled to be working with and artworks from the collection are made
MOCAD collaborator and co-curator MOCAD on this project, and we owe available to encourage social and intellec-
Pablo León de la Barra for their unwaver- special thanks to Elysia Borowy-Reeder, tual inquiry into the world of contemporary
ing dedication to the project. Zeb Smith, executive director, and Zeb Smith, exhibi- art. We hope that through these partner-
exhibitions manager at MOCAD, played tions manager, for opening their beautiful ships, we might continue to promote
a critical role as always in shaping and space to this project, and for their truly radical thinking, dialogue, and exchange at
designing the exhibition. Many thanks to collaborative spirit. This exhibition and the intersections of contemporary art and
Heidi Rabben, who meticulously facilitated its catalogue would also not be possible politics, economics, education, history, and
the relationship with Kadist and assisted without our team based in San Fran- the environment, by encouraging the role
Hoffmann and León de la Barra in numer- cisco: Heidi Rabben, curator of events of artists as cultural and critical agents.
ous ways with both the exhibition and and exhibitions at Kadist; Jon Sueda, Thank you to all the artists involved in this
the publication. I am grateful to Lindsey who has created a brilliant design for the exhibition for helping push this dialogue
Westbrook for all her work on editing this exhibition and this catalogue; and Lindsey forward.
volume, and to Jon Sueda for his stunning Westbrook, whose provided a detailed
graphic design. editorial eye. Vincent Worms
President, Kadist Art Foundation
12 13 United States of Latin America
Works in the Exhibition Mariana Castillo Deball Donna Conlon and Elena Damiani
Do ut des, 2009 Jonathan Harker Intersticio (Interstice), 2014
Four books, about the Tapitapultas (Capapults), Single-channel video
Museo di Capodimonte, 2012 installation, color, sound,
Naples, Italy; the National HD video, color, sound, 5:26 min.
Pablo Accinelli Juan Araujo Nicolás Bacal
Gallery, London; Alte 3:40 min. Courtesy the artist and
Onde quer voce esteja Residencias Louveira III Light Years, 2008
Pinakothek, Munich; and Courtesy the artist and Kadist Art Foundation,
(Wherever You May Be), (Louveira Residences III), Measuring tape, screws,
Tate Gallery, London, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco
2011 2014 and glue
altered with perforations San Francisco
Marker on paper Oil on canvas on MDF 78 ¾ × 55 ⅛ × 3 (200 ×
Each 12 ¼ × 19 ¼ in. (31 × Ximena Garrido-Lecca
61 ½ × 160 × 6 in. (156.2 × 33 ½ × 18 ⅞ in. (85 × 140 × 7.6 cm)
49 cm) Nicolás Consuegra Destilaciones
406.4 × 15.2 cm) 48 cm) Courtesy the artist and
Courtesy the artist and Nadie sabe la sed con que (Distillations), 2014
Courtesy the artist and Courtesy the artist and Kadist Art Foundation,
Kadist Art Foundation, otro bebe (No One Knows Ceramics, copper tubes,
Kadist Art Foundation, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco
San Francisco the Thirst with Which steel, MDF, clay, and PVA
San Francisco San Francisco
Another Drinks), 2012 67 × 122 × 78 ¾ in. (170 ×
Milena Bonilla
Benvenuto Chavajay Glasses and mirror 310 × 200 cm)
Edgardo Aragón Juan Araujo Stone Deaf, 2009
Jardin del Lago Atitlán, Dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and
Efectos de Familia (Family Rooftop Banco Safra, 2015 Graphite on rubbing paper
suave chapina (Lake Atitlán Courtesy the artist and Kadist Art Foundation,
Effects), 2007–9 Oil on canvas and HD video, color, sound,
Garden, Soft Flip-Flop), Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco
Thirteen-channel HD 11 ⅞ × 15 ¾ in. (30 × 5 min.
2014 San Francisco
video, color, sound, channel 40 cm) Drawing: 63 × 39 ⅜ in.
Stones and flip-flops Federico Herrero
durations vary Courtesy the artist and (160 × 100 cm)
Dimensions variable Nicolás Consuegra. Volumen, 2015
Courtesy the artist and Kadist Art Foundation, Courtesy the artist and
Courtesy the artist and Sin título (avisos Paint on wall
Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco Kadist Art Foundation,
Kadist Art Foundation, esfumados) (Untitled 315 x 157 ½ in. (800 x
San Francisco San Francisco
San Francisco [Ghost Signs]), from the 400 cm)
Felipe Arturo
project Instituto de visión Courtesy the artist
Juan Araujo Primero estaba el mar Paloma Bosquê
Marcelo Cidade (Vision Institute), 2008
Libro Ponti II (Ponti (First Was the Sea), 2012 Ritmo para 2 (Rhythm
Abuso de poder (Abuse of Giclée prints on archival Voluspa Jarpa
Book II), 2006 Sixty-four concrete pieces for 2), 2013
Power), 2010 paper Fantasmática
Crayon, oil, and waxed 151 ⅛ × 37 ¾ × 18 ⅞ in. Lurex thread and wood
Iron and marble Nine works, each 18 ⅞ × Latinoamericana (Ghostly
paper on wood (384 × 96 × 48 cm) frames
3 ⅛ × 7 ½ × ⅝ in. (7.9 × 28 ⅜ in. (48 × 72 cm) Latin American), 2014
9 ⅞ × 8 ¼ in. (25.1 × 21 cm) Courtesy the artist and Five pieces, each approx.
19.1 × 1.6 cm) Courtesy the artist and Vegetal paper, ink,
Courtesy the artist and Kadist Art Foundation, 10 × 10 × 2 in. (26 × 26 ×
Courtesy the artist and Kadist Art Foundation, graphite, Plexiglas, and
Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco 5 cm)
Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco wooden hanging system
San Francisco Courtesy the artist and
San Francisco Five paintings, each
Felipe Arturo Kadist Art Foundation,
Minerva Cuevas 19 ¾ × 76 1.4 × 1 ½ in.
Juan Araujo Trópico Entrópico (Entropic San Francisco
Marcelo Cidade America, 2006 (50 × 30 × 4 cm)
Residencia Milan I (Milan Tropics), 2012
Adição por Subtração Acrylic paint on wall Courtesy the artist and
Residence I), 2010 White sugar, brown sugar, Pia Camil
(Addition by Subtraction), Minimum 157 ½ × 116 ⅛ in. Kadist Art Foundation,
Oil and graphite on wood glass, and metal Espectacular (cortina)
2010 (400 × 295 cm) San Francisco
25 × 43 ¼ in. (63.5 × 153 ½ × 120 ½ × 2 ⅜ in. (Spectacular [Curtain]),
Glass and plaster Courtesy the artist and
110 cm) (390 × 306 × 6 cm) 2012
59 × 118 ⅛ × 7 in. (149.9 × Kadist Art Foundation, Voluspa Jarpa
Courtesy the artist and Courtesy the artist and Stitched and hand-dyed
300 × 17.8 cm) San Francisco Minimal Secret, 2012
Kadist Art Foundation, Kadist Art Foundation, canvas
Courtesy the artist and Laser-cut acrylic
San Francisco San Francisco 78 ¾ × 212 ⅝ in. (200 ×
Kadist Art Foundation, Three diptychs, each
540 cm)
San Francisco 31 ½ × 15 ¾ × ¾ in.
Courtesy the artist and
(80 × 40 × 2 cm)
Kadist Art Foundation,
Courtesy the artist and
San Francisco
Kadist Art Foundation,
San Francisco
14 Works in the Exhibition 15 United States of Latin America
Runo Lagomarsino Mateo López Amalia Pica Daniel

If You Don’t Know What Roca Carbón (Charcoal Memorial for intersections Steegmann Mangrané
the South Is, It’s Simply Rock), 2012 #2, 2013 Mano con hojas (Hand with
Because You Are from the Charcoal on paper, metal Color-coated steel, Perspex Leaves), 2013
North (poster version), structure 78 ¾ × 86 ⅝ × 37 in. Hologram
2009 23 ¼ × 14 ¼ × 17 in. (200 × 220 × 94 cm) 9 ⅞ × 7 ⅞ in. (25 × 20 cm)
Poster stack (59.1 × 36.2 × 43.2 cm) Courtesy the artist and Courtesy the artist and
Each poster 16 ½ × 12 ¼ in. Courtesy the artist and Kadist Art Foundation, Kadist Art Foundation,
(42 × 32.5 cm) Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco Paris
Courtesy the artist; San Francisco
Mendes Wood DM, São Pablo Rasgado Clarissa Tossin
Paulo; and Nils Staerk, Mateo López Avenida Corona del Rosal Fordlândia Fieldwork,
Copenhagen Roca Grafito (Graphite #1, #2, and #3, 2011 2012
Rock), 2012 Diesel soot, polycyclic Inkjet prints on cotton
Adriana Lara Graphite on paper, metal aromatic hydrocarbons, paper
The Thinkers, 2014 structure tire and brake particles, Installed dimensions
Wood chairs and nylon 14 ⅛ × 11 ⅛ × 11 ¼ in. and dirt on canvas variable; each folded piece
thread (35.9 × 28.3 × 28.6 cm) Three works, each 47 × 43 × 43 in. (109.2 ×
78 ¾ × 39 ⅜ × 23 ⅝ in. Courtesy the artist and 35 in. (119.4 × 88.9 cm) 109.2 cm)
(200 × 100 × 60 cm) Kadist Art Foundation, Courtesy the artist and Courtesy the artist and
Courtesy the artist and San Francisco Kadist Art Foundation, Kadist Art Foundation, San
Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco Francisco
San Francisco Renata Lucas
Invisible Man, 2008 Pedro Reyes Adrián Villar Rojas
Engel Leonardo Mailbox embedded in wall Los Mutantes Works from the series Las
Sin título (Untitled), 2011 Approx. 4 × 10 × 15 in. (The Mutants), 2012 Mariposas Eternas (Eternal
Steel, found objects, and (10.2 × 25.4 × 38.1 cm) Colored pencil on printed Butterflies), 2010
acrylic Courtesy the artist and paper Graphite on paper
Dimensions variable Galeria Luisa Strina, 170 frames, each 9 ½ × 3 × Two drawings, each 15 ×
Courtesy the artist and São Paulo 1 ⅛ in. (24.1 × 7.6 × 2.9 cm) 11 ½ in. (38.1 × 29.2 cm)
Kadist Art Foundation, Courtesy the artist and Courtesy the artist and
San Francisco Nicolás Paris Kadist Art Foundation, Kadist Art Foundation, San
Metaphors of the presence San Francisco Francisco
Valentina Liernur or conversations at the
Corruzione (Corruption), speed of light, 2011–12 Gabriel Sierra Carla Zaccagnini
2014 Colored pencil and Sin título (Untitled), Sobre la iguladad y
Oil on canvas graphite on paper inside 2006–8 las diferencias: casas
Three parts, each 51 × twenty-two modified Apple and dollar bill gemelas (On Equality and
43 ¼ in. (129.5 × 109.9 cm) lightbulbs, eight additional Dimensions variable Differences: Twin Houses),
Courtesy the artist and lightbulbs, movement Courtesy the artist and 2005
Kadist Art Foundation, sensors, electrical Colección Charpenel, Mineral-pigmented inkjet
San Francisco switches, and wire Guadalajara prints on cotton paper
Dimensions variable Three diptychs, each
Courtesy the artist and 12 ⅝ × 26 in. (32 × 66 cm)
Kadist Art Foundation, Courtesy the artist and
San Francisco Kadist Art Foundation, San
Francisco
16 17
What’s in a Title?
Jens Hoffmann and

Pablo León de la Barra
in Conversation
J e n s H o f f m a n n : United States of Latin America, the title we’ve
chosen for the exhibition we are co-curating at the Museum of Contem-
porary Art Detroit, emerged from a conversation during one of our visits
to Detroit. We were speaking about the show you had just curated for
the Guggenheim in New York, entitled Under the Same Sun: Art From
Latin America Today. That show was not unlike ours here—both are sur-
vey exhibitions of artworks made in Latin America over the last handful
of years. How did that show come about?
P a bl o L e ó n d e l a B a r r a :In 2013 I was

invited by the Guggenheim Museum to be the curator
for Latin America of the UBS MAP project. I was
an unusual candidate, in that I did not come from a
traditional museum background. What I did have
was more than a decade of experience working inde-
pendently, researching and doing exhibitions in the
Latin American context, and thus a lot of practical
expertise and knowledge. The project was intense and
had very specific goals to be achieved in a very tight
timeframe, so they needed someone who already had
some of this background.
18 What’s in a Title? 19 United States of Latin America
Nevertheless, during the first year I made rest of the continent (including Latin American artists
time to undertake research travel through most of living in the United States) being ignored as if none of
the continent in order to engage with the artists and them existed. I had already done lots of work in Puerto
art scenes and identify contemporary works to be Rico and Central America, so I certainly wanted to
purchased with UBS funds and incorporated into include artists from those regions.
the Guggenheim’s collection. In a year, I traveled Of course I was not interested in filling quotas,
almost as much as I had in the entire previous decade, but about engaging with artists.
and this gave me immediate knowledge of the con-
cerns and the artistic realities of the contemporary art JH: In my opinion, exhibitions that are based on certain regions or
scenes. I remembered the series of essays you wrote revolve around particular geographies can be a bit fraught. On the
for Purple magazine in the early 2000s about your one hand, they are very popular with museums and audiences. People
research and travels through Latin America, which like exploring art from elsewhere in the world, and those geographi-
was very inspiring to me at the time. cally based exhibitions offer nice, bite-size intros. Institutions like them
The second part of the project consisted of because it demonstrates that they are part of a global conversation.
doing an exhibition with the works purchased, which Yet this typology only allows for a snapshot of a certain scene, and there
was the show you saw in New York. is the danger of missing out on a more nuanced and subtle investiga-
tion. While I welcome an introduction to an art scene from another
J H : In that show, there were a significant number of historical pieces city, country, or continent, I am also worried about generalizations and
with political undertones that formed a conceptual foundation for cultural stereotypes. There is of course a big difference between doing
the works made by some of the younger artists. I thought the whole an overview exhibition about Latin America or Africa, for example, and
presentation was extremely successful in interconnecting artists from doing one about just one country or one city there.
a number of generations who are not well known to New York or There is perhaps another issue with an exhibition such as ours.
United States audiences. It seems like only a dozen or so Latin Ameri- It might seem as if we are trying to correct people’s understanding
can artists have any form of name recognition in the U.S. art world. of the development of art, to revise an established canon—something
The countries most explored are Mexico and Brazil, and more recently that neither you nor I are in fact particularly interested in doing. I am
Colombia and Argentina. Central America is almost entirely missing talking about a form of revisionism that has been very popular in major
from the map, and in the Caribbean, Cuba is the only place most museums since around 1990, to transform our understanding of art
curators travel to. and its development on a global scale. I am very ambivalent about this. I
think it is crucial to expose audiences to art that offers alternative ways
P L B : The exact thing I tried to do with the of understanding the reality we live in. I am interested in artists who
Guggenheim project was to expand this list of artists complicate and disrupt established narratives and canons, either be-
and places, and go deep into the regions that we cause their aesthetics are not what is expected or because the content
as an international art community know less about, has not received attention. At the same time, all of this also leads to us
for instance the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia, hold onto those canons because we position ourselves in relationship
and Paraguay. As you said, when people talk about to them.
Latin America today, their knowledge refers to as-
pects of Brazil and Mexico, which we could say are P L B : I agree with a lot of the arguments you make,
the big players. Exhibitions from Latin America and perceive the need to be nuanced about all of
normally consist of artists representing seven or eight this. I see the title of our exhibition in Detroit also as
of the better-known countries, with those from the a continuation of titles in which you have explored
geographies in the Americas, for instance your exhibi- JH: I was referring to the idea of pan-Americanism as it developed in
tion Americana (2007–12) at the Wattis Institute for Latin America after the independence of the United States from Eng-
Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, which for fifty land. There was a desire for unity among the Latin American nations,
months presented sequential exhibitions about each particularly the countries in South America. I think that our title United
of the fifty United States, or Panamericana (2010) at States of Latin America is perhaps connected to that. I see it as a long-
kurimanzutto in Mexico City, in which you illustrated ing for independence and unity among the Latin American countries—
connections among works by artists from different an economic, political, and cultural independence from the North of the
places in Latin America. Both of those exhibitions continent that would be made possible by a closer relationship among
looked beyond geographies and stereotypes to focus the states of Central and South America. As you know, from 1821 to
on unique artistic practices. 1841, the Central American countries were in fact united as the Federal
Republic of Central America. Or think about Simón Bolívar’s Gran
JH: Yes, I have long been interested in exploring certain geographies, Colombia (1819–31), which was a short-lived union of Colombia, Venezu-
but those two exhibitions were extremely different from each other. ela, Ecuador, parts of Brazil, and Guyana.
Americana had an almost anthropological objective, and was trying to Our title is a humorous play with words and geopolitical con-
examine how historical events in the United States’ past still shape cepts that complicates the question of a geographically based art
the way we experience the country today. Panamericana was the result exhibition in the same way that we contest what the geography we are
of a number of research trips I did in Latin America between 2008 and looking at is actually called. It makes me think of Joaquín Torres García’s
2010, during which I was meeting with hundreds of artists from San famous drawing of an upside-down map of Latin America, América
Juan to Caracas, San Salvador to Bogotá, Mexico City to São Paulo. I Invertida (1943), with the southern tip of South America pictured at
wanted to do a group show featuring a younger generation of artists the very top of the Earth. This artwork, more than any other, speaks of
from these places who did not know about one another’s work and had Latin America’s longing for and efforts toward emancipation, recogni-
not exhibited much outside their home countries. It was about creating tion, and a unique cultural identity.
a platform for artists who I thought were engaged in a dialogue without
even being aware of it. P L B : I’m thinking of that 2010 book by Oscar
Guardiola-Rivera titled What if Latin America Ruled
P L B : That relates to what we are doing in Detroit: the World? The title is a humorous pun on turning the
creating a platform to make visible not only a genera- economic and political logic of the world upside down.
tion of artists coming from Latin America, but also Unfortunately, because of North America’s politics of
a dialogue among their practices. I also appreciated neocolonialism and its aggressive economic expansion
the title of that kurimanzutto exhibition. It touches in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the relation-
on something that creates a resistance among some in ship between Latin America and its northern neighbor,
Latin America: the term “Pan America” as it was used the United Sates of America, has never been an easy
by the United States as part of the Monroe Doctrine, one. It is a relationship of dependency and antagonism
a plan to economically and politically control the two that can be very schizophrenic. There has always been
continents. This of course had its failures, one obvi- animosity toward the United States’ political and eco-
ous one being the unfinished Pan-American Highway, nomic interventions, yet there has also always been a
which was supposed to connect the Americas from desire to emulate its consumer-driven lifestyle.
north to south, or the disappearance of Pan-Am The United States’ hijacking of the name of
airlines in 1991, a U.S. airline that aimed to connect the continent to name its country is very controversial
the Americas. among all the other inhabitants of the American
continent who are also “Americans.” During the exhi- fundamentally the lack of representation of the
bition at the Guggenheim last year I invited Alfredo indigenous and black inhabitants of the conti-
Jaar to remake his iconic artwork This Is Not America nent. The Argentinian theorist Walter Mignolo
(1987) in Times Square. The work talks about this has advocated for the full decolonization of the
specific issue, which persists today. Americas.
As you mentioned about pan-Americanism,
there were many attempts for Latin America to exist JH: While the name “Latin America” is full of contradictions, us-
as one country after independence from Spain and ing the term allows us to take into account artists, practices, and
Portugal. You mentioned Bolívar’s dream of a country contexts that have been ignored, underrepresented, or excluded
formed by the union of many of the countries that from so-called Western North American and European hege-
used to belong to Spanish America. The name of monic art narratives, exhibitions, and collections. In the same way
Colombia existed before the nation we now know as that the name and the idea of the Americas (the continents) were
Colombia (or, as U.S. Americans say, “Columbia”), and European inventions, the Latin in “Latin America” is also a Euro-
was an attempt to name the continent after Colum- pean construct, referring to those countries on the American con-
bus, its “discoverer,” in this way also contesting the tinent whose language had a Latin origin, meaning, those based
naming of the continent after Amerigo Vespucci, who on Spanish, Portuguese, and French. The French thinker Michel
was the first to realize that it was not West India as Chevalier first used it in the 1830s to differentiate the “Latin”
Columbus had thought but a new, “unknown” piece Americas from the “Anglo” ones, and by Napoleon III to oppose
of land. the interference of British and U.S. interests in the continent.
Ironically, after independence from Spain and (The 1823 Monroe Doctrine stated, “America for the Americans,”
Portugal, many countries of the continent named and which in reality meant “America for the North Americans.”)
modeled themselves after the United States’ federa- If this “Latin” connotation was still true, we would still
tive model, democratically constructed by the sum of need to consider Quebec, Haiti, the French Antilles, and French
different states. Mexico’s official name, for example, Guiana as belonging to Latin America. All of this poses the
is the Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican question of what to call this region. Perhaps “Indo Latin America,”
States). Brazil between 1889 and 1968 had the official with indo being also a European construct deriving from
name Estados Unidos do Brasil (United States of Brazil) Columbus’s mistake of thinking he had reached India? But indo
and for a moment even had a flag with yellow and and Latin both exclude the African populations who were brought
green stripes similar to the flag of the United States. to the continent as slaves. “Afro Indo Latin America,” then?
But of course if we consider the later arrival in the
J H : Speaking of Latin American flags: several countries, for example nineteenth and twentieth centuries of Chinese, Japanese, and
Cuba, Costa Rica, and Chile, have flags that resemble the flag of Texas, Middle Eastern migrants, as well as Jewish and European ones,
which was annexed from Mexico by the United States in 1845. The it becomes impossible to name these places in terms of ethnic
cover of this publication features an artwork by the Venezuelan artist and racial origins. This is further complicated by the presence
Luis Romero, which is a flag made of symbols found on the different of so-called Latino or Hispanic communities in the United States,
flags of the countries of the Americas, the new flag becoming the flag which have by now become the largest minority in the country.
for our United States of Latin America exhibition.
P L B : The inadequacy of the term “Latin
PLB: The use of the European term Latin in America” has prompted indigenous groups to
“Latin America” raises questions of representation— advocate for the use of the name Abya Yala.
24 What’s in a Title? 25
It means “land in its full maturity” or “land of vital

blood,” and is the name used by the Panamanian Kuna
people to refer to the American continent before the
arrival of Columbus. While recognizing indigenous
names is a much-needed part of decolonization, it still
doesn’t solve the problem of naming the region in an
inclusive and representative way. The exhibition title
United States of Latin America plays with this idea of
how to name a region while recognizing many of these
past histories, contradictions, and exclusions.
J H : I can see why our exhibition title raises questions and might
even be controversial, but I think it also brings forward important
and urgent points for discussion, many of which are present in
the artworks. I am fascinated to talk about all of this, as to me
it is also a reflection of how temporary—how incomplete and often
incomprehensible—history is.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Pablo Accinelli
born in 1983 in São Paulo; lives and works in São Paulo
T hrough his works in sculpture, installation, photography, and mixed media, Pablo
Accinelli aims to investigate modernity by questioning the individual’s mental
and physical relationship to constructed space. Interpolating new possibilities at the
junctures of what is already known, Accinelli creates and mines systems of understand-
ing using repetition, language, and scale. His drawings and sculptures are concrete
embodiments of a poetic moment of realization, a perfect convergence of language
with the opening up of perception. With the language and tools of geometry, the artist
explores the dichotomy between order and chaos, the external and the internal, present
and past, the literal and the metaphorical.
Onde quer voce esteja (Wherever You May Be, 2011) consists of a set of rolled
Onde quer voce esteja (Wherever You May Be), 2011
paper tubes that spell out the words of the title. Installed as a mock cityscape, they
evoke the city twice over, first through their physical reference to an urban skyline, and
then again through the angularity of Brazilian pixação, a kind of lettering that is strongly
associated with the graffitied streets of São Paulo. The work is about the relationship
between objects as metaphors of their own materiality and objects as tools for conveying
ideas. Although each cylindrical form displays only one character, a scroll of paper within
contains the entire phrase spelled out. The words, while legible, seem like fragmented
lines and shapes—almost but not quite a deconstruction of the text. These rolled pillars
thus form a kind of linguistic machine that contains all possibilities and potentialities of
the given utterance. The system both is what it represents and contains what it repre-
sents, thereby communicating an enigmatic message: wherever you may be, this is what
you are.
Edgardo Aragón
born in 1985 in Oaxaca, Mexico; lives and works in Oaxaca
E dgardo Aragón employs reenactment to reflect the everyday reality of rural Mexico.
Using narratives inspired by the particularities of their respective local contexts,
Aragón evokes events—some with very violent undertones—and shapes them into scenes
molded by landscapes. His work also addresses points of familial and social inheritance
Efectos de Familia (Family Effects), 2007–9
that are conditioned by the local environment, recounted through poetic narratives.
Each piece is a story slowly told—a description of a memory or a reconstruction of a per-
sonal experience—that shows some of the darker sides of Mexico’s social and economic
realities.
Efectos de Familia (Family Effects, 2007–9) is a series of thirteen videos
dramatizing an array of negative events from Aragón’s family’s history—specifically
their involvement with organized crime. Each episode is an action performed by some
combination of his two young cousins, his nephew, and his younger brother. In one,
a boy is shot to death inside a pickup truck. In another, two of them endure a brick-
carrying competition. In another, a boy digs his own grave. The work is about a collective
social condition of survival and endurance, and it is inextricable from the broader context
of contemporary Mexico, with its skyrocketing crime rates and economic instability.
Through these works, Aragón attempts to educate his young family members to avoid
criminal entanglements.
Juan Araujo
Low Res
born in 1971 in Caracas; lives and works in Lisbon and Caracas
J uan Araujo’s works often begin with photographs he takes of a physical site, or
with representations in books and archives, which then become sources for
paintings. Since 2004 he has worked frequently with architectural locations, focusing
primarily on private midcentury residences and their surroundings that exemplify Latin
American Modernism. By reproducing fragments from urban images, many of them
facades of different types of architecture, he makes visible a tension between the desire
to represent and the manufacture of visual stereotypes. Through the symbiotic rela-
tionship between the paintings and the buildings he appropriates, Araujo informs the
way we think about architecture, and about Modernism more generally. The works can
be viewed as personal reflections, but the opportunity for universal interpretation is
equally strong; they are a stunning record of one artist’s determination to observe and
question modern life.
Araujo’s most recent paintings examine Venezuelan and Brazilian modernist
architecture and its complex relationship to certain ideologies and belief systems that
deeply marked Latin America’s cultural development. Like many of Araujo’s works
Libro Ponti II (Ponti Book II), 2006
depicting reproductions, Libro Ponti II (Ponti Book II, 2006) is a re-creation of a book
about the Italian architect Giò Ponti. Ponti designed the Villa Planchart, a modernist
house in Caracas that, when built in 1956, reflected the emergence of an increasingly
globalized Venezuelan class, in both the cultural and the economic sense. Araujo’s
replica of the book thus refers to the role and visibility of Venezuela in circuits of global
cultural production.
Felipe Arturo
born in 1979 in Bogotá; lives and works in Lisbon
F elipe Arturo considers elements from urbanism, architecture, and art in relation to
politics, history, geography, and economy. His works and projects often manifest as
sculptures, installations, or videos, departing from concepts such as structure, sequence,
and matter. They are deeply influenced by vernacular architecture and construction
techniques, and reflect processes of assimilation and resistance to colonial and post-
colonial processes. He frequently combines the language and materials of Modernism
(e.g., concrete) with the informal methods of autoconstrucción (self-construction).
Primero estaba el mar (First Was the Sea, 2012) is a system of equivalences
between syllables and silhouettes of waveforms cast in cement. Each waveform repre-
sents a syllable of the sentence “Primero estaba el mar.” This sentence is the first verse
of the Kogui poem of creation. For the Koguis, an indigenous community from the Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta on the Colombian Caribbean coast, water was the absolute
presence before the creation of the universe. The Colombian writer Tomás González
used this phrase as the title of his first novel, in which he narrates the story of a couple in
Medellín who, following the anarchic and hippie trends of the 1970s, abandon civilization
and move to a solitary beach. Instead of leaving modernity behind, however, the couple
becomes a colonizing force, transforming the natural environment of the beach into a
rationalized territory. Under the logic proposed by Primero estaba el mar, the variation of
the order of the waveforms represents different possibilities for this sentence. The work
produces eight different phrases that assimilate the idea of repetition and change; the
sentence has eight syllables, and each syllable-waveform is repeated eight times in order
to reconstruct the title eight different times, resulting in a total of sixty-four pieces.
Defined as entropy, the second law of thermodynamics proposes that energy
is more easily dispersed than it is concentrated. One basic illustration of entropy is to
imagine white and black sand: once mixed together, it is highly unlikely that the contrast-
ing grains can be separated and restored to their original distinct color groups. Arturo’s
Trópico Entrópico (Entropic Tropics, 2012) considers the colonization of the American
continent as a similarly irreversible process of cultural entropy. His inspiration derives Primero estaba el mar (First Was the Sea), 2012
from a place near Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon, where the Black River meets with
the sandy-colored Solimões River, producing a river of two colors that extends over ten
kilometers. In the late nineteenth century, the Brazilian rubber barons decided to com-
memorate this impressive natural phenomenon by covering the main square of Manaus
with a design of black-and-white waveforms made from stones. The square is known
as the Encontro das aguas (Meeting of the Waters). Decades later, Roberto Burle Marx
used this same pattern in his famous Copacabana walkway in Rio de Janeiro. Since then,
the design has spread across the continent to Lima, Bogotá, Cali, and beyond. Trópico
Entrópico uses this pattern to produce entropy in the exhibition space. Sugar, the mate-
rial used, signifies one of many economic motivators for colonialism. Visitors are invited
to collectively dissolve this modern design by walking on the brown and white sugar,
and participating in its entropic mixing.
Nicolás Bacal
born in 1985 in Buenos Aires; lives and works in Buenos Aires
N icolás Bacal plays the part of an amateur scientist, recording rhythms and plan-
etary paths through mystifying accumulations of everyday materials. He is
particularly interested in astronomy, theories of relativity, and the collapse of space and
time. Frequently using readymade materials, in particular low-tech iconography, Bacal
imbues his work with a sense of immediate familiarity and nostalgia. The artist often
employs and alters clocks and other measuring devices in his work, using them as meta-
phors for human relationships.
In his photographic compositions that make up the series The gravity of my
orbit around you (2009), measuring tapes appear to emanate outward from an orb
of light hovering above a bed, slicing like rays across cluttered interiors. These works
represent a magical transformation: the sudden bursts of light signify the accrued energy
of personal intimacies. Light Years (2008) also uses measuring tapes to gesture toward
a cosmic idea. The piece consists of twelve measuring tapes of different lengths, radiat-
ing out from a central mounting point on the wall. The work is at once a literal reference
to the hands on a clock, a solar flare, and progressive durations of time. The length of
each tape increases as the eye moves clockwise around the circle, with 10 centimeters
representing one o’clock and 120 centimeters standing for noon or midnight. The piece
also references art historical works such as Marcel Duchamp’s painting Network of XXXXXXXX
Stoppages (1914). But unlike in Duchamp’s work, there are no “stoppages” here; rather,
time is presented as a linear flow.
Milena Bonilla
born in 1975 in Bogotá; lives and works in Amsterdam
M ilena Bonilla’s discursive practice explores connections among economics,

territory, transit, and politics through everyday interventions. Her drawings,
sculptures, installations, videos, texts, public interventions, and photographs are active
investigations into our often-fallible notions of history. The artist’s current practice
involves explorations of knowledge interpreted as a work force, and of nature as an
entity colonized by language, consumed on a massive scale through images. For the last
decade or so, Bonilla’s work has specifically explored the dichotomy of the Aristotelian
categories of physis (nature) and logos (reason). The artist’s impulse to exert control over
this relationship results in political armatures that ultimately seek to limit interactions
between living systems, and to confront our biases regarding the relationships between
thought and action.
Manifesting as a direct intervention into Karl Marx’s gravesite, Stone Deaf
(2009) traces the history of the grave itself rather than the individual buried there.
For the project, Bonilla traveled to Highgate Cemetery in London and found a plaque
stating that Marx’s remains had been moved, as the result of a petition made by the
British Communist Party, from their original burial site to the main avenue of the same
cemetery in 1954. In 1956, a four-yard-high bust of Marx was unveiled at the new site.
The original gravesite can still be identified among the weeds, with its broken stone
marker announcing to visitors that Marx is not buried there any more. For Stone Deaf,
the artist decided to highlight the original plaque rather than the more elaborate,
current one. Her rubbing celebrates an anti-monument, so to speak, calling into question
Marx’s life and legacy. In addition to the rubbing, the installation also includes a video
showing ants, wasps, and a snail crawling along the cracks of the stone, obscuring the Light Years, 2008
history of Marx’s burial.
Paloma Bosquê
born in 1982 in Garça, Brazil; lives and works in São Paulo
P aloma Bosquê’s practice centers on the investigation of materiality, structure,

and physicality in different mediums. She interacts with matter directly, research-
ing its physical and symbolic relationships with space and the viewer. By working with
and modifying found objects in particular, Bosquê materializes the proposition that the
legacy of abstraction can be re-signified and converted into a meaningful contemporary
practice.
This alchemical approach to art making is manifested in Ritmo para 2 (Rhythm
for 2, 2013), for which Bosquê took found wooden frames and bound them together Ritmo para 2 (Rhythm for 2), 2013
with shiny copper Lurex thread. While this thread is common in Brazilian stores, its use
in this context transforms the discrete geometric objects into codependent forms. The
tension of the wiry thread that binds the frames parallels a tension between what is
visible and invisible, or, as the title suggests, a rhythm that relies equally on the push and
pull between two entities. In this way, the sculpture is simultaneously kinetic and inert.
Pia Camil
born in 1980 in Mexico City; lives and works in Mexico City
T hrough her installations and performance-based work, Pia Camil demonstrates a

keen interest in failure. She often explores urban ruins—decay associated with
the Mexican urban landscape, and specifically traces of modernist culture and art history
that have been left behind. By incorporating appropriation and performance methods,
Camil enacts a critical questioning of previously identified discourses, deconstructing
preestablished references in order to generate a sense of estrangement in which she can
explore the political connotations of the use of space.
Camil has made numerous paintings and photographs of halted projects along
Mexico’s highways (she calls them “highway follies”), and of abandoned billboards that
Espectacular (cortina) (Spectacular [Curtain]), 2012
look like theater curtains dramatizing failed capitalist strategies. (Espectacular, the
colloquial Spanish term for “billboard,” also translates more literally as “spectacle,” and
of course recalls Guy Debord’s famous 1967 book The Society of the Spectacle.) In Mexico,
billboards are totally integrated into the urban landscape. With overuse and reuse, they
get scrapped, reshuffled, and recycled. In Espectacular (cortina) (Spectacular [Curtain],
2012), Camil abstracts such billboards into a multicolored fabric curtain to probe the
multiple meanings of espectacular. The curtain is intended to work not only as a three-
dimensional painting, but also as a screen that obstructs or conceals another space,
causing the viewer to wonder: if nothing is on the other side of the curtain, who is the
audience and who are the actors?
Mariana
Castillo Deball
born in 1975 in Mexico City; lives in Amsterdam and Berlin
M ariana Castillo Deball uses installation, sculpture, photography, and drawing to

explore the roles objects play in our understanding of identity and history. The
artist’s research expands on the tradition of institutional critique, focusing on the politics
behind the display of archeological and ethnographic objects and the construction of
their reception. Engaging in prolonged periods of research and fieldwork, Castillo Deball
takes on the role of an explorer or archeologist, compiling found materials in ways that
reveal new connections and meanings. Drawing from ethnographic collections, libraries,
and historical archives, she focuses on archaeological objects as a means of understand-
ing how the past is constructed and reconstructed in the present.
Do ut des (2009) is part of an ongoing series of books that Castillo Deball
has altered with perforations, starting from the front page and working inward, forming
symmetrical patterns when each spread is opened. The books belong to O Mundo dos
Museus (The World of Museums), a collection conceived by the Brazilian designer
Eugênio Hirsch in the 1970s. More than simply a catalogue of artworks, each offers the
reader a promenade through a different world museum and its functioning, starting with
photo reportage of the building, its urban landscape and architecture, the management
and restoration of works, and visitors walking though the galleries. Collaged images
of people alongside artworks indicate the works’ dimensions in relation to the human
scale. The act of drilling into different institutional representations is a direct intervention
into history itself, inviting us to question its representation. The title refers to a Latin
phrase that applies to civil law, roughly translating as “I give that you may give back.”
This allusion to a form of exchange, negotiation, and reciprocity applies as much to
the relationship between the artist and the audience as to that between the artist and
Do ut des, 2009
the object. The implication that the artist is giving the viewer something so that she
will receive something back demands a level of critical reflection and interaction with
the work. With these books, Deball infers that history gives these representations to
us so that we can detour from them.
Benvenuto
Chavajay
born in 1978 in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala; lives and works in Guatemala City
B envenuto Chavajay’s body of work includes sculpture, interventions into objects,

installation, performance, and painting. The artist rearranges unconventional ma-
terials in ways that often appear innocuous at first glance, but are in fact deeply political,
based on the cancellation of objects as they relate to the violence that surrounds them.
Chavajay draws inspiration from many different contextual realities in order to produce
his work. His creative process alludes to the present context not only in Guatemala, but Jardín del Lago Atitlán, suave chapina (Lake Atitlan Garden, Soft Flip-Flop), 2014
also in Latin America and beyond, in the sense that one part always affects the whole.
Jardín del Lago Atitlán, suave chapina (Lake Atitlán Garden, Soft Flip-Flop,
2014) refers to environmental destruction, specifically the preponderance of disposable
plastics, as well as memories from the artist’s childhood. This floor sculpture consists
of shoes made of lake stones, strung with Chapina-brand flip-flop straps. Here, Chavajay
plays the natural against the synthetic, heavy against light, hard against soft, revealing
the irony of their fusion and the impossibility of their alleged function as shoes. Chavajay
grew up only yards away from Lago de Atitlán in Guatemala, where these stones were
sourced. As a child he played with such stones daily, the lake serving as a kind of kinder-
garten for him and his friends. By using the same stones in this work, the artist aims to
share both his memories and the literal traces of his childhood garden, implying its role
in shaping his artistic point of view.
Marcelo Cidade
born in 1979 in São Paulo; lives and works in São Paulo
M arcelo Cidade’s interest in art began on the streets of São Paulo, where political
and social problems are played out visually, with spray paint on concrete surfaces.
Cidade began his career as a graffiti artist, and today he continues to examine the
interplay between urbanity, architecture, and power (and, along with these, the tensions
between the modern and the postmodern). By orchestrating interventions in the built en-
vironment, he challenges the limits of the urban form. Following a generation of Brazilian
artists who are increasingly unconvinced by the ideals of modernist architecture, Cidade
produces typologies that propose and anticipate a reordering of the urban aesthetic.
His site-specific works engage with sociopolitical and socioeconomic transformations.
Occurring both in the gallery and in the streets, they often blur otherwise-fixed distinc-
tions between private and public space.
Cidade often deploys detritus from the street—concrete blocks, sections of
discarded billboards, plastic bags, old mattresses, and broken glass are among his typi-
cal materials—in the space of the white cube. Or, as in Abuso de poder (Abuse of Power,
2010), originally made for the Carrara Biennale in 2010, he may work in elegantly crafted
Carrara marble. As the title suggests, the work is an ironic commentary on the traps that
are set for us politically, economically, and socially. It asks how free we really are.
Often investigating systems of surveillance and control, Cidade is continuously
engaged with questions of how we define and protect our personal spaces, on the one
hand, and how these protections are trespassed and broken down, on the other. Adição
por subtração (Addition by Subtraction, 2010) is a beautiful and intimidating intervention
into the white cube. Cidade reinterprets the customary artwork frame by creating the Abuso de poder (Abuse of Power), 2010
same large rectangular shape out of shards of glass. This material references the spiked
walls that often surround upper-class homes in Brazil, and it acerbically comments
on the notion of creating safety by creating hazards, or creating community via exclu-
sion. Its sharp, jutting fragments confront rather than contain, inverting the language of
Modernism and the materials of dissent. The use of glass fragments is also reminiscent
of Robert Smithson’s sculpture Map of Glass (Atlantis) (1969), yet the concerns here are
very different. The work delineates an interior space and draws the viewer’s attention
through the use of aggressive materials, yet there is empty space where we would expect
an artwork to be. What is added is ultimately subtracted, and both the “artwork” and the
void of the gallery space remain equal.
Donna Conlon and

Jonathan Harker
born in 1966 in Atlanta; born in 1975 in Quito; both live and work in Panama City
D onna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, who also exhibit individually, have been
making work together since 2006, often using a playful approach to address
serious sociopolitical themes. Conlon has a background in science and sculpture, and
Harker’s is in film and media studies. Their videos merge Conlon’s use of ordinary
objects and investigations of human behavior with Harker’s irony and subversion of
conventional storytelling methods. Their playful and poetic critiques of contemporary
culture frequently use discarded objects to comment on consumption, accumulation,
climate, and the ironic beauty of waste-ridden landscapes. Specifically, they examine
contradictions in the construction of Panamanian national identity, as well as political
and societal disparities between Central America and the United States.
In Tapitapultas (Capapults, 2012), Conlon and Harker comment on mass
consumerism and pollution by way of a game they invented. The artists used disposable
spoons as catapults to shoot thousands of plastic bottle caps at a hole in a concrete
platform. The platform was once part of a U.S. military installation in the Panama Canal
Zone, and it is now an observation deck in a nature park. As the video comes to an
end, the viewer discovers that the bottle caps that fell through the hole accumulated on
the forest floor, forming a giant mountain of synthetic waste in the natural landscape. Tapitapultas (Capapults), 2012
Nicolás
Consuegra
born in 1976 in Bucaramanga, Colombia; lives in Bogotá
N icolás Consuegra explores the contradictions of modern visual culture through

his photographs, sculptures, paintings, and installations. Much of his work
deals with subtle differences between one thing and another, whether they are visual
differences or semiotic shifts. He creates visual games specifically intended to engage
with Modernism’s crisply defined aesthetics. Consuegra’s shrewd alterations expose
the superficiality of our shared understanding of the mid-twentieth century, calling into
question our perception of reality and temporality.
In his project Instituto de visión (Vision Institute, 2008), consisting of a total
of twelve giclée prints, Consuegra explores how Modernism gave rise to many new
technological forms of vision, most notably the camera, and also resulted in the disap-
pearance of outmoded forms of vision. As a metaphor for this process, he looks to the
afterlife of the image as evidenced in signs. When a company goes out of business or
moves, its sign often lingers and slowly fades, leaving a ghosted image. Through this
exploration of the relics of visual experience, he questions what gains and losses came
out of the charged moments that brought these signs into being.
Nadie sabe de la sed con que otro bebe (No One Knows the Thirst with Which
Another Drinks, 2012) is an arrangement of cut glasses arranged in front of a mirror
so that they appear whole. The title is a popular saying that affirms how it is impossible
to understand what difficulties another person is going through. Further, it suggests
that experience, subject to the relationships among individuals, time, and place—three
mercurial elements in their own right—is by definition subjective, and therefore Sin título (avisos esfumados) (Untitled [Ghost Signs]), from the project Instituto de visión (Vision Institute), 2008
untransmittable.
Minerva Cuevas
M inerva Cuevas’s socially engaged practice encompasses a range of strategies

and mediums, including film, installation, performance, and site-specific public
intervention. Cuevas aims to provide insight into the complex economic and political
structures of the social realm, offering playful possibilities for their subversion. Often
manifesting as small but poignant interruptions into the everyday realm, Cuevas’s
modest acts infiltrate and disrupt economic and social systems, drawing attention to
the aesthetics of popular imagery such as corporate branding, political symbols and
slogans, and even comic books.
During her research on primitive currencies and cultural cannibalism, Cuevas
came across the Donald Duck comic book issue “The Stone Money Mystery,” where
Donald goes on a quest to find missing museum objects. Cuevas’s America (2006) is
a wall painting of a comic Donald Duck wallowing in a heap of gold coins, alluding to
Mexico’s postrevolutionary mural tradition. The mural’s background is one of the earliest
illustrations of flora and fauna in the American continent, juxtaposed with a reference America, 2006
to America as having bountiful natural resources available to be exploited, and the

historical use of comics as ideological tools. The piece also recalls the politics of the
Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco
filtered through contemporary narratives of identity, otherness, and power. Driven first
by multiculturalism in the United States, then by globalization worldwide, it also refers
to the notorious book How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney
Comic, originally published during the Chilean revolution as Para Leer al Pato Donald
before it was banned and burned. Writing from exile in 1975, the authors signed the
preface to the English edition as follows: “Mr. Disney, we are returning your Duck.
Feathers plucked and well-roasted. Look inside, you can see the handwriting on the
wall, our hands still writing on the wall: Donald, Go Home!”
Elena Damiani
born in Lima in 1979; lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark
T ransforming found materials into collages, sculptures, videos, and installations,

Elena Damiani critically addresses our understanding of the present via the
potentiality of images from the past. She is interested in revising subjects such as geol-
ogy, archaeology, and cartography—by reworking materials such as books, photographs,
video footage, and public records—in order to stage fictions where multiple topographies
and times unfold together, hovering between an indeterminate past and present. She
aims to explore the ways in which specific materials can be staged as incomplete and
ambiguous when extracted from their contexts, then recomposed into works that
point out the manipulability of cultural objects and information, thereby forming new
memory paths and connections.
Intersticio (Interstice, 2014) traces the topography of a non-specific site, an
in-between zone. The video presents a panoramic view of two territories of a shifting
and unresolved character, composed out of segmented events that visually intersect
at a shared horizon point. Over the images, a fragmented and ambiguous poetic
narration describes, by means of images found in digital archives, a hybrid site that
permutes the representation of nature through its fusion of source material. The sense
of permanent wandering designates an excursion with no precise destination, a mental
place of fractured limits with an amplitude larger than any physical location. This
trajectory appears to be dictated by the circumstances of an open field, where concrete
places are now only points along a route, and the in-between moments that mark a
continuous state of transition are the ultimate destination. With Intersticio, Damiani
presents a journey to a territory comparable to contemporary space—a world so ample
that the spatial and temporal coordinates essential to historicity fade, throwing our
Intersticio (Interstice), 2014
impressions of reality into question.
Ximena
Garrido-Lecca
born in 1980 in Lima; lives and works in Lima and London
X imena Garrido-Lecca examines the turbulent history of Peru, and specifically how
neocolonial standards are transmitted through processes of globalization. The
artist approaches her works by scrutinizing urban, rural, and vernacular architecture, con-
centrating on spaces where a mediatory materiality is visible between the specific and
the universal. Equally important is the memory of artisanal tradition and the abandonment
of rural spaces as an aftereffect of the processes of modernization. Her work insinuates
a permanent tension between the inheritance of vernacular culture and the new demands
of industrialization, signaling the violence contained in an accelerated transnational eco-
nomic model in increasingly open confrontation with the protection of the environment,
sovereignty, and respect for different community lifestyles.
Destilaciones (Distillations, 2014) is an installation composed of a group of
ceramic pots, presented on the floor and within a steel structure. Copper pipes run
through the perforated ceramics, evoking the design of an oil purifier. The work is a
direct reference to the history of the Peruvian coastal town of Lobitos. The extraction of
oil began in Lobitos at the start of the twentieth century, with the arrival of the British
oil company Lobitos Oilfields Limited. The infrastructure built alongside the plant
included a desalination plant (now defunct), a church, a casino, and a cinema (one of
the first in Latin America), all now in ruins. Following a 1968 military coup, the Peru-
vian government initiated a program of nationalization and the oil fields fell under the
control of the state. The Ministry of Defence built a military base on the adjacent land.
Soon, a slow decline due to mismanagement sent the town into economic collapse,
mirroring the economy nationally. Today one encounters the ruins of buildings left by
the British oil company; the debris of what used to be the old military base; and the
traffic of surfers that come every year in search of waves. Currently, the oil extraction is
concessioned to South American Petroleum Exploration Tech (Sapet), a transnational
company funded mainly with Chinese capital. There is also a major investment plan to
privatize the town, proposing a transformation of Lobitos into a tourist resort.
Destilaciones portrays these different waves of colonialism and the exercise
of authoritarian power within the context of a developing country. By tracing economic
and political cycles, the artist intends to register the residue of human activity within
the landscape. Environmental and social issues are presented in relation to the modern
exploitation of resources and localized ancient practices such as fishing and pottery.
The three epochs of political domination that have left their mark on Lobitos—European
colonialism, the nation-state autonomy, and neoliberal globalization—have all left behind
remnants of their failure. Destilaciones (Distillations), 2014
Federico Herrero
born in 1978, San José, Costa Rica; lives and works in San José
F ederico Herrero makes colorful paintings, often on walls and as murals. Whether
they depict recognizable objects or are more generally abstract, they are consistent
in the qualities of their shapes, fields of color, and all-over markings. Herrero’s works
are full of energy and life, hovering somewhere between painted-over graffiti and paint-
erly abstraction. The artist’s gestural work reflects his experiences on the streets of his Volumen, 2015
native San José, Costa Rica, and in the surrounding tropical landscape. Rooted in Central
American folklore, politics, and culture, his works often move beyond the canvas onto the
wall or into the streets.
Voluspa Jarpa
born in 1971 in Rancagua, Chile; lives and works in Santiago
V oluspa Jarpa’s work is based upon a meticulous analysis of political, historical,

and social documents from Chile and other Latin American countries, which
she uses to develop a reflection on the concept of memory. Specifically exploring many
facets of the cultural notion of trauma, her work might be seen as a subtle and covert
examination of history, its subjectivities, constructions, and still-unresolved myster-
ies. Her work addresses such subjects as displacement, insecurity, abandonment, and
destruction, and the means of representation of the pictorial image that represents these
subjects in history.
Fantasmática Latinoamericana (Ghostly Latin American, 2014) confronts
antagonistic notions of utopia and dystopia as they developed in Latin America’s recent
history through an analysis of the suspicious deaths (all still under investigation) of five
Latin American presidents. João Goulart was president of Brazil until a coup d’etat de-
posed him in 1964; he was then killed in 1976 during Operation Condor. Salvador Allende
was president of Chile from 1970 to 1973, when he died in the context of a coup d’état
supposedly backed by the CIA and still under investigation. Juan José Torres served
as president of Bolivia from 1970 to 1971, and was killed in 1976 as part of Operation
Condor. Jaime Roldós was president of Ecuador from 1979 until his death in an airplane
crash in 1981, which is investigated as being possibly the result of an attack. Omar
Torrijos, former president of Panama, died in an airplane crash also, and the documents
related to his death disappeared in 1989.
Each of these politicians launched a political and economic program that was
in opposition to U.S. interests in the region. Self-governance, Socialist public policies,
the extraction of copper and oil, and the management of the Panama Canal were some
of the conflictual issues between their governments and the U.S. administration. The five
paintings that comprise Fantasmática Latinoamericana are displayed perpendicularly
to the wall and show the processions and the crowds present during the public funerals
of these presidents, revealing the strong impact of their deaths in the citizens’ minds Fantasmática Latinoamericana (Ghostly Latin American), 2014
and the sociopolitical consequences that ensued.
To make Minimal Secret (2012), Jarpa created sculptures based on pages of
declassified CIA information about the United States’ involvement in Chile. The cutouts
in the acrylic represent the content that was blacked out when the pages were released
to the public. For Jarpa, that so much content from these documents was deleted before
declassification is symptomatic of hysterical behavior, which, in Freudian psychoanaly-
sis, results from the inability to deal with trauma. Jarpa reclaims the blots of the original
documents as the structure of the artwork, mimicking the same denial of access that
entered them into classification in the first place. By working at the juncture of the public
and the secret, the artist aims to question how images and materials construct notions
of public and private, transparency and opacity. The documents’ promise of disclosure
ultimately materializes as repression, given that barely anything remains legible.
Runo Lagomarsino
born in 1977 in Lund, Sweden; lives and works between São Paulo and Malmö, Sweden
R uno Lagomarsino was born in Scandinavia to Argentinian parents descended from

Italian émigrés who fled Europe during the First World War; his own biography thus
charts some of the same colonial histories that his work examines. Keenly aware of the
If You Don’t Know What the South Is, It’s Simply Because You Are from the North (poster version), 2009
conceptual implications within a range of materials and mediums, Lagomarsino moves
seamlessly between collage, drawing, installation, performance, and video. Committed
to striking a balance between strident political argument and carefully considered formal
composition, he examines how the overlapping histories of Spain’s conquest of the “New
World” and the modernist ideal of progress can be linked to contemporary events.
An earlier work by the artist titled Geometry of Hope (2007) displays the type-
written phrase, “If you don’t know what the south is / It’s simply because you are from
the north,” reminding readers to consider the personal and cultural lenses through which
they view the rest of the world. For this exhibition, a poster version (2009) reproducing
this same phrase is made available to viewers as a takeaway reminder that geography and
orientation are relative concepts, and that the “othering” tendency perpetuates a colonial-
ist problematic.
Adriana Lara
born in 1978 in Mexico City; lives in Mexico City
A driana Lara is fascinated by how a single thing (an object, a photograph, a song,
a text) can be transformed into a work of art. This process does not relate to
formal alteration or the application of expert skill, but rather to a simple act of articula-
tion. Rather than relying on the physical creation of something new, this becomes that
(namely, art) because the artist declares it to be so. This special kind of alchemy imbues
all of Lara’s objects with a restless ambiguity. Much like her art, Lara is something of a
shape-shifter herself, moving between the roles of artist, curator, musician, and writer
whenever it suits her needs.
Lara uses things readily at hand to create objects and situations that interro-
gate the processes of art and the spectrum of roles that art and artists play in society.
To these ends, she has used furniture, projections, photographs, clothing, and even
people as her materials. A reflection on how the production of meaning itself takes place
in the manufacturing of things is embodied in wooden hand chairs, a crafty Indonesian
version of the iconic Pedro Friedeberg 1960s Pop design. Facing one another and pulling
a tight thread between their fingers as if playing a game, The Thinkers (2014) is a magni-
fied version of the practice of weaving, with the hand as the primary technological tool.
Part readymade, part joke, and part examination of the role of the artist, the significance
of this simple gesture hinges on the feeling of discontinuity, the shift in consciousness,
The Thinkers, 2014
that it provokes.
Engel Leonardo
born in 1977 in Baní, Dominican Republic; lives and works in Santo Domingo
W orking with various mediums, from sculpture to installation, site-specific

interventions, and readymades, Engel Leonardo addresses issues related to the
climate, nature, traditional crafts, architecture, and popular culture of the Caribbean.
His works show a particular investment in objects—their gestures, and their creation and
production processes—as well as the psychological and sociological discourses implicit
within them. Leonardo carries out continual processes of research and observation of his
environment. From the city of Santo Domingo, where he lives and works, to the periph-
Sin título (Untitled), 2011
eral urban centers and remote rural communities of the island, which he has visited on
multiple occasions, his artistic production and daily experience are closely linked.
As with so many other colonized geographies, the ways in which violence has
become a natural and expected component of Santo Domingo reflects the forced friend-
ship between the beneficiaries and residues of Modernism. What distinguishes these
two communities? What separates them? Bars, naturally. In this untitled work, Leonardo
cages everyday household items in steel bars as a metaphor for this condition. Only
those who have something valuable to protect can afford such restrictive barring sys-
tems, which are viewed almost as status symbols. Even when they are unnecessary, their
ubiquity creates a sinister picture of success. Not only does the proliferation of these
bars negate their own visibility, but it also points to a paranoid future where everything
one owns becomes “embellished” as something to be seen but not used.
Valentina Liernur
born in 1978 in Buenos Aires; lives and works in Buenos Aires
V alentina Liernur’s training as an actor and playwright imbues her paintings with
a complex theatrical aspect. Her painting style functions performatively and
resolutely in relation to different circumstances, indicating an unfixed and perpetually
provisional identity. In recent years, Liernur has defined herself as a “hysteric subject”
whose work not only courses through various art-historical styles, but also mixes those
references with elements taken from fashion, an almost subliminal strategy of seduction
that escapes any historicist solemnity. Less interested in the development or improve-
ment of a singular technique, Liernur often rejects paintbrushes in favor of objects such
as screwdrivers, small sticks, fingers, kitchen gloves, or whatever else is lying around
to apply paint to canvas.
In the group of paintings titled Corruzione (Corruption, 2014), nude bodies
star in erotic scenarios involving a riding crop, a sword, and anonymously groping hands.
Taken from a graphic novel by Guido Crepax (Valentina, 1965), which narrates the psy-
chedelic, time-traveling sexual adventures of a fashion photographer, Liernur’s images
transpose this vintage sexual liberation material to fast, thinly painted layers of oil paint
and a narrow range of bruiselike shadowy purples. Blurring the boundaries between
work and play, emancipation and enslavement, possession and projection, these deca-
dent scenes offer up the body as a sort of “flesh antenna” for painting, while transmitting
the cartoonish and retro qualities of freedom and desire under accelerated conditions
of reification. Corruzione (Corruption), 2014
Mateo López
born in 1978 in Bogotá; lives and works in between Bogotá and New York
T hough he often works with paper and traditional techniques such as lithography,
Mateo López is interested in expanding the scope of drawing and frequently oper-
ates outside of traditional studio situations to conjure personal experiences. His early
studies in architecture equipped him to consider his medium in terms of time and space, Roca Carbón (Charcoal Rock) and Roca Grafito (Graphite Rock), 2012
and in three rather than two dimensions. The portability of López’s methods, along with
his personal approach to collecting information from his personal journeys, has become
a trademark of his installations. Drawings and trompe l’oeil objects, ranging from apples
to clothing hangers to doors, extend beyond their sources of inspiration as sensuous
entities, creating their own life in a Proustian narrative.
With Roca Carbon (Charcoal Rock, 2012) and Roca Grafito (Graphite Rock,
2012), López plays with our relationship to inert and unremarkable objects such as rocks.
Traces of art history reverberate through the sculptures; their mediums reflect traditional
materials for drawing and sketching, and the simplicity of their forms gesture toward
minimalism. But López dislocates these common objects from their ordinary utility by
replicating their component parts in paper, graphite, and charcoal, thus drawing atten-
tion to mechanisms of representation and translation.
Renata Lucas
born in 1971 in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil; lives and works in São Paulo
R enata Lucas is interested in the social and behavioral implications of spatial

constructions—how alterations, tamperings, and interventions in the built environ-
ment, for instance gallery or museum architecture, might impact relations between
particular individuals and the overall social dynamics that play out in that space. Influ-
enced by the makeshift nature of Brazilian construction, Lucas’s interventions operate
subtly, by interjecting difference into the normal routine. They reveal possibilities for
different social structures—ones that are less rigid and more playful, and ones in which
the individual has a voice in their shaping.
For this exhibition, Lucas adapted an existing work specifically for the Museum
of Contemporary Art Detroit. Invisible Man (2008) is a mailbox in a wall adjacent to the
museum’s entrance. It creates a new form of communication by enabling the mailperson,
or anyone else, to “post” any material that might fit through the gap directly into the
exhibition. The art space is thus rendered permeable, recontextualized. The piece also
nods to the history of mail art in Brazil, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a way
Invisible Man, 2008
of creating networks and escaping censorship.
Nicolas Paris
born in 1977 in Bogotá; lives in Bogotá
T he Colombian artist Nicolás Paris was trained as both an architect and an educator.
He worked as an elementary school teacher before deciding to become an art-
ist, and his work often reflects this dual background, ranging as it does from workshops,
dialogues, and exchanges to environments, drawings, and sculpture. He is interested in
spaces that foster dialogue, and his works often require activation by audiences, combin-
ing architectural structures, text-based assignments or activities, and accumulations of
objects that can somehow be used.
Metaphors of the presence or conversations at the speed of light (2011–12) is a
sculpture of lightbulbs that the artist altered. In the first instance, the filament itself has
been removed and replaced with three overlapping circles of paper. The circles represent
a Venn diagram color chart, a common teaching tool that shows how the primary colors
can be combined to yield the rest of the spectrum. Much like Amalia Pica’s Memorial
for intersections #2, Paris celebrates and liberates the subversive potential behind this
geometric symbol. The artwork occurs as an intervention into the physical space of
the gallery, with certain functioning lightbulbs interspersed with the altered lights and Metaphors of the presence or conversations at the speed of light, 2011–12
affixed to motion sensors that require visitor’s movement to activate the installation.
Paris reveals in this delicate sculpture the powerful potential for a rainbow of possibility.
Amalia Pica
born in 1978 in Neuquén, Argentina; lives and works in London
A malia Pica describes herself as an outsider, in the sense that she is an Argentine
artist living and working in an art world that is still largely dominated by the same
nations that colonized the globe centuries ago. But Pica is not the kind of outsider who
stands by sullenly and criticizes; she’s more like the quirky character spouting wit and
wisdom from the peripheries of the stage. Her works often engage with the idea of being
out of place and out of time—staging the aftermath of a celebration rather than the party
itself, for example—all the while maintaining an attitude of bemused observation.
Memorial for intersections #2 (2013) is a minimalist, black metallic structure
that contains the brightly colored translucent circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares
that originally were presented in Pica’s performance work A ∩ B ∩ C (2013). When read
as A intersection B intersection C, this piece references the fact that, during the last
dictatorship in Argentina (1976–83), the military junta forbade Venn diagrams, and the
related concept of intersection, from being taught in elementary schools, because they
were viewed as potentially subversive. In A ∩ B ∩ C, Pica invited performers to manipu-
late translucent, colored Perspex shapes, producing new configurations that used the
Memorial for intersections #2, 2013
idea of intersection to reimagine collaboration and community.
This work enacts the very role that its title suggests, asking how a performance
can become a sculpture. The structure transforms the original human performative ges-
tures into cold, stylized frames that indeed memorialize something that was once living.
If most memorials are monuments—that is, embedded in rich substrata of symbolic refer-
ences—then Memorials for intersections are delicate and literal tributes to the truisms of
math. Borrowing from minimalist and constructivist traditions, the memorials are simple,
almost sophomoric, in the directness of their shapes and colors. While fixed in place,
the transparent geometric panels hanging on the frame shift in tone throughout the day,
responding to changes in light and reverberating with the live actions that led to their
conception.
Pablo Rasgado
born in 1984 in Zapopan, Mexico; lives and works in Mexico City
P ablo Rasgado is a painter. Rather than applying paint to canvas, however, he applies
entire preexisting layers of pigment from anonymous rough and worn-out street
walls, or from carefully designed and highly maintained museum walls, and presents the
canvases as “found paintings.” But “finding” these works is only one step in a complex
process that includes selection, physical appropriation, transportation, and reassembly.
Rasgado’s paintings and installations serve as a visual record of contemporary urban
human life. Wandering through Mexico City and other major cities, Rasagado extracts
moments of intrigue in the dirt and debris and deploys them in the gallery. Raw materials
thus become abstract paintings, which are both actively engaged with the site of their
origin and politically and socially charged.
Rasgado is profoundly interested in investigating the past, and how materi-
als serve as evidence of the passage of time. For example, his Unfolded Architecture
(2011) series is made from recuperated fragments of drywall that the artist selected
from various art venues, reconfiguring them to form flat rectangular compositions that
resemble—and indeed become—abstract paintings. Avenida Corona del Rosal #1, #2, and
#3 (2011) are sections of wall extracted from the Mexico City street named in the title.
Avenida Corona del Rosal #1, #2, and #3, 2011
The wall has been “painted” with an accumulation of by-products of automobiles—diesel
soot, dirt, tire and brake particles—to create an ironically poetic and beautiful portrait
of the pollution that ravishes this street. In the layers of accumulated detritus, Rasgado
sees the history of that avenue and, ultimately, a document of contemporary urban life.
Using the strappo technique, a process developed during the Renaissance to move a
fresco from one location to another, he extracted the top layers of the wall and applied
them to a canvas backing. This process of dislocation creates a tension between realism
and abstraction: the works have the appearance of abstract paintings, yet they present
something real, but nonrepresentational, and not even artistic until the artist deemed
them readymades. Rasgado’s work takes the idea of painting back to its basics (paint on
a surface) while still pushing it to its limit by removing all traces of his hand and inten-
tionality (at least in the traditional sense) from the process.
Pedro Reyes
P edro Reyes’s works traverse the worlds of art, film, architecture, design, social
criticism, and pedagogy. Educated as an architect, Reyes draws on this training
to engage with utopian aspirations and the ongoing legacy of Modernism, often focus-
ing on issues of scale and space while questioning pressing social issues through
the incitement of individual or collective interaction. Although only a few of his works
are directly located within the practice of building, almost all involve some kind of
construction, whether they are objects, models, interiors, or social spaces. Reyes also
makes use of strategies developed for communication or education, as well as everyday
humor, to engage his audiences. Many of his works either allow large-scale public
engagement or suggest a possible use: weapons turned to shovels, multilevel parks in
old modernist buildings, and small spherical rooms. Like many avant-garde thinkers of
the past, Reyes constructs new forms of architecture necessary for new ways of life.
Los Mutantes (Mutants, 2012) is composed of 170 plates that combine charac-
ters from ancient and modern mythologies. As in a periodic table, animals and objects
are combined with humans (male or female), providing a rational framework for the
irrational products of human imagination. A Cartesian matrix such as this must follow
certain rules. All figures are half-human, half-something. Animal/cartoon characters
that speak, such as Fritz the Cat or Donald Duck, are excluded, as well as oddities and
chimeras without recognizable human features. Their arrangement results in combina-
tions such as fish plus woman equals mermaid; bull plus man equals minotaur, and so
on. The juxtapositions cross figures from pop culture with those from ancient myths,
encouraging us to notice similarities between religious icons and comic-book characters. Los Mutantes (The Mutants), 2012
All of these “mutants” reveal something about our desire to extract qualities of animals or
objects and empower ourselves with them. Mythologies are a reflection of the paradigms
of their time, and this kind of periodic table presents a rational framework to categorize
irrational products of the imagination.
Gabriel Sierra
born in 1975 in San Juan Nepomuceno, Colombia; lives and works in Bogotá
T he work of the Colombian artist Gabriel Sierra operates at the intersection between
art and design. His earlier works took into account functional archetypes and
space, leading him to call his sculptures “parafunctional” objects. These works embody
his observations of different aspects of Colombian domestic environments and his inter-
est in translating vernacular beliefs into conceptually sharp structures that speak to an
international audience. Speaking of his work, the artist says, “For me it is important to
understand how concepts that give origin to the objects evolve, when they change their
time, context, and place—how ideas, form, and matter are manipulated and grow old.”
This untitled work consists of a sliced apple with a dollar bill inserted into the
cut. The artist often uses fruit in his work because he considers it basic to a globalized
context: apples are common and familiar all around the world, despite their central Sin título (Untitled), 2006–8
Asian origin and the fact that the majority are grown in the northern hemisphere. Fruit
is also often used to explain central concepts in science and math (for instance Isaac
Newton using an apple to illustrate the law of gravity) and has frequently served as a
representation of beauty in the history of still-life painting. Perhaps one of the earliest
documentations of the apple is the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, which became
symbolic of corruption and temptation. Following the implications of this narrative,
with this work the artist suggests that trade and economic consumption have in turn
corrupted the apple, exploiting it for the purpose of making more money. The integration
of the dollar bill evokes the fantasy of a globalized economy and the inextricability of
objects from value.
Daniel
Steegmann
Mangrané
Low Res
born in 1977 in Barcelona; lives and works in Rio de Janeiro
D aniel Steegmann Mangrané’s practice involves various mediums and creates subtle,
poetic, but inevitably raw experiments that question the position of language in the
world. Although primarily conceptual in nature, his installations engage the imagination
of the spectator and display a strong concern with the existence and features of concrete
objects. Steegmann Mangrané activates abstract language as a thought-generating prin-
ciple that articulates unstable meanings. Of equal importance to his work is the question
of circulation and exchange between the body and the natural environment.
In the hologram Mano con hojas (Hand with Leaves, 2013), nature is portrayed
simultaneously as an interconnected system of processes and the essence of the uni-
verse. A change in the understanding of nature challenges the understanding of our own
natures. The visual metaphor of the human hand enmeshed and inextricably entangled
with leaves suggests that humans cannot be divorced from nature, and moreover that they Mano con hojas (Hand with Leaves), 2013
are always engaging with the problematic of overtaking nature or being overtaken by it.
Each technological advance modifies our understanding of both natures, from the ancient
Greek notion of physis to the current multiverse of human history.
Clarissa Tossin
born in 1973 in Porto Alegre, Brazil; lives and works in Los Angeles
C larissa Tossin’s photographs, videos, and installations are active investigations

into the workings of urban planning and labor politics. The artist draws poignant
parallels among historical events, creating engaging narratives that are also often
subversive. Many of her works are concerned with what could be called a topography
of place.
In Fordlândia Fieldwork (2012), Tossin documents the remains of Henry Ford’s
rubber enterprise Fordlândia, built in 1928 in the Brazilian Amazon to export cultivated
rubber for the booming automobile industry. When his rubber trees died from disease
and his primarily indigenous workforce revolted, his enterprise went bust within a few
short years. Ford never faulted his own planning, but instead blamed the “inhospitable”
Brazilian landscape. These topographical maps present different locations related to
Fordlândia Fieldwork, 2012
Fordlândia’s history: a current Fordlândia satellite image of the abandoned rubber planta-
tion built by Ford in 1928, juxtaposed with postindustrial landscapes from Detroit, Dallas,
and Los Angeles, is printed on the back side of the folded map-sculpture.
Adrián
Villar Rojas
born in 1980 in Rosario, Argentina; lives and works in Buenos Aires
T he Argentine artist Adrián Villar Rojas is known for his large-scale, site-specific
sculptural installations that transform their environs into a vision of a new potential
future. Much of his work imagines the end of human civilization and of his own life, and
he constructs his monuments in anticipation of that inevitability. Employing a unique
Work from the series Las Mariposas Eternas (Eternal Butterflies), 2010
mixture of cement and clay, he designs his sculptures to crumble while on view, thereby
invoking popular conceptions of historical ruins. His works combine the daunting
scale of conventional public sculpture with a precarious fragility, keeping viewers mind-
ful of the ephemerality of even the most imposing monoliths, both resisting decay and
celebrating it.
This drawing is part of a larger series entitled Las Mariposas Eternas (Eternal
Butterflies, 2010). They are studies for large sculptures that explore the role of monu-
ments and emblems in the configuration of Latin American national identities. It shows
a Japanese anime character riding a monster, suggesting what an equestrian monument
might look like in a globalized future.
Carla Zaccagnini
born in 1973 in Buenos Aires; lives and works in São Paulo
C arla Zaccagnini uses a variety of media and techniques—from drawing to installa-

tion, performance, text, video, exhibition curating, and written criticism—to explore
strategies of displacement. Zaccagnini views these multiple activities as mutually consti-
tutive forms of inquiry that overlap to form a holistic, conceptually driven art practice.
Often working by recontextualizing existing objects and ideas, she prompts viewers to
Sobre la igualdad y las diferencias: casas gemelas (On Equality and Differences: Twin Houses), 2005
question the limitations of language and representation, the fallibility of perception, and
the construction of knowledge.
These photographs, Sobre la igualdad y las diferencias: casas gemelas (On
Equality and Differences: Twin Houses), taken in Havana in 2005, belong to a wider
group of works that the artist has been developing over many years, generally titled
Bifurcaciones y encrucijadas (Forking Paths and Crossroads). These works are dedicated
to the collection and investigation of similarities and singularities. Some focus on things
that are supposed or expected to be identical, but end up being slightly different. Others
focus on things that ought to be different but somehow obey similar principles. They
examine these issues on a temporal basis, for instance depicting groups of houses that
were built to be the same but have been changed over the years according to the tastes,
needs, and capabilities of their inhabitants. A playful, poetic quality underlies these
displacements and juxtapositions, signifying subtle transformations of the everyday.
92 93
An Incomplete Glossary
of Latin America
In 1993, Paulo Herkenhoff wrote an “Incomplete Glossary of Sources of Latin American Art” as
a companion to the catalogue for the exhibition Cartographies curated by Ivo Mesquita at the
Winnipeg Art Gallery. Herkenhoff’s text was a collection of sarcastic, occasionally humorous
“definitions” of terms related to Latin American art. Unaware of this precedent, in 2003 Pablo
León de la Barra wrote “How to Be a Proper Latin American Artist,” a non-alphabetical glossary
that served as a companion to the exhibition he curated at apexart in New York, To Be Political
It Has to Look Nice. In 2015, Jens Hoffman published (Curating) From A to Z, a book summariz-
ing the development of curatorial practice over the last two decades. For United States of Latin
America, Hoffmann and León de la Barra invited curators and artists active in Latin America to
define words or concepts related to the region today.
A ANTRO P OFA G IA encounters with and devouring of

alterity. In the words of the author
Synonymous with “cannibalism,” of its manifesto, antropofagia was
the term was used by the Brazil- an invitation to digest all foreign
ian poet and writer Oswald de values in order to create one’s own
Andrade (1890–1954) in his 1928 identity: “I am only interested in
“Manifesto Antropófago” to mean what is not mine. Law of man. Law
cultural appropriation, a kind of of the anthropophagus.”
cultural cannibalism. Under the
umbrella of his philosophy, the —Inti Guerrero
Antropofagia avant-garde move-
ment represented the attitude B B ORDER
of a group of modern painters,
sculptors, and writers based in Borders are fundamentally con-
São Paulo who self-consciously nected to the nation state as
mixed and layered references, juridical and geopolitical markers.
origins, and genealogies found in But following decades of global-
the Americas within a territory and ization branded as “free trade,”
a population that shared a mixed which has led to statelessness and
indigenous, African, and European dispersal for many, is the image or
lineage. Their proposition regard- iconography of the border (as wall,
ed an individual’s identity as an for example) or the use of a term
everlasting mutant process of its such as “border art” still relevant?
94 An Incomplete Glossary of Latin America 95 United States of Latin America
In the late twentieth century, an all-encompassing feeling that ences, incorporating politics, irony, external interests than as indi-
Latino and Latin American artists can only be understood in context. and humor. vidual personality-cult dictators.
addressed forced migration, the People, things, and situations can To paraphrase the As such, their effects remain
continual obliteration of human be chévere, as well as something Cheverista Manifesto, what is more occult and pernicious.
rights of indigenous populations, or someone who is cool, held in chévere never dies; it transforms They were a front not only for
and the increasing militarization in high esteem, agreeable, excellent, itself. This untranslatable word the temporary institutionaliza-
the Americas through border art or awesome, good, nice, benevolent, can be transmitted orally or tele- tion of state terror and explicit
art about the border. Border theory or magnanimous. Somehow, how- pathically. Its origin is Caribbean, violence, but also for the creeping
developed in fascinating ways ever, none of those words actually but it can exist anywhere. coercion of the social and eco-
after the Texas-born Chicana poet do chévere any justice. It is a word nomic norms that allow inequality
Gloria Anzaldúa expanded dis- that belongs to places without —Marina Reyes Franco to operate fluidly today.
cussions of the border to include seasonal changes, most likely a
queerness and liminality. Cur- perpetually tropical, sticky-hot city D DICTATOR S —Isobel Whitelegg
rently, artists as well as academics or town. Or at least it seems like
are rethinking the logics of borders that is where it originated. While An association between the terms E E X P L OTACIÓN
beyond their apparent role as tools its etymology is uncertain, it pos- “Latin America” and “dictators”
of exclusion and violence, and sibly originates from the Igbo word begins with the archetype of the I live in the gas, blood, and cash
shifting their aesthetic and criti- sebede or the Efik chébere (these early-twentieth-century caudillo flow of a petroleum and trans-
cal engagement to focus on the are both Nigerian peoples). The (“little chief”), using militarism shipment economy that once also
subjectivities of those displaced by slave trade seems to have cement- and magnetism to impose order produced sugar. Exploitation is
or in conflict with the terms and ed the use of the word, as there is and development on newly in- a social condition. It brings up
codes of border regimes. record of its use in Cuba in the late dependent nations. The strong terms such as “territory,” “labor,”
eighteenth century. It is also used man emerged early on as a more and “raw materials.” It is the logic
This entry draws from the thinking of a in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Re- workable alternative to the revolu- within modernity—that shiny,
working group made up of Maribel Casas-Cortés,
Sebastian Cobarrubias, Nicholas De Genova, public, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, tionary, but it is more recent his- omnivorous, boldfaced creature
Glenda Garelli, Giorgio Grappi, Charles Heller, El Salvador, and Ecuador. It is used tory that propels the word dictator that whips and cuts people and
Sabine Hess, Bernd Kasparek, Sandro Mezzadra, wherever salsa music is popular. into a contemporary frame of locations into shape, makes them
Brett Neilson, Irene Peano, Lorenzo Pezzani,
John Pickles, Federico Rahola, Lisa Riedner, A certain chévere ap- reference. From the 1950s to the useful. The Caribbean, where I
Stephan Scheel, and Martina Tazzioli. proach infiltrated the art world 1980s, with technical support am from, is central to the origin
through the curators Beatriz López from the United States, right- of this condition, as a shifting
—Rita Gonzalez and Pablo León de la Barra, who wing military leaders seized power fiction in perpetual construction
came up with the term cheverismo by force in Paraguay, Argentina, for an ongoing sequence of
C C H É V ERE while waiting for a flight at Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Brazil transactions between those for
Bogotá’s El Dorado airport (an association that became a whom it is profitable. The people
In a 1986 interview with Ernesto in 2008. Cheveristas are an elastic named campaign, Operation who were conscripted into that
McCausland in the Colombian community of transnational artists Condor, in 1975). Unlike their exchange as property/slaves,
newspaper El Heraldo, the cel- and cultural agents operating in predecessors (and different too then subjects of various kingdoms,
ebrated salsa singer Héctor Lavoe Latin America and beyond who from the present-day regimes then citizens, still understand
famously said, “It’s chévere to be work from their local circumstanc- of Hugo Chávez or Fidel and that contest. They understand
great, but it’s even greater to be es and interests with a critical Raúl Castro), this generation oper- the logic of being excluded,
chévere.” This word encapsulates view of clichés and imposed influ- ated more as puppets for but only if they despairingly
participate by replicating its work was deeply influenced by of the thugs, and in the coffers of Tania Bruguera reads Hannah
profitability. the vernacular culture of Brazil’s the political parties that govern Arendt
Every time I see that northeastern region, rejected us, in the same way that it did five
small green tin with the reclining folklore as a category created hundred years ago. El Dorado, like —Elvis Fuentes
lion and the words “Out of the by dominant discourses in favor the cacique Morequito with his
strong came forth sweetness,” of “the uneasy and dangerous open body covered in gold dust, I INDI G ENI S MO
for example, I wonder why, as positions of peripheral culture.” escapes from us, as unreachable
an artist, I do not have a free pass Arte popular denotes practices as the sun in every sunset. A moving force that circulates
to the Tate for the rest of my life. connected to the everyday needs around a sense of belonging.
Or wonder why nothing like it of a population, and to non-alien- —Luis Romero Indigenism isn’t necessarily
exists on the sweaty side of that ation and possibilities in every determined by racial or territorial
illusion: here. But then, do we sense. H H A V ANA categories, and it has changed
really need to have that, too? Or its meaning over the centuries
are we lacking imagination and —Kiki Mazzucchelli Habaguanex 1515 San Cristóbal de in a constant and organic way
simply using the template we La Habana 1519 Puerto de Carenas according to the sphere being
were given? G GOLD 1555 Jacques de Sores 1592 Key considered. As an ideology, few
to the New World and Rampart of times have come to change reality
—Christopher Cozier We know well here in Latin Amer- the West Indies 1674 Walled city concretely, leaving us this utopian
ica that No todo lo que brilla es 1728 University of Havana 1762 tinge worthy of any colonial or
F FO L K L ORE oro (All that glitters is not gold), a La hora de los mameyes 1818 San modern construction of thought.
golden phrase that flattens all dif- Alejandro Academy of Art 1824 To speak of indigenism,
Local traditions have played a ferences between us. We believe El Habanero in New York 1844 we must try to go back to the
fundamental role in the definition we know everything, but we forget La Escalera Conspiracy 1869 El place of enunciation where the
of national identities across Latin it with every telenovela we watch, Diablo Cojuelo 1896 Valeriano term is being used, whether it
America, particularly in the wake every lottery ticket we buy, every Weyler 1898 USS Maine 1902 is an indigenous president or an
of modern movements. Often sup- wedding party or presidential elec- Republic of Cuba 1910 Requiem “indigenous” painting in a middle-
pressed or ignored during colonial tion we attend. for Yarini 1921 Capablanca World class living room serving as a way
times, by the beginning of the The unerasable inheri- Chess Champion 1925 Forestier to numb some side of conscious-
twentieth century folkloric sources tance of the herd of idiots without Plan 1927 Exposición de Arte ness. It is for this kind of reason
became a key focus of interest a project who “conquered” us is Nuevo 1929 Guantanamera 1933 that indigenism unveils itself as
for several groups of avant-garde the myth of El Dorado: the illu- Revolution 1940 Constitution 1952 a chameleon, moving from social
artists, musicians, and writers who sion of easy success, requiring no El Mulato Lindo 1954 Anti-Bienal struggles to artistic movements,
sought to redefine Latin Ameri- effort. From Antonio de Berrío to 1957 Radio Clock 1959 Fidel always generating and regenerat-
can culture beyond Eurocentric Sir Walter Raleigh, Simón Bolívar, Castro for LIFE 1960 La Coubre ing its ontology through different
parameters. Carlos Andrés Pérez, and even 1961 Palabras a los intelectuales horizons and temporalities.
Because the idea of folk- Hugo Chávez, they have all fooled 1962 Missile Crisis 1967 May
lore is often associated with static us with their tales of Manoa and Salon 1969 Los Van Van 1980 —Andrés Pereira Paz
or regressive legacies, several its lagoon full of toads, snakes, Marielitos 1989 Baseball Game
artists and intellectuals from Latin lizards, and golden nuggets. 1994 13 de Marzo 1999 Elián J JUNGLE
America have favored the term Today the gold (el dorado) González 2001 Aphrodisiac 2008
arte popular. Lina Bo Bardi, whose shines in the teeth and bling-bling Raúl Castro 2014 Obama 2015 In a 2014 email exchange between
the Salvadoran artist Simón Vega the important economic value of built an open-plan, low-mainte- part of the self-image of many
and the author of this entry, Vega tropical forests and how it con- nance home, Casa Tuscania, in the Peruvians, almost as much as
stated: “The terms ‘developed’ and flicts with concerns related to rainforest outside San Salvador. pride in the local cuisine. Slogans
‘underdeveloped’ with respect to biodiversity conservation. associated with it include “El sabor
countries are not nearly as accurate • A 2012 Interactive Jungle article del Peru” (Perú’s flavor), “Con todo
as ‘First-’ and ‘Third World,’ as they • A 2012 Time style magazine reported: “Jungles and rainforests combina” (It goes with everything),
are trying to avoid pejorative impli- article invites readers to explore in El Salvador are considered a “Satisface” (Satisfies), and finally
cations. The truth is that socioeco- the Ecuadorian jungle thus: “After home to nearly 2,911 vascular “Inca Kola es nuestra” (Inca Kola is
nomic and cultural differences be- a long day on the trail, you can plants species. 0.6 percent of ours). For decades, Inca Kola was
tween societies and classes are as sink into a Philippe Starck– these plant species are endemic. one of the strongest competitors
far removed and impenetrable as designed bathtub, cocktail in The country is on top in Latin with the Coca-Cola Company in
another planet is from the Earth.” hand, while the forest continues to America in terms of deforestation, the South. It was finally absorbed
work its magic through the next to Haiti.” by the American brand in 1999,
J is for Jungle (First World) surrounding glass.” when Coca-Cola purchased 49
• Simon Vega’s ink drawing percent of Lindley’s company to
• “The Law of the Jungle” in J is for Jungla (Third World) Imperial Jungle Arrival (2013) gain control of the Peruvian soda
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book depicts a “high-tech” spacecraft market. Inca Kola has inspired the
(1894) is a moralistic poem and • In the BBC television special made of nonfunctioning found work of many contemporary local
social commentary on the role of “The Salvadoran Jungle Man,” objects landing in the green artists who use it to demystify
the individual in community. Salomon Vides takes refuge in foliage of a tropical landscape. certain characteristics of national
the jungle to escape the 1969 identity, for example by ironically
• Wilfredo Lam’s painting The “100 Hour War,” fearing execution —Claire Breukel dismantling an idyllic notion of
Jungle (1943) depicts mystical for being a Salvadoran living in Inca culture.
figures with African and Pacific Honduras. He hides for more K INCA KO L A
Islander mask-faces in a jungle of than thirty years, having no way —Sharon Lerner
sugarcane and tobacco crops. of knowing the war had ended A verbena-based carbonated soft
much earlier. drink produced in Peru. Launched L LATIN AMERica
• In the 1960 film Swiss Family in 1935 by José R. Lindley—a Pe- (as in loot )
Robinson, a shipwrecked Swiss • Describing a tactic of the gueril- ruvian of British descent—this ex-
family builds a giant treehouse las during the Salvadoran Civil tremely popular and extra-sugary ′lætn ′m r k | Not a continent
on a tropical deserted island and War (1979–92), José Angel Moroni yellow drink has become an icon but the idea of an American ter-
learns to survive. Despite being Bracamonte and David E. Spencer of local nationalism, which in turn ritory conceived within the cul-
rescued, half the family decides to state, “After each operation, the was closely associated with indi- tural lineage of the Latin race of
live on the island, while the others urban militias were to disappear genismo at the beginning of the southern (Catholic) Europe, as
return to Europe. into the urban jungle the same twentieth century. With a logo that opposed to the (Protestant) Anglo-
way the rural guerillas melted morphed over the years from the Saxon North America. The term
• Ian A. Bowles and Glenn T. silently back into the hills and profile of an Inca into a typograph- was taken up by Napoleon III to
Prickett’s book Footprints in the trees of the rural areas.” ic design in white and blue circled demarcate the area of influence
Jungle: Natural Resource Indus- by an abstract pre-Columbian- he wanted to cover as part of his
tries, Infrastructure and Biodiver- • In 2007, the architect José looking linear pattern, this curious crusade to restore French political
sity Conservation (2001) outlines Roberto Paredes designed and drink has managed to make itself and military prestige. Securing a
Latin America constituted also a a significant, preexisting, perfor- scientific findings won’t be of any ancestry. Negritude requires
response to the Monroe Doctrine, mative talent. To know how to help to me, for it is the use of the black cosmovision. Negritude is
a statement issued in 1823 by the read codes, repeat them, and put nickname mestiza that empowers understanding ourselves as active
United States declaring that any them on stage is doubtlessly an me, softens the aches of displace- and punctuated in a genealogy
European attempt to seize land art, and it is as a result of this skill ment, and offers justice to my between the ancestors who left
in North or South America would that mestizaje (miscegenation) crafted existence. us their vital force (their axé) as
be viewed as an aggression to be came to be. Spanish, Portuguese, inheritance and the descendants
repelled by . . . a North American Italian, Scottish, English, and —Camila Marambio who must be freer and more active
invasion. Later, when a divided others who arrived to settle the in their potencies. Negritude is
United States was too distracted continent after the first conquerors N NE G RIT U DE a state of relationship: of alert,
by its Civil War to implement were surprised to see themselves (ao meu amor)(axé) resistance, and creation.
the doctrine, Napoleon III tried reflected in bodies that were dif-
to create a French protectorate ferent from theirs. And from this From early in the sixteenth century —Bernardo Mosqueira
in Ecuador, set up Maximilian of treacherous coupling encounter, until the latest laws prohibiting
Habsburg as emperor of Mexico we mestizos were born. slave trading to Latin America at O OCIO
(Maximilian ended up executed Mestizaje is a form of the end of the nineteenth cen-
three years later), and considered over-adaptation, a chameleonlike tury, eleven million black men The Spanish term ocio is a state of
among other things building a ca- capacity that proved to be and women crossed the Atlantic being that is devoid of a suitable
nal in Nicaragua (years before the sufficiently effective as a short- Ocean on ships, kidnapped by translation or synonym in English.
strenuous French fracas to build term strategy, but has had far force and sold as slaves. It is an Dictionaries translate ocio into
the Panama Canal). The later ces- fewer positive outcomes in the impressive number of individuals negative terms such as “idle,”
sion of Panamanian territory (and long term. At some moment over who brought with them the culture “useless,” “worthless,” “frivolous,”
canal) to the United States, and time, we mestizos forgot that of their peoples, and who expe- “unserious,” “lazy,” or “wasting
other episodes, such as the Span- we were merely actors in this rienced various forms of keeping time.” And the antonyms of “idle”
ish American War in Cuba, opened representational activity, and lost and transforming it. The dynamics qualify it as a state of being that
the door to subsequent histories of ourselves in attempting to become of the struggle of these children is productive, active, working,
twentieth-century North American the other. of the African diaspora is a funda- worthwhile, diligent.
interventionism in Latin America. Clearly, to be mestizo mental process in the construc- Being ocioso is for those
is not a quality you can see, but tion of the “Latina” singularity of diverse Latin American cultural
—Magali Arriola rather something that you live. The that makes us different from our backgrounds an “affirmative
mestiza either assumes herself matrices. action” to oppose the prevailing
M ME S TI Z A as such or not (a constitutive part It is important to Anglo Protestant Work Ethic. To
of her condition). Miscegenation understand that the culture of embrace el ocio enthusiastically
The peoples of South America is therefore a denomination of an Latin America is essentially black is to stop the authority of time-
very cunningly used mimicry to act, a way to name a heritage, and, (see our music, instruments, based productive materialism
adapt to the violent demands of finally, a life performance. It has language, food, and dance), but and instead be ocioso in a place
their colonizers—to become “civi- been said that miscegenation can not all here are black. Negritude where the sun, moon, and stars
lized.” Faced with this unspeak- be genetically checked. How futile, could simply be the state of what inspire activity. Welcoming ocio,
able challenge, they developed a when the emblematic feature of is black, but beyond that, it is as with Hélio Oiticica’s concept
new technology of survival without mestizo technology is, precisely, the process of becoming aware of crelazer—combining crer (to
submission, drawing on skills from the power of mimesis! Micro- and proud of our own African believe in) and lazer (leisure)—is to
believe that leisure is a necessary even “quarrel” or “fight.” Etymo- human strengths encouraged by native Latin Americans whose
condition for the existence of logically it comes from an African an inner will, applied as imperative countries had or have a significant
creativity. dialect (Kilombo) that the slaves for change from an inner source, presence of English speakers,
brought to the Americas. In Africa which is also spiritual, leading to namely, U.S. Americans. For this
—Carla Stellweg it meant a gathering of people, life’s transformation and a new reason, Spanglish is as associated
and in the case of the African perception of reality; or b) disrup- with immigrant culture as it is with
p P ORT U Ñ O L slaves in the Americas, it meant tion of the social relationships colonization.
also “brothel” or “mess.” These of production as a result of the The Puerto Rican writer
Portuñol is a dialect that emerged are all valid definitions, since the empowerment of social strata Salvador Tió is credited with
from a mixture of Portuguese and whites used these places as previously suppressed or sub- having coined the term espang-
Spanish. It is used as the lingua houses of prostitution, which were altern. Examples: the American lish in the late 1940s. Note that in
franca in the border areas between always a huge mess. In other Revolution (1765), the Argentinian this version, the two-word compos-
Brazil and some Spanish-speaking places, such as Costa Rica, it Revolution (1810), the Mexican ite uses the proper, native spell-
countries of Latin America. Ap- meant the shelters of the blacks Revolution (1910), and the Cuban ing of the languages it combines:
parently, a similar phenomenon and Indians who were enslaved in Revolution (1953). Concept: to español and English. In Spanglish,
also occurs at the border between colonial times. These were huts associate evolution and revolution. both languages are subjugated to
Portugal and Spain. Portuñol is a in distant places where the slaves Every revolution involves an English. This is a paradox, given
mutant dialect continually sup- could be free in tribes, away from evolution, transformation, and that Tió used the term espanglish,
plied by social, cultural, political, the Spanish dominion. In Chile mutation of a feature of human and also inglañol, as part of a wider
and economic transformations at the term is only used to signify or nonhuman source. In the case critique of the depreciation of
these frontiers. houses of prostitution, and this of Latin America, it currently Spanish vis-à-vis English.
Portuñol Selvagem is a meaning also exists in Uruguay suggests a return to the roots for In the field of visual
literary movement that emerged and other places. The word re- a new social formation that links arts, the artist and writer Luis
mainly in the border between mains in the speech of the Argen- the individual with nature and its Camnitzer theorized on Spanglish
Brazil and Paraguay, where the tineans due to the high number ancestors. art in his essay “Wonderbread,”
Portuguese language is mixed of enslaved blacks the country published in 1988, during a
with Spanish and even Guarani. had, even though this memory has —Carolina Castro Jorquera period now characterized in the
One of the main promoters of been erased from the popular United States as the Culture
this literature is the publishing imagination. S S P AN G L I S H Wars. For the author, Spanglish
house Yiyi Jambo, founded in art conceptually departed from
Asunción, Paraguay, and currently —Agustín Pérez Rubio A term that combines the words one culture but was formally
based in the city of Ponta Porã, Spanish and English to denote experienced, and to a large
Brazil. R RE V O L U CIÓN the mixture of two languages, extent created, in and for another
and, as such, the encounter and culture. The theory explored
—Fredi Casco Revolution: 1) a spin or complete coexistence of two cultures. While work by Hispanic artists in
turn on its axis of a thing, a plane, Spanglish is widely used in both the United States that over-
Q Q U I L OM B O an idea, et cetera; 2) substantial speech and writing, it is not con- characterizes its subject position,
disruption in the rhythm and sidered an official language but a addressing the explicit visual
This word is used mostly in Ar- sense of life conditions. The latter linguistic development among language in artworks that
gentina, where it means “trouble,” can happen in several areas: a) Hispanic communities in the either mark their relation to the
“problem,” “mess,” “a crowd,” or disruption of one’s own individual United States, as well as among margin of mainstream culture
or aim to gently ease themselves lectuals and politicians. She is the V V AQ U ERO front cover, portrayed as a vo-
into its flow. exact opposite of her fearful sister, luptuous goddess waiting to be
the exhibitionist Dystopia, who The term vaquero, pronounced in rescued by her vaquero from the
—Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy wanders everywhere and is there- Spanish as ba-kero, originated in worst scenarios imaginable.
fore far more often represented in medieval Spain and once referred
T TRÓ P ICO S the art of the region. According to to a common herdsman. When it —Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio
tropical myths, Science and Prog- was introduced into a mestizo so-
Accurately defined as the areas on ress raped Utopia, a forced union ciety in New Spain, it was broken W W AY U U ( W AY Ú )
the Earth where the sun reaches from which was born Modernity, down and appropriated into two
a subsolar point directly overhead who was later sent to Earth to meanings: In northern Mexico, a An indigenous community
at least once during the solar year. bring order after the misfortunes vaquero herds cattle and is known living between Colombian and
The tropics are the waist of the of the colonial period. A seduc- for being skillful on horseback. Venezuelan territory, despite
world—its hips, and most probably tive flirt, she had many affairs (Thus vaqueros are commonly the established borders between
also its genitalia. Bridging both with enchanted rulers, producing mistaken either with charros or the two countries. The Wayuu
sides of the equator for approxi- mostly failed institutions, beauti- mariachis.) The second meaning is or guajiros (from the Arahuaco
mately 2,500 kilometers in either ful ruins, and wonderful murals. used in Spain to indicate the most guajiro, which means “lord” or
direction, the tropics include the Due to a congenital disorder (a popular wardrobe item in cowboy/ “powerful man”), represent 40
best of both worlds, of all worlds. malformation commonly referred Western culture, better known as percent of the population of La
It is where life and death coexist as Revolution) her most recent blue jeans. Guajira (Wayuunaiki: Wajiira),
and often dance a languid dance, children are known as the three My favorite appropriation the northern Colombian region
where reality and fiction are not dis-graces: Fíndel, Yhugo, and the of the term vaquero was for the they inhabit, bordering the
mutually exclusive, where time young Rafico. This last one joined title of the iconic comic book Caribbean Sea. It has an arid
remembers its own passing only in animist concubinage with his series El Libro Vaquero. First and dry climate, with tempera-
long after it has passed, and indigenous cousin Pachamama, released in 1978, it gained huge tures ranging between 35 and
where gunpowder and steam have who subsequently gave birth to a success among Mexican audi- 40 degrees centigrade. In the
crushed the geography of pollen. prodigal child baptized in Que- ences; suddenly everyone was Wayuunaiki language, the word
It is a territory of logics in conflict. chua as Sumak-Kawsay (Good reading the Western cowboy saga. Wajiiramuin or Woumain defines
It is also the “latitude of the flower Living). Shamans agree that he It became the first Mexican pub- their community, and translates
and hail,” as some writers and lov- is indeed the new-age multi-culti lication with these very specific as “our land.” In languages of
ers might have said about one of reincarnation of his great grand- characteristics: pocketbook size, other surrounding indigenous
its many sites. mother, who came to this world to with illustrated drawings, sold communities, guajira ironically
redeem his entire lineage and to cheaply, and sometimes having means “black line” or “margin,”
—Emiliano Valdés bring a future of milk and honey to erotic content. The main topic of despite a common understanding
this geography. Through his power El Libro Vaquero is the Western that there are no official boundar-
U U TO P Í A of seduction, he is now the wet cliché of a lonely outlaw escaping ies demarcating these territories.
dream of European critical theory, his dark past, searching for justice, La Guajira is also a coal-producing
A beautiful goddess who never which was running dry of attrac- and winning the love of a woman, area, and the government consid-
shows her face, although she tive emancipatory figures. in the process fighting bandits, ers it a major smuggler of whiskey.
maintains a feverish presence in Apache Indians, and others. The Although contact with
the hallucinating minds of intel- —Rodolfo Kronfle Chambers mujer usually is the subject of its European conquerors took place
in the sixteenth century, the This text was constructed with adaptations of animosity against outsiders liana and other additives, which
information extracted from Wikipedia.
Wayuu people were not conquered amounts to nothing but hostility vary according to the region and
until much later, after indepen- —Ericka Florez against what is different from the community. It is used by
dence from Colombia and Venezu- the norm. indigenous cultures in Venezuela,
ela. This can be attributed to X X ENOFO B IA Xenophobia’s relation- Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia,
both indigenous resistance ship to ethnicity has also always and Brazil. The most notable
and the harshness of the desert In Latin America and the depended on visible issues. It Western scientists to first study
environment. Despite the estab- Caribbean, xenophobia is a has fundamentally targeted the it were the naturalist Sir Richard
lishment of the Venezuelan phenomenon with ideological recognition of physical differences Spruce in the 1850s, then the
and Colombian republics, and roots and structure. Its origins to evolve to a different system Harvard ethnobotanist Richard E.
their attempts to impose control are linked primarily to ethnicity, that, besides these ethnic and Schultes in the 1940s and 1950s.
over this territory, the Wayuu and are also inextricably ideological elements, expresses Schultes’s research famously
community has held a wide concurrent with colonization contempt for those having less influenced William S. Burroughs
extralegal autonomy, which has and migration movements (mainly access or economic well-being— and Allen Ginsberg, as document-
only recently been recognized forced migration). Colonial obviously involving a visible sign ed in their book The Yagé Letters
by both countries as its own processes based on a system of of status. The preponderance of (1963).
jurisdiction within their respective subordination (when Europeans ethnic and ideological xenophobic Consumed in rituals
territories. invaded the American continent, behavior is related to a system of conducted by shamans since
The Wayuu are the largest because of either convictions taxonomies, classifications, and ancestral times, yagé is a crucial
indigenous community in Colom- or conveniences, they considered categorizations that is not unique element in medicinal treatments,
bia. Sixty-six percent of them the aboriginals to be soulless to any other social field. This conflict resolution, community
have not received any formal beings) and totalitarian regimes system of constraints is likewise binding, divination, time
education, but they have estab- (which have perpetuated caste used to narrate cultural history. traveling, and communication
lished an indigenous system of systems based on ideological Although cultural production plays with nonhuman entities and
justice administration in which adhesions) have emphasized a a crucial role in generating critical spirits. All of these functions
the putchipu or pütche’ejachi cult of a nationality and belonging approaches to xenophobic phe- are implemented to establish
rules—this is the bearer of the constructed to perpetuate its nomena, the fact remains that it political accords on a cosmological
word, or palabrero, who resolves own sectors of power. Thus, is widely used as a “dog and pony plane—to maintain the spiritual
conflicts between the different the colonial process based on show” in scenarios where it is and physical stability of the
clans. Today, wayuu is sometimes domination and punishment, and impossible to justify incivility and community. Yagé has been widely
used as an adjective, designating the republican power that follows intolerance. commercialized in recent years
anyone who is able to live extra- it, rationalizes and encourages among Western audiences in
legally—who is not defined or xenophobia. This was maintained —Sara Hermann the lucrative market of spiritual
limited by geography or by the so that the image, behavior, tourism, and its cosmo-political
state, and is capable of surviving and modes of interaction of the Y YA G É effectiveness in this adopted
in inhospitable conditions. In oppressor become the dominant manner of consumption is as yet
this way, perhaps the Wayuu archetype. Xenophobia has never In Quechua, the Vine of Death, uncertain.
community is an example of, or a been used against the powerful, also known as yagé or ayahuasca,
prelude to, the concept of tempo- but rather against the “other” is a sacred Amazonian beverage —Natalia Valencia
rary autonomous territory. oppressed. Consequently, the made with Banisteriopsis caapi

108 An Incomplete Glossary of Latin America 109
Z Z A P ATO S tended period, won the 1978 XXVII

Salón Nacional de Artistas award,
El Sindicato de Barranquilla was to the admiration of some and the
an art collective active in the 1970s astonishment of others. With this
in the cradle of cheverismo on work, El Sindicato de Barranquilla
Colombia’s Atlantic coast. Of their paid tribute to Luis Carlos López,
work, they said, “Si nuestra obra the poet from Cartagena, reaffirm-
tiene un sabor político, también es ing their interest in literature and
salsa del trópico” (If our work has specifically his influence on
a political flavor, it is also salsa their work. With the Zapatos proj-
[literally “sauce”] from the trop- ect, El Taller Experimental de Arte
ics). This group of artists treated El Sindicato continued their es-
the exhibition as an active political tablished line of research, viewing
space and contributed to its trans- the exhibition as a medium to be
formation into an open process formed, and as a dialectical space
of negotiation, experimentation, of representation and action.
creation, critique, and resistance
for both artists and the public. —María Inés Rodríguez
Colombia during the 1970s
was the scene of many large-scale
protests, including the National the exhibition
Strike of 1977, which paralyzed
an enormous number of workers.
It was also a period of significant
repression and violation of human
rights. This decade, marked as it
was by traumatic events, consti-
tuted the history of a country for
which “the times of violence” have
not yet come to an end.
It is in this disrupted
panorama that the zapatos (shoes)
appear. Hundreds of shoes con-
stitute one of the most polemic
artworks of Latin America: La
alacena de zapatos (The Shoe
Cabinet). This work, consisting of
an accumulation of hundreds of
old shoes collected over an ex-
110 The Exhibition 111 United States of Latin America
AFTER THE FACT

Jens Hoffmann
Rarely does a curator have the opportunity other shows I have done in the past? Are to investigate and appreciate artistic memory. Time and place fundamentally
to write about an exhibition, to reflect there any surprises or disappointments? practices and political particularities from inform human production, and many of
on what it has accomplished, after it And how does this help me further in my other regions in the world. the works in the exhibition carry decidedly
has opened to the public. But given the thinking about art and exhibition making? At the outset of our planning, political content related to urban issues
decision to include images of the actual This exhibition was a special de la Barra was skeptical about, but also that corresponds closely to issues Detroit
installation in this book, the corresponding case, as I was not the only curator involved intrigued by, the idea of an exhibition is facing. Creating links to the realities and
possibility opened up to write a text that but opted for a partner in crime, Pablo focusing on a particular geography. Shows the history of Detroit was important to us,
could look back on the show. León de la Barra, a Mexico City–born about a specific region of the world, and we realized quickly that there were
Most of the writing done by a and Rio de Janeiro–based curator. We whether it is a city, a country, or as in this plenty of connections to be made.
curator takes place before the opening. have known each other for more than ten case an entire continent, run the risk of MOCAD, with its raw interior
There is the obligatory initial text outlining years, and frequently exchange ideas and generalizing, or (at worst) perpetuating and a graffiti-covered facade, turned out to
the concept for the exhibition, used to information about the Latin American art cultural stereotypes. It is impossible be the perfect location for works that deal
pitch the idea to the powers that be. context. This dramatically changed my to speak about a region’s culture and with social inequality, industrialization,
Assuming approval, this is followed by a approach, as I had someone to dialogue art—and the larger social and political poverty, ecology, or violence. In numerous
longer text that is used as a foundation for with who was equally responsible for the circumstances from which that art instances the experiences represented
the press release, website announcements, decisions. Our curatorial work doesn’t emerges—in just one group exhibition. It in the works spoke with urgency about
and funding applications. Then the have many elements in common and our was therefore important to us to establish issues that were just as relevant in Detroit
catalogue essay and texts on the featured interests in art are somewhat different, but that United States of Latin America was today as they are in São Paulo or the
artists are written. Finally, the signage: the de la Barra’s love for art, his understanding not an attempt to offer the “best” of Latin Dominican Republic. Examples of this
introductory wall text, and occasionally of the art-making process, his knowledge American art today, nor a comprehensive include the works by Marcelo Cidade and
extended object labels with further of the context, and his careful eye when overview of new artistic tendencies Engel Leonardo, which focus on property,
information on the artists and artworks. selecting and installing the work were there. We saw it as a very fragmented class, and economy. Yet the political
Curatorially, nothing much happens after inspirational and energizing for me. introduction to ideas and forms originating messages were not abrupt, loud, or overly
the opening other than tours or press The idea for United States of in Central and South America. The sharp. The balance that we had hoped for
interviews, and even these are mostly Latin America originated in a desire to exhibition was to be a highly subjective between radical forms and progressive
confined to the first days. introduce Detroit to art from other areas of endeavor—the particular, peculiar result of politics was indeed present, and mostly
Whenever I make an exhibition, I the world and stimulate a dialogue about a conversation between two curators who achieved because of the works’ sense of
cannot help reflecting on it after the show its production, over a long term. This have both worked in the region extensively. humor or irony, or the poetry of life that
is open. It is a different form of critical exhibition of contemporary art from Latin In addition, we wanted to they conveyed.
engagement. Now, with all the work done America is the first in a series of shows introduce artists from places not yet on Two works that embodied this
in the space, all the wall labels placed and that will subsequently focus on the Middle the map of contemporary art, and artists perfectly were a small, untitled piece by
the audience wandering through, I can East, Eastern Europe, southern Africa, who were not yet well established in their the Bogotá-based artist Gabriel Sierra
finally evaluate the real result of my labor. and perhaps more. Each edition will be careers. The more than thirty artists in and a large-scale mural by the Mexico
Did the exhibition deliver on the goals co-curated by myself and a collaborator the exhibition come from many different City–based artist Minerva Cuevas titled
and objectives I designated at the outset? based in the region in question. In today’s countries; a few are from the centers, America, both made in 2006. Sierra’s
How have my thoughts about the artists seemingly hyper-globalized art world, it such as Mexico City or São Paulo, but far work, which was the smallest piece in
and artworks changed after engaging is hard to believe, but true, that showing more are from places in between, such the exhibition and the first one visitors
with them for so long? What does the artists from outside the North American as Bogotá, San José, Guatemala City, encountered, consists of a $1 bill and a
installation reveal about the works, the and Western European axis is still not Lima, Panama City, or Buenos Aires. And, bright-red Washington apple. The artist
artists, and their role in this world beyond the norm in the West. This series of of course, investigations of geography sliced the apple in half and placed the
what I already knew? Does the thesis hold exhibitions will hopefully provoke an inevitably involve looking at two other banknote in the center of it, covering up
up? How does this exhibition relate to increased desire in Detroit and beyond closely related concepts: history and the face of United States’ first president,
126 After the Fact 127 United States of Latin America
implying that money from the U.S. had origin, but also the raw character of the Eastern Europe or the Middle East and
penetrated the forbidden fruit and caused individual pieces. know many artists there, I am eager to
a rejection from the Garden of Eden—Eden We did find that subtler work with my respective co-curators,
here being Latin America. The largest works were hard to place. The walls who will be crucial partners not only in
piece in the show, Cuevas’s large wall became large rectangles crowded with selecting artists and artworks, but also
painting, layers the image of the Disney two-dimensional works surrounding a in contextualizing them, and crafting the
cartoon character Scrooge McDuck, large number of sculptural pieces and exhibition as a whole. It will be a unique
wallowing in gold coins, over a very early installations. In one or two instances, I dialogue between Detroit and elsewhere,
European drawing of Latin America’s regretted that the quieter pieces did not stretching over years, that considers what
flora and fauna. The mural is a playful fully reveal their meaning and potential, is relevant for both places and how an
metaphor describing U.S. oppression in as they were effectively drowning in a exchange between very different cultures
Latin America, and it turned out to be also visual overload of larger and louder ones. can take place in a respectful and curious
a nice wink to another mural—this one In the end, the exhibition was exactly what manner.
by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who we wanted it to be, and at the same time
in 1932–33, commissioned by the Ford something completely different. It had its
family, painted Detroit Industry on the own will, and no matter how many times
walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts, only we moved certain pieces from one corner
two blocks away from MOCAD. to another, it held its own against the
The photographs in this curators’ intentions.
publication clearly show the density of the I believe United States of
installation in the large gallery space, with Latin America managed to embody our
its high ceilings and bright light. There intent: to offer up a fragmented but
was a directness to this show that stands engaging impression of art being made
in contrast to the more subtle exhibition in Latin America today. It introduced
experiences I usually produce. The open- themes and forms pursued by artists
plan layout of the main gallery space at in the region while at the same time
MOCAD was largely responsible for that, questioning traditional notions of regional
as it does not offer many opportunities for and cultural identity. It produced an
more intimate juxtapositions. I appreciated urgency and directness that echoed the
this intensity as something the exhibition subjects addressed in the works. And it
shared with the real experience of an felt accessible to viewers—not elitist, or
urban environment in a Latin American overly intellectual or refined. It allowed for
city (or any other metropolis, for that multiple points of entry.
matter). The show had a bluntness, a Each region of the world that
visceral energy, that was immediately we will explore in future shows is entirely
noticeable to anyone walking in. And at different from the others, and will demand
many moments the installation physically its own curatorial strategy. While I have
mirrored not just the works’ places of some familiarity with the art scenes in
128 129
Filling in the Blanks
A conversation between
Stefan Benchoam, Fernanda
Brenner, Eduardo Carrera,
Camila Marambio, and Marina
Reyes Franco, moderated
by Heidi Rabben
H e i d i R a bb e n ( H R ) : The title of this exhibition plays critically on
the division between Latin America and the United States, aiming to
incite a dialogue. Every one of the exhibition’s components embodies
this notion: the dialogue between artworks; the dialogue between the
exhibition’s curators; the accompanying incomplete glossary; and of
course this dialogue initiated here. Let’s begin by sharing where you are
based and what you’re working on.
C a m i l a M a r a m b i o ( CM ) : I am based in Papudo,
a small fishing/vacation town two hours north of San-
tiago on the Pacific coast of Chile. Since 2010 I have
directed a research program called Ensayos in Tierra
del Fuego. It is a nomadic program engaged in mat-
ters related to the political ecology of the region. Since
2011, Ensayos has focused its investigative efforts on
the control of invasive species. In 2014 we began to
address two new matters of concern: one has to do
with the human geography of Tierra del Fuego, and
the second with the stewardship of the coastline.
I live and work in

E d u a r d o C a r r e r a ( EC ) :
Quito, the capital of Ecuador, where with two friends I
130 Filling in the Blanks 131 United States of Latin America
run No Lugar—Arte Contemporáneo. We produce and space. We have an exhibition program, a residency, a
design exhibitions, art events, and artist residences, research program that welcomes more than twenty
mainly with younger and mid-career artists. The gal- artists a year, a program focused on historical works,
lery shows emerging artists from Ecuador and Latin and a commissioning program for new projects by
America, and presents curated exhibitions from the young artists. I started Pivô to try to fill a blank that
residency program and from local curators. The resi- exists in São Paulo’s art scene: we have a strong art
dency program invites artists to think about the local market, unstable institutions, and little in between—no
context of the city of Quito and rural regions such as Kunsthalles, and very few project spaces or artist-run
Íntag, and to produce artworks about the territory, the spaces. Pivô’s primary objective is to actively provide
landscape, the city, and the body politic. a space for art to be made and discussed, not just
shown. And its larger mission might be to rethink the
M a r i n a R e y e s F r a n c o ( MRF ) : From 2008 to visual arts institutional model in Brazil.
2014 I lived in Buenos Aires. There, together with the
Argentine artist Gala Berger, I cofounded La Ene— S t e fa n B e n c h o a m ( S B ) : I am based in Guate-
Nuevo Museo Energía de Arte Contemporáneo. mala City, and involved in numerous projects. A group
Buenos Aires aspires to be a cultural capital, but of fellow artists and I opened Proyectos Ultravioleta
hasn’t invested in contemporary art; in 2010, when we in 2009, since there weren’t any spaces showing the
started La Ene, a museum-as-project, there was no types of experimental works and processes that we
museum of contemporary art and the Buenos Aires were into ourselves. So, like many of you, took matters
Museum of Modern Art had been closed for almost into our own hands. We have hosted countless exhibi-
five years. So Gala and I got together with some tions, happenings, concerts, readings, lectures, screen-
friends, cleaned up a space, crowdsourced an exhibi- ings, performances, meals, workshops, discussions,
tion program, invited artists to do residencies, taught and collaborations. Today we participate as a commer-
workshops, and eventually word spread. Last year cial venture in international art fairs in order to pro-
we showed La Ene’s collection at MALBA, published mote the work of the artists we represent, broaden our
a catalogue, got a grant from Fundación Jumex, and collector base, and raise the necessary funds to do the
were able to pay our rent for the year in advance. types of projects that we feel are important in order to
At that point I felt it was time to move on, continue to respond to our local context.
and came back to my home city of San Juan, Puerto Another project that is very close to my heart
Rico. I’m still involved with La Ene, and I’m looking is NuMu, cofounded with Jessica Kairé in 2012. NuMu
forward to establishing a local branch here—we love is Guatemala’s first museum of contemporary art,
the tongue-in-cheek aspect of the museum being a housed inside what used to be a concrete egg-selling
brand—but that is a larger endeavor that needs time. kiosk in the shape of an egg. NuMu has only two and a
On a day-to-day basis, I’m working at the Allora & half square meters of space, yet it is highly ambitious
Calzadilla studio, cataloguing. I’ll also soon be work- in positioning itself as a premier exhibition space in
ing with Beta Local to republish Fuera de Trabajo, an the region, responding to Guatemala’s social, political,
influential book of concrete poetry by Esteban Valdés. and cultural idiosyncrasies.
F e r n a n d a B r e n n e r ( F B ) : I’m based in São H R : While you’re confronting vastly different challenges in your respec-
Paulo, where I run Pivô, a nonprofit contemporary art tive contexts, you are all aiming to address a need, or, as Fernanda put
132 Filling subtitle
in the Blanks 133 United States of Latin America
it, to “fill a blank space” through your work. Thinking toward the future, dynamic programming, structural changes like the
have your initial goals or hopes changed? What will it take to fill those creation of a Ministry of Culture, the reopening of the
gaps if they haven’t been filled already? And what are the new gaps that Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art, and the restruc-
need to be addressed in your communities now? turing of MALBA with a new artistic direction.
I still feel like La Ene is necessary, though. As
F B : Unfortunately, the cultural policies of Brazil— the project and its programming evolved, my partners
especially in the visual arts—still need a lot of invest- and I always agreed on one thing: we care about what
ment, not only financially but also conceptually. For a has been left out of history, and what doesn’t seem
smallish nonprofit space there’s no consistent public to fit in any other exhibition space in the city. That’s
funding mechanism, and private sponsorships are the reason for the residency program that emphasizes
still very restricted. So, the challenge becomes how to young artists from Latin America who are not yet
provide a context for risk-taking and process-oriented important enough to have museum shows, and not
projects, build a consistent program, deal with daily bankable enough to have gallery shows.
money management, undertake long-term planning,
and take care of a huge space, all without relying on EC : The economic crisis that Ecuador suffered in the
any permanent support. late 1990s closed galleries and caused the art sys-
To deal with those issues we ended up creat- tem to overflow to other systems of production and
ing an internal economy, tailor made for Pivô. The consumption: for instance many innovative propos-
monthly expenses of the space are generated through als were installed in public spaces. Many of these
rentals and our membership plans, so we seek outside interventions were conceived from a dialogue with
funding only for the programming—via institutional the space and context—streets, parks, or bus stops—
partnerships and local incentive laws. Since starting places that were challenged by their own memory.
Pivô, a number of other autonomous cultural initiatives Also in this period, artist-run spaces arose from the
have opened in São Paulo, also inventing their own lack of institutions exhibiting contemporary art.
funding structures. None can survive only from state In the past five years, I have seen the devel-
grants, so they make imaginative use of resources, like opment and positioning of an emerging scene acti-
exchanging and reusing materials, involving the local vated by artists, gallery owners, and curators of a new
community, and so on. The sociopolitical complexity generation. The Center for Contemporary Art opened
and economic uncertainty have made apparent the in 2011 as the first municipal institution dedicated to
need for participative and cooperative initiatives. contemporary artistic practices. Still, there is much
more public and private support in areas such as
MRF : The initial goal of La Ene was to show that we cinema or theater than in the visual arts. This makes it
can and must take matters into our own hands—that difficult to develop sustained and autonomous exhibi-
change can be instituted from the bottom up, that tion programs, which in turn leads to the impossibility
ideas can flow from different and unexpected places. of audience development or a sustainable market.
We wanted to connect Buenos Aires to a broader
emerging regional scene, and I think that echoed HR: Building a public that cares about art and artists, and facilitating
the political changes that were happening in post- that relationship, is a shared concern for many artists, curators, and
2001-crisis Argentina. I’ve seen a lot of changes: more organizations. What kind of a public do you hope will engage with your
money put into museums and cultural centers, more work, and what strategies are you using to continue to build it?
CM : Ensayos addresses a territory more than a likewise here seen as something for privileged and
public. In fact, there is at present no arts community educated people, and we’ve been trying to break down
in Tierra del Fuego. This unique situation is both this belief by facilitating the public’s encounter with
painful and somewhat of a relief because it generates local and international contemporary art on a regular
a whole new set of rules and challenges. From its very and informal basis.
beginning, Ensayos aimed at listening, and then map- Nothing we do at Pivô is addressed to a
ping all the guiding forces of the territory it set out specific public. We try to build a program that has a
to care for. The communities that emerge from these consistent line of thought but is never too hermetic.
exercises are heterogeneous and include artists, but We encourage unconventional ways of looking at and
also scientists, locals, animals, and other entities. reading artworks by bringing people closer to the
processes of making art. Entry is always free. We host
S B : Personally, I am extremely motivated, and find public talks and debates, and hold open-studio days
it very liberating, to set up artistic projects in places at the residency where the public can meet artists
where there is no support for the arts (public or and get closer to their practices in an informal and
private), as this means there are no expectations to horizontal environment. I believe in Marcel Duchamp’s
succeed. If you fail, it’s OK, as nobody in their right famous axiom that art is a rendezvous. The public
mind expected that such a project could work. And if “becomes” public through an encounter, started by the
you manage to set something up, it almost becomes a artist, curator, or institution that hosts the exhibition,
utopia, an impossible project in an impossible con- which leads to various and unexpected results. The
text, like a fragile yet beautiful organism, constantly only thing we can do is to set the starting point.
dancing, shifting, and adapting to the positive and
negative impulses around it. HR: Setting the starting point is imperative, as several of you also
allude to the lack of institutional, governmental, commercial, or other
EC : The audience of No Lugar over these five years infrastructural support for the arts. While this undoubtedly causes many
has been art students and teachers, artists, musi- challenges, it also has allowed for vital new forms of agency to emerge.
cians, designers, writers, some curious neighbors, What alternative artistic/curatorial/institutional practices have you
and friends of friends. Working to develop audiences observed, and how have they enriched your curatorial thinking?
for contemporary art in Ecuador is complex. Quito
has an artistic tradition closely linked with heritage, MRF : Curators such as Michy Marxuach, Pablo León
religious and sacred art, and social realism, which de la Barra, and Cuauhtémoc Medina, and artists such
prevents contemporary art from reaching the citizens; as Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, have all been tremen-
they think it is remote and elitist. Like my colleagues, dously influential. I drool just thinking about Cuauhte-
I think it’s important to disseminate contemporary moc’s (and Olivier Debroise’s) Age of Discrepancies
art from Latin America. The No Lugar website keeps exhibition. I also have to mention Radamés Figueroa’s
track of our shows and artist residents, making it easy La Loseta, a one-year exhibition program he ran in
for the artists to connect with curators elsewhere. his apartment when basically nothing was going on
in Puerto Rico, as galleries had closed and museums
F B : Nowadays more than three thousand people seemed just plain out of touch. Rosado-Seijo also
live in Copan, and we constantly struggle to engage started doing shows in his apartment during this time,
them with our program. The visual arts in Brazil are for the same reason.
Likewise, projects in Mexico like Bikini Wax, globalized art world. For example, many of you have been speaking
Cráter Invertido, and La Panadería, or Argentina’s about how you are invested in artists working locally versus regionally
Taller Popular de Serigrafía, are never far from my or globally. How do these dichotomies of local/global, or emerging/
mind. M&M Proyectos was a residency program that established, work for and against one another? How do you situate
developed into an independent biennial, and the con- yourself within your local context and more broadly?
nections and affinities established then are still crucial
to what we do now. Michy and Beatriz (along with the F B : In the past few years, the local public’s interest
artist Tony Cruz, and now also Sofía Gallisá and Pablo in contemporary art has significantly broadened, and
Guardiola) formed Beta Local, another very important São Paulo is a consistent destination on the interna-
new institution centered around aesthetic practices tional map of contemporary art. Yet its art scene is
and art education, but with an emphasis on becom- still very local, meaning that we have a strong market
ing, as I see it, a thinking hub and a reason to return to for Brazilian artists, but not many collectors investing
Puerto Rico, particularly now that economic hardship in international artists, and the museums rarely show
has caused massive migration. international artists.
With that in mind, I want Pivô’s program to
CM : Due to the undisciplined origin of Ensayos, I have encourage creative interactions with an international
seen (and been moved to practice) a curatorial/artistic scope while keeping our institutional core rooted in
attitude that I would describe as diplomatic. The abil- São Paulo and its public. For the first two years we
ity to deal with humans and non-humans in a sensi- showed mainly Brazilians, not only for funding reasons
tive way is at the heart of each Ensayo, and each time but also aiming to build a committed audience. Now
I come across a new diplomatic performance I am we are slowly shifting toward a more international and
amazed at how it was born from the not-so-simple act experimental program.
of surrendering to the needs of a particular territory.
EC : In Ecuador it is noteworthy that emerging
EC : I think being a curator is to work within and artists have more international presence than mid-
outside the walls of an institution. It is a multidimen- career artists. This is because emerging artists have
sional role that includes research, criticism, publish- “new institutions” like No Lugar who disseminate
ing, education, and management. It is important to and promote their work. The creation of an interna-
understand the curator as an accomplice of a com- tional community/network has been very helpful. The
munity who has the ability to develop consistent work residency program is one of the main components of
for the benefit of local scenes. In my practice I hope to our management; international institutions, galleries,
contribute to the professionalization of local artistic embassies, collectors, artists, foundations, and scholar-
production and processes, and to strengthen dialogue ship programs cover the transfer and the participation
and exchanges between the art scenes of Ecuador of artists from their countries to No Lugar. That’s why I
and the world. Curatorial practice means networking think networking can generate jobs in niches of
with a number of responsibilities that take on different creativity and sociability.
cultural agents when they have common interests.
HR: Networking in this sense makes me think of the emergence of mail
HR: Your descriptions of this diplomatic and multidimensional curato- art in Latin America: how it broke away from official circuits of galleries
rial role make me curious about our contribution to an increasingly and museums in favor of an alternative form of circulation. Each of you
is right now part of a network, contributing to a collaborative conversa- F B : The first movement that totally detached itself
tion though correspondence. What is the importance of networks and from European influence in Brazil was Neoconcre-
circuits through which artists and curators operate today? How can we tism in the early 1960s. This was a key moment in the
continue to build networks to support the practices of artists? country and still has a huge impact in contemporary
art, especially regarding the ideals of merging life and
MRF : Around 2009, I felt like I’d found a network of art. I also observe artists dealing with the heritage
like-minded people with whom I could share ideas and of Brazilian Modernism and the failure of its utopia,
invitations to projects, and coproduce things. Some investigating impacts not only in the sociopolitical
became partners in crime, and others are recurring sphere but also in the country’s mentality.
characters in my work and life, as friends or collabora- In the past five years, substantial growth in
tors. With La Ene, we grew thanks to our individual the art market has raised interest in contemporary art.
trips abroad, the residency program, and our online I’ve witnessed a persistent professionalization within
presence. Social media has dramatically changed the the entire system: curatorial programs emerging,
way we interact with other people in the art circuit. increasing numbers of galleries and art spaces, and
There are people I have barely seen in person who I the growth and articulation of artist networks.
would call friends and colleagues. That opens up a lot
of possibilities. Our practice must be in tune with the CM : The movement I most revere is what in Chile we
times, and I don’t think it’s time to be self-referential in call Canto a lo Poeta, a form of popular poetry that lies
what we put out there. somewhere between dance, song, performance, ritual,
and party. I am particularly touched by the unique way
F B : The mention of mail art calls to my mind the in which this living tradition mixes improvisation and
Brazilian artist Paulo Bruscky, who experimented with sense making, movement and language, rendering the
blueprint machines, Xerox, mail art, newspaper ads, et act of cantar (to sing) or bailar (to dance) an eternally
cetera that allowed him to spread artistic and political repetitive gesture of useless, pleasurable explora-
content outside official circuits during the dictator- tion of the conditions of existence. The wisdom that
ship. Social media has totally changed the circula- emanates from this movement is as mundane as it is
tion of information in the art circuit. For all sizes of celestial—delightfully dissonant.
art institutions, platforms that enable discussion
groups, invitations to events, and spreading informa- MRF : I cannot escape the fact that I live in one of the
tion quickly have changed their relationship with the last colonies in the world. The status question plagues
public. At Pivô we take good care of the documentary our lives like it does our AM radio programs. Most
and critical content at our website because we usually Puerto Rican artists may have stopped making 1960s-
cannot afford to print catalogues. For smaller institu- and 1970s-style political art, but the issues have
tions especially, those tools are crucial for widening stayed the same. The civil disobedience movement, for
the discussion without any cost. which Puerto Rico became notorious in the interna-
tional activist community following the death of David
HR: Mail art is one example, but what are some other significant artistic Sanes in Vieques in 1999, coincided with the growing
or historical movements that have influenced artistic practice, or internationalization of the local art scene. Not surpris-
perhaps your own practices? ingly, times of crisis also generate curatorial interest.
in the Blanks 141 Contributors
What strikes me most about how art practice Magali Arriola is a curator based Inti Guerrero is an art critic and Heidi Rabben is curator of
in Mexico City. curator based in Hong Kong. events and exhibitions at Kadist
has changed in the places where I’ve lived and worked Art Foundation, San Francisco.
is the approach to art education. For a while now, Stefan Benchoam is an artist, Sara Hermann is an art historian
curator, and cofounder/direc- and curator based in Santiago, Marina Reyes Franco is an inde-
MFAs have been the way most artists emigrate to the tor of Nuevo Museo de Arte Dominican Republic. pendent curator and cofounder
U.S. While there are a lot of artists eager to pay up or Contemporáneo and Proyectos of La Ene—Nuevo Museo
get in debt, others are straight-up questioning how art Ultravioleta, Guatemala City. Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy is Energía de Arte Contemporáneo,
the curator of contemporary art Buenos Aires; she is based in
schools are organized, and to what end? Fernanda Brenner is artistic at Colección Patricia Phelps de San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Something else I’m very eager to know more director of Pivô, São Paulo. Cisneros, New York.
María Inés Rodríguez is the
about is the “other” Caribbean that as a Spanish Claire Breukel is curator of Jens Hoffmann is co-curator of director of CAPC, Musée d’art
speaker I am not privy to. We share a colonial con- Unscripted—Bal Harbour Public United States of Latin America. contemporain de Bordeaux,
dition and weird imperial relationships with many Art Commission, and chief He is a senior curator at the France.
curator at MARTE Contempo- Museum of Contemporary Art
nearby island nations, but the dialogue has been slow rary at the Museo de Arte de Detroit and the deputy director Luis Romero is an artist, editor,
to happen. In the narrative of Latin American art there El Salvador, San Salvador. of the Jewish Museum, and independent curator based
New York. in Caracas.
are giants and lesser figures, but the invisible are the Eduardo Carrera is artistic
small Caribbean countries that don’t speak Spanish. director of No Lugar—Arte Pablo León de la Barra is co- Carla Stellweg is a professor
Contemporáneo, Quito. curator of United States of Latin of visual critical studies and art
America. He is the Guggen- history, School of Visual Arts,
H R : This brings us back to the title of this exhibition, United States of Fredi Casco is a visual artist, heim UBS MAP curator, Latin New York.
Latin America. Considering this premise, what do you think an exhibition writer, and publisher based in America, and director of Casa
Asunción, Paraguay. França Brasil, Rio de Janeiro. Emiliano Valdés is the chief
like this can accomplish? What dialogue can it create, and what issues curator at the Museo de Arte
do you feel it could or should confront? Carolina Castro Jorquera is a Sharon Lerner is the contempo- Modeno Medellín, Colombia;
curator and PhD candidate in art rary art curator at the Museo de he is based in Medellín and
theory, Universidad Autónoma Arte de Lima (MALI). Guatemala City.
EC : An exhibition that deals with colonialism, war, de Madrid.
history, urbanism, memory, and geography, bring- Camila Marambio is the direc- Natalia Valencia is an indepen-
Rodolfo Kronfle Chambers is tor of research at the Ensayos dent curator based in Mexico
ing together a large group of Latin American artists an art historian, curator, and residency program (Tierra del City.
curatorially, reflects the ability of art networks to editor of Río Revuelto, based in Fuego); she is based in Papudo,
Guayaquil, Ecuador. Chile. Isobel Whitelegg is a lecturer at
annihilate borders, and the possibility of constructing the School of Museum Studies,
narratives around the relationship between neighbor- Christopher Cozier is an artist Kiki Mazzucchelli is an indepen- University of Leicester; she is
ing territories and their social, sensory, historical, and and codirector of Alice Yard, dent curator and writer based in based in London.
Port of Spain, Trinidad and London and São Paulo.
scientific policies and activists. Tobago.
Bernardo Mosqueira is a curator
Ericka Florez is a writer, artist, based in Rio de Janeiro.
MRF : Going through the list of artists, I’m happy to and curator based in Cali,
notice that there is not, as can often be the case, a Colombia. Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio is an
independent curator, writer, and
majority of U.S.-based artists. I feel like we’re increas- Elvis Fuentes is a PhD candidate publisher of Guayaba Press,
ingly comfortable living, producing, curating, and in art history, Rutgers University; based in Mexico City.
generating ideas from our own respective spaces he is based in Guttenberg,
New Jersey. Andrés Pereira Paz is a visual
toward the outside. We’re all emitting signals, talking, artist based in Lima and La Paz.
exchanging, and reaching. We must constantly fight Rita Gonzalez is a curator of
contemporary art at the Los Agustín Pérez Rubio is the
the construction of unshakeable narratives that try Angeles County Museum of Art. artistic director at MALBA,
to make the art produced in the Global South / Latin Buenos Aires.
America more palatable and understood.
142 Acknowledgments 143 Colophon
United States of Latin America We are most grateful to all the Harald Szeemann, Kelly This publication accompanies © 2015 by the Museum of
participating artists and/or their Taxter, Mario Garcia Torres, the exhibition United States of Contemporary Art Detroit
Organized by estates, without whom such an Miriam Villaseñor, David Latin America. and Kadist Art Foundation,
Museum of Contemporary Art ambitious exhibition would not Waddington, Xiaoyu Weng, Paris / San Francisco. All
Detroit have been possible: and Vincent Worms. Editor rights reserved. No part of this
Pablo Accinelli, Edgardo The curators are indebted to Jens Hoffmann publication may be reproduced
with Aragón, Juan Araujo, Felipe Jon Sueda for his design of the in any manner without
Arturo, Nicolás Bacal, Milena graphic identity, catalogue, and Texts permission.
Kadist Art Foundation Bonilla, Paloma Bosquê, Pia signage produced to accompany Jens Hoffmann, Pablo León
Paris / San Francisco Camil, Mariana Castillo Deball, this exhibition, and to Lindsey de la Barra, Heidi Rabben Every effort has been made to
Benvenuto Chavajay, Marcelo Westbrook for her thoughtful trace copyright holders and
Curated by Cidade, Donna Conlon and and delicate editing of the texts and to ensure that the information
Jens Hoffmann and Jonathan Harker, Nicolás in the publication. presented is correct. Some
Pablo León de la Barra Consuegra, Minerva Cuevas, Magali Arriola, Stefan of the facts in this volume
Elena Damiani, Ximena Benchoam, Fernanda Brenner, may be subject to debate or
Assistant Curator Garrido-Lecca, Federico Claire Breukel, Eduardo dispute. If proper copyright
Heidi Rabben Herrero, Voluspa Jarpa, Carrera, Fredi Casco, Carolina acknowledgment has not been
Runo Lagomarsino, Adriana Castro Jorquera, Rodolfo made, or for clarifications and
General Coordination Lara, Engel Leonardo, Valentina Kronfle Chambers, Christopher corrections, please contact
Zeb Smith Liernur, Mateo López, Renata Cozier, Ericka Florez, Elvis MOCAD or Kadist and we will
Lucas, Nicolás Paris, Amalia Fuentes, Rita Gonzalez, Inti correct the information in any
Pica, Pablo Rasgado, Pedro Guerrero, Sara Hermann, Sofía future reprinting.
Reyes, Gabriel Sierra, Daniel Hernández Chong Cuy, Sharon
Steegmann Mangrané, Clarissa Lerner, Camila Marambio, Photo credits:
Tossin, Adrián Villar Rojas, and Kiki Mazzucchelli, Bernardo Unless specified otherwise, all
Carla Zaccagnini. Mosqueira, Rodrigo Ortiz photos are courtesy the artist
Monasterio, Andrés Pereira and Kadist Art Foundation.
We are particularly grateful to Paz, Agustín Pérez Rubio, Runo Lagomarsino, Renata
the following individuals, who Marina Reyes Franco, María Lucas, Gabriel Sierra, Federico
have in various ways helped to Inés Rodríguez, Luis Romero, Herrero, and the cover image by
realize United States of Latin Carla Stellweg, Emiliano Valdés, Luis Romero: TK
America: Natalia Valencia, and Isobel Federico Herrero (mural seen
Maria Eugênia Abàtayguara, Whitelegg from afar): Lissette Lagnadow,
Greg Baise, Amy Bark, Kathryn courtesy of the artist and
Barulich, Carlos Basualdo, Coordinating Editor Galeria Luisa Strina
Devon Bella, Pete Belkin, Heidi Rabben
Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Ana ISBN TK
Castella, Germano Celant, Catalogue Design
Patrick Charpenel, Abraham Jon Sueda / Stripe SF
Cruzvillegas, Olivier Debroise,
Arash Fayez, Julieta González, Copy Editor
Dominique Gonzalez- Lindsey Westbrook
Foerster, Claudia Gould, Paulo
Herkenhoff, William Hernandez, Printer
Sophia Hoffmann, Jose Kuri, Overseas Printing Corporation,
Marisa Kurtz, Lisette Lagnado, Printed in China
Luisa Lambri, Beatriz Lopez,
Monica Manzutto, Marie Publishers
Martraire, Michy Marxuach, Alex Museum of Contemporary Art
Matson, Jessica Morgan, Julian Detroit
Myers-Szupinska, Hans Ulrich Kadist Art Foundation,
Obrist, Gabriel Orozco, Daniel Paris / San Francisco
Palmer, Adriano Pedrosa, Joseph Sternberg Press, Berlin
del Pesco, Jonathan Rajewski,
Maria Iñes Rodriguez, Luis
Romero, Tino Sehgal,
Zeb Smith, Lisa Spellman,
Amber Spicer, Emily Sundblad,
144 subtitle

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United

Jens Hoffmann Pablo Accinelli

12 Works in the Exhibition

93 An Incomplete Glossary of Latin America

109 The Exhibition

124 After the Fact

129 Filling in the Blanks

Runo Lagomarsino Mateo López Amalia Pica Daniel

Jens Hoffmann and

P a bl o L e ó n d e l a B a r r a :In 2013 I was

It means “land in its full maturity” or “land of vital

born in 1983 in São Paulo; lives and works in São Paulo

born in 1985 in Oaxaca, Mexico; lives and works in Oaxaca

born in 1971 in Caracas; lives and works in Lisbon and Caracas

born in 1979 in Bogotá; lives and works in Lisbon

born in 1985 in Buenos Aires; lives and works in Buenos Aires

born in 1975 in Bogotá; lives and works in Amsterdam

M ilena Bonilla’s discursive practice explores connections among economics,

born in 1982 in Garça, Brazil; lives and works in São Paulo

P aloma Bosquê’s practice centers on the investigation of materiality, structure,

born in 1980 in Mexico City; lives and works in Mexico City

T hrough her installations and performance-based work, Pia Camil demonstrates a

born in 1975 in Mexico City; lives in Amsterdam and Berlin

M ariana Castillo Deball uses installation, sculpture, photography, and drawing to

B envenuto Chavajay’s body of work includes sculpture, interventions into objects,

born in 1979 in São Paulo; lives and works in São Paulo

Donna Conlon and

born in 1976 in Bucaramanga, Colombia; lives in Bogotá

N icolás Consuegra explores the contradictions of modern visual culture through

born in 1975 in Mexico City; lives and works in Mexico City

M inerva Cuevas’s socially engaged practice encompasses a range of strategies

to America as having bountiful natural resources available to be exploited, and the

born in Lima in 1979; lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark

T ransforming found materials into collages, sculptures, videos, and installations,

born in 1980 in Lima; lives and works in Lima and London

born in 1971 in Rancagua, Chile; lives and works in Santiago

V oluspa Jarpa’s work is based upon a meticulous analysis of political, historical,

R uno Lagomarsino was born in Scandinavia to Argentinian parents descended from

born in 1978 in Mexico City; lives in Mexico City

W orking with various mediums, from sculpture to installation, site-specific

born in 1978 in Buenos Aires; lives and works in Buenos Aires

R enata Lucas is interested in the social and behavioral implications of spatial

born in 1977 in Bogotá; lives in Bogotá

born in 1978 in Neuquén, Argentina; lives and works in London

born in 1984 in Zapopan, Mexico; lives and works in Mexico City

born in 1972 in Mexico City; lives and works in Mexico City

born in 1977 in Barcelona; lives and works in Rio de Janeiro

C larissa Tossin’s photographs, videos, and installations are active investigations

born in 1980 in Rosario, Argentina; lives and works in Buenos Aires

born in 1973 in Buenos Aires; lives and works in São Paulo

C arla Zaccagnini uses a variety of media and techniques—from drawing to installa-

A ANTRO P OFA G IA encounters with and devouring of

Z Z A P ATO S tended period, won the 1978 XXVII

AFTER THE FACT

Filling in the Blanks

I live and work in

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