Politics of representation/Politics of inclusion. Revival of the debate on the nature of Latin-American art during the first phase of globalization (1980-1990)

Abstract

This article analyzes the reactivation of the debate

on “Latin-Americanness” in art through controversies

generated by the great panoramic exhibitions

devoted to the art of the region mounted in the late

1980s and early 1990s on both sides of the Atlantic.

It examines the triple front from which the

questioning of this series of exhibitions was articulated:

minority groups active within the “centers”;

theorists operating from the margins of the artistic

and economic system; and a group of exhibitions

organized from within the “North” that represented

criticism of the prevailing representations of

Latin American art. These interventions articulated

various ways of conceiving “Latin America” and its

art, which are analyzed here along with the diverse

strategies attempted for renegotiating the representation

of the arts of the “South” and their inclusion

in the incipient global scenario.