Pablo Oyarzún wrote this short essay, Lectura de escena (Reading the Scene), about a book by Nelly Richard in which he identifies four main themes: (1) support for the artistic, poetic, and discursive practices that the Escena de Avanzada deployed against the repressive ideological structure of the dictatorship; (2) during the post-transition period, the validity and effectiveness of those practices that were then unknown and absent from the contemporary Chilean scene; (3) acknowledgement of a characterization of the types of strategy and operating models of practices that, in the post-transition period, are almost nonexistent (fragmentation, discontinuity, and destruction, among others); (4) discussion of the Avanzada’s artistic production with the social sciences, whose representatives neglected to talk to each other during the dictatorship. Based on these four approaches, Oyarzún addresses other relevant issues, such as the tone of Richard’s writing, the relationship of the arts to the social sciences, and the Escena de Avanzada as fiction, among others. The author also states that the first three points were amply discussed and identify Richard’s critical perspective, which is most clearly expressed in her book Margins and Institutions: Art in Chile since 1973 (1986).

The book El rabo del ojo: ejercicios y conatos de crítica (The Corner of the Eye: Critical Exercises and Attempts, 2003), by the critic, essayist, and translator Pablo Oyarzún, includes several critical essays and articles that were previously published in various books and exhibition catalogues. In the countless texts that appear in the book, Oyarzún writes about literature, art criticism, and the visual arts, with references to various people in the different fields in which he works, such as Juan Emar, Patricia Vargas, Gonzalo Díaz, Nelly Richard, Juan Downey, and Virgina Errázuriz [see the ICAA Digital Archive (doc. no. 747293)].

In his essay “Lectura de escena” (Reading the Scene), Oyarzún discusses Richard’s recently published book about the Escena de Avanzada and the movement’s artistic and discursive practices during Chile’s military regime, the relationship between the visual arts and the social sciences, and life under the dictatorship.   

Nelly Richard is a cultural theorist, academic, founder of the Revista de Crítica Cultural, and author of several books about the visual arts and gender and feminist theory, including Abismos temporales: feminismo, estéticas travestis y teoría queer (Temporal Abysses: Feminism, Transvestite Aesthetics, and Queer Theory, 2018); Residuos y metáforas: ensayos de crítica cultural sobre el Chile de la Transición (Residues and Metaphors: Cultural Criticism Essays about Chile during the Transition Period, 1998); La insubordinación de los signos: cambio político, transformaciones culturales y poéticas de la crisis (The Insubordination of Signs: Political Change, Cultural Transformations, and Poetics of the Crisis, 1994); and Margins and Institutions: Art in Chile since 1973, (1986), as well as many curatorial articles, catalogues, and essays.