Post 1980s- intercultural, transhistorical, and politically situated art in Latinx America
During periods of democratic crisis and transition, Latin American artists developed new visual languages for democracy, redefining the body as a site of truth and dissent through the use of performance and the reclamation of suppressed histories. This lesson examines how art served as both testimony and transformation, with gestures, materials, and spaces expressing a politics of renewal that remains relevant today.
This lesson examines artistic production in Latin America during the processes of democratic crisis and transition, focusing on artists that have responded to the legacies of dictatorship, social inequality, and colonial heritage through strategies of resistance, cultural and political reclamation, and collective engagement. Performance and body-based practices addressing violence, trauma, gender oppression, and collective memory are considered through the work of artists such as: Ana Mendieta, Maria Evelia Marmolejo, Teresa Margolles, Regina José Galindo, ASCO, Laura Aguilar, Tania Bruguera, and Martine Gutierrez. Political conceptualism is examined in the practices of artists such as: Cildo Meireles, Doris Salcedo, rafa esparza, and Óscar Muñoz, who use materials, language, and everyday objects to articulate critiques of power and historical erasure. The lesson also considers artists such as Adriana Varejão, Delilah Montoya, Guadalupe Maravilla, Sonia Gomes, Rosana Paulino, James Luna, who rework colonial, African and indigenous aesthetics and iconographies to confront cultural hybridity and reclaim suppressed visual and cultural traditions. The artists discussed will demonstrate how contemporary art can be a tool for agency, civic engagement and decolonization.
April 5, 2026 - from 3 PM to 5 PM CET.
