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WORLDVIEWS:

Latin American Art and the
Decolonial Turn

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WORLDVIEWS:

Latin American Art and the
Decolonial Turn

4 – 25 Nov, 2021

The Centre for Visual Culture, University
of Cambridge
The Research Centre for Transnational
Art, Identity, Nation, UAL

This online conference brings together contributions from scholars, curators and artists to discuss how decoloniality acts as a frame of reference in the study of Latin American Art. Worldviews will examine how such a frame has developed over the past decade, notably through a progressive interest in indigenous and/or Afro-descendent practices. It aims to question how critical discourse is constructed, while an ostensible divorce still prevails between scholarly debate and those insurgent social forces that struggle against marginalisation and racism. What can we learn from the discipline’s own historiography? How are we to negotiate agency and inclusivity when these are often still seen to be attained through hegemonic centres? What have been the roles of institutions in perpetuating centre/periphery dichotomies? Can inclusion and diversity mean more than a simple supplement to long-standing canonical paradigms?

Seeking to answer these amongst many other questions, the conference is structured around six thematic sessions. To promote multiple perspectives, each will be chaired by a specialist who contributed their vision to the development of the programme. Worldviews is convened by Dr Michael Asbury (UAL) and Dr Sofia Gotti (The University of Cambridge).

LIVE Sessions

*All times London Time. Please visit each
session’s page for full speaker details
and to access all pre-recorded
contributions.

  • Arjan Martins, <i>Atlântico</i>, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 390 x 4 cm. Photo: Pepê Schettino. Courtesy of Galeria Gentil Carioca

    Arjan Martins, Atlântico, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 390 x 4 cm. Photo: Pepê Schettino. Courtesy of Galeria Gentil Carioca

    Chair

    • Isobel Whitelegg

    Speakers

    • Michael Asbury
    • Andrea Giunta
    • Sofia Gotti
    • Maria Iñigo Clavo
    • Daniel R. Quiles
    Nov 4th
    5:30 - 7:00 PM

    Meeting Margins Roundtable

    Worldviews begins with an introductory roundtable discussion that re-visits the Meeting Margins: Transnational Art in Latin America and Europe 1950-1978 (Essex and UAL 2009-2011) research project. Meeting Margins had engaged with the concept of transnationalism within art historical debates as a means to counteract the understanding of Latin American Art as peripheral [...]

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  • Bernardo Oyarzún, <i>Tentativa</i>, 2016, fiberglass, 330 x 70 x 340 cm. View of the exhibition Mitomanías, Galería Patricia Ready, Santiago, Chile, 2016. Courtesy of the artist

    Bernardo Oyarzún, Tentativa, 2016, fiberglass, 330 x 70 x 340 cm. View of the exhibition Mitomanías, Galería Patricia Ready, Santiago, Chile, 2016. Courtesy of the artist

    Chair

    • Pablo José Ramirez

    Keynote

    • Boaventura de Sousa
      Santos

    Speakers

    • Cristian Vargas
      Paillahueque
    • Venuca Evanán
    • Lena Geuer
    • Bernardo Oyarzun
    • Brenda Vega
    Nov 11th
    5:30 - 7:00 PM

    The Poetics of Abya Yala:
    Towards a Non-Colonial
    History of Contemporary Art

    For the Kuna people Abya Yala refers to a land of great vitality, a blooming land. The term has been widely used since the “2nd Continental Summit of Indigenous People and Nationalities from the Abya Yala” as a political leitmotif which refers to the continental land commonly known as America [...]

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  • Tania Bruguera and Tate Neighbours. Courtesy of Studio Bruguera

    Tania Bruguera and Tate Neighbours. Courtesy of Studio Bruguera

    Chair

    • Paul Goodwin

    Keynote

    • Paulo Miyada

    Speakers

    • Carolina Castro
    • Pamela Desjardins
    • Clara Masnatta
    • Eloisa Rodrigues
    Nov 18th
    2:00 - 3:30 PM

    Margins and Institutions: New
    Curatorial Strategies

    Since the 1980s, museums and institutional galleries across Western Europe and North America have increasingly held exhibitions and collected work by artists from Latin America. Whilst this must be recognised as a welcome opening towards cultures previously considered, by those same institutions, as derivative or, worst, unworthy of art historical consideration, certain consequences to such openness must also be taken into account. The attention [...]

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  • Dora Longo Bahia, <i>CORPUS POLITICUM</i>, 2021, video (still). Courtesy of the artist

    Dora Longo Bahia, CORPUS POLITICUM, 2021, video (still). Courtesy of the artist

    Chair

    • Cecilia Fajardo-Hill

    Keynote

    • Lilia K. Moritz
      Schwarcz

    Speakers

    • Sebastián Eduardo
      Dávila
    • Gabriela Germana
    • Dora Longo Bahia
    • Miguel A. López
    • Guillerme Marcondes
    • Guadalupe Maravilla
    • Cecilia Vicuña
    5:30 - 7:00 PM

    Political Bodies, Gender and
    Race

    The Political Body is a broad notion that has come to characterise the artistic production of many artists in Latin America since the 1960s. Often linked to performance, public actions and photography, but also to conceptual art and other more traditional media, the political use of the body, or its centrality, [...]

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  • Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, The World Justified, Left Aligned, Centred, Right Aligned, 2004. 4 Light Boxes,120 x 250 x 12cm each. Installation View. Photograph Ding Musa. Courtesy of the artists

    Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, The World Justified, Left Aligned, Centred, Right Aligned, 2004. 4 Light Boxes,120 x 250 x 12cm each. Installation View. Photograph Ding Musa. Courtesy of the artists

    Chair

    • Ana Magalhães

    Keynote

    • Rafael Cardoso

    Speakers

    • Jens Baumgarten
    • Alessandra Caputo
      Jaffe
    • Catalina Imizcoz
    • Fernanda Pitta
    Nov 25th
    2:00 - 3:30 PM

    Decolonising the Canon

    When we speak of the inclusion of Latin American art into the wider sphere of ‘global art’ what are we saying? If such global narratives are truly ‘global’ then we should not speak of inclusion but merely of being. The act of being included, has traditionally been associated with national traits that are then framed by degrees of difference to, and similarity with, the so-called Western canon, the common, uncircumscribed, point of reference. [...]

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  • <i>Amakaba</i>, 2021, introduction video (still). Courtesy of Amakaba

    Amakaba, 2021, introduction video (still). Courtesy of Amakaba

    Chair

    • Keyna Eleison

    Keynote

    • Ventura Profana

    Speakers

    • Anneli Marisa Aliaga
    • Liliana Clavijo/Felipe
      Hernandez
    • Danitza Luna
    • Tabita Rezaire
    • Kira Xonorika
    5:30 - 7:00 PM

    Activism and Collective
    Practice

    Political activism in Latin American Art has been canonised as a distinctive feature of the region’s artistic production since the 1960s. However, recent thinkers have criticised the divorce of intellectualised institutional practices from the insurgent social forces that motivate and propel such forms of resistance. This panel will examine how grassroots movements have deployed artistic practice [...]

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