This announcement is a sort of manifesto presented by three artists: Artur Barrio, Dinah Guimaraens, and Lauro Cavalcanti. It is a critique of the creation and presentation of the I Bienal Latino-Americana, whose theme was “Mitos e Magia.” This event took place from November 3 to December 17, 1978 in São Paulo, and included works from 13 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. As part of the Mitos Vadios [Vagabond Myths] group, the three artists were not totally opposed to the Biennial; they just refused to participate in it as though they were “the institutionalization of an avant-garde.” In their manifesto, the group questions the position taken by the Colombian-Argentinean critic Marta Traba, who had advocated a return to oil painting—as though she were catering to the art market—and takes issue with the Biennial’s theme, suggesting that “myths and magic can be found in the street and the countryside in their natural state, and are therefore far removed from the most prevalent aspects of Brazilian reality.” The group’s announcement ends with a discussion of the status of art criticism in Brazil and the rest of Latin America.
