ABOUT THIS BOOK

In Collective Situations scholars, artists, and art collectives present a range of socially engaged art practices that emerged in Latin America during the Pink Tide period, between 1995 and 2010. This volume's essays, interviews, and artist's statements—many of which are appearing in English for the first time—demonstrate the complex relationship between moments of political transformation and artistic production. Whether addressing human rights in Colombia, the politics of urban spaces in Brazil, the violent legacy of military dictatorships in the region, or art’s intersection with public policy, health, and the environment, the contributors outline the region’s long-standing tradition of challenging ideas about art and the social sphere through experimentation. Introducing English-language readers to some of the most dynamic and innovative contemporary art in Latin America, Collective Situations documents new possibilities for artistic practice, collaboration, and creativity in ways that have the capacity to foster vibrant forms of democratic citizenship.

Contributors
Gavin Adams, Mariola V. Alvarez, Gustavo Buntinx, María Fernanda Cartagena, David Gutiérrez Castañeda, Fabian Cereijido, Paloma Checa-Gismero, Kency Cornejo, Raquel de Anda, Bill Kelley Jr., Grant H. Kester, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Longoni, Rodrigo Martí, Elize Mazadiego, Annie Mendoza, Alberto Muenala, Prerana Reddy, Maria Reyes Franco, Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, Juan Carlos Rodríguez

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Bill Kelley Jr. is Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Art History at California State University, Bakersfield.

Grant H. Kester is Professor of Art History at the University of California, San Diego; author of The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context and editor of Art, Activism, and Oppositionality: Essays from Afterimage, both also published by Duke University Press; and author of Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art.

REVIEWS

“Enormously compelling and useful. Collective Situations reveals the inadequacy of art criticism and art history as they are now conceived and will compel us to ask what role writers and scholars can play in assuring that fleeting images, oral accounts, and ephemeral acts be written into history.”

-- Harper Montgomery CAA Reviews

"Each section is laden with artists, activists, and collectives that cannot live—or live well—in the constraints not only of settler colonial continuity, but also of Western art history. Instead, they catalyze, experiment, and pre-figure collectivity in the interstices of the situated—as a mode of critique and aesthetic method—to create lives worth sharing."

-- Sarah Richter TDR: The Drama Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction / Grant Kester and Bill Kelley Jr. 1
Part I. (Un)Civil Disobedience 19
1. Lava la bandera: The Colectivo Sociedad Civil and the Cultural Overthrow of the Fujimori-Montesinos Dictatorship / Gustavo Buntinx 21
2. Interview with Caleb Duarte of EDELO Residencia / Raquel de Anda 43
3. Grupo Etcétera: Project Description / Rodrigo Martí 58
An Interview with Etcétera / Etcétera 62
4. Artistas en Resistencia: Project Description / Kency Cornejo 79
An Interview with Artistas en Resistencia / Kency Cornejo 83
5. A Long Way: Argentine Artistic Activism of the Last Decades / Ana Longoni 98
Part II. Urbanism 113
6. Galatea/bulbo Collective: Project Description / Mariola V. Alvarez 117
"Participación" (2008) and Tijueneados Anóminos (2008-2009) / Bulbo 120
7. Interview with Tranvía Cero / María Fernanda Cartagena 130
8. Art Collectives and the Prestes Maia Occupation in São Paulo / Gavin Adams 149
9. Frente 3 de Fevereiro

Project Description / Rodrigo Martí 165
The Becoming World of Brazil / Fremte 3 de Fevereiro 169
10. Interview with Mauricio Brandão of BijaRi, October 9, 2011 / Mariola V. Alvarez 186
Part III. Memory 199
11. Skins of Memory: Art, Civic Pedagogy, and Social Reconstruction / Pilar Riaño Alcalá and Suzanne Lacy 203
12. Some Frameworking Concepts for Art and Social Practices in Colombia / David Gutiérrez Castañeda 220
13. Chemi Rosado-Seijo: Project Description / Marina Reyes Franco 241
An Interview with Chemi Rosado-Seijo / Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Marina Reyes Franco, and Beatriz Santiago Muñoz 245
Part IV. Indigeneity 255
14. Ala Plastica: Project Description / Fabian Cerejido 259
Otros-Nosotros: An Interview with Ala Plastica / Grant Kester 261
15. Interviwe with Pablo Sanaguano / Maria Fernanda Cartagena 279
16. The Empowerment Process of Community Communication in Ecuador / Alberto Muenala 297
Part V. Migrations 305
17. Of Co-Investigations and Aesthetic Sustenance: A Conversation / Colectivo Situaciones and Electronic Disturbance Theater / B.A.N.G. Lab 309
18. How Three Artists Led the Queens Museum into Corona and Beyond / Prerana Reddy 321
Part VI. Institutional Critique 339
19. Lurawi, Doing: An Anarchist Experience—Ch'ixi / LXS Colectiverxs 343
20. Con la Salud si se Juega: Project Description / Fabian Cerejido 367
The Tournament: Nodes of a Network Made of Undisciplined Knowledge / Juan Carlos Rodríguez 369
21. La Lleca Colectiva: Project Description / Elize Mazadiego 388
Exodus to La Lleca: Exiting from "Art" and "Politics" in Mexico / La Lleca 391
22. La Línea: Project Description / Elize Mazadiego 403
The Morras Project / Interdisciplinario la Línea/La Línea Interdisciplinary Group: Abril Castro, Esmeralda Ceballos, Kara Lynch, Lorena Mancilla, and Sayak Valencia-Miriam García 406
Contributors 413
Index 423

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