Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this essay, critic and performer Silvio de Gracia explains the importance of and provides context for “action art” in Latin America. He demonstrates its specificity in the region, showing how it differs from similar tendencies in Europe and [...]

This book on artist Cildo Meireles forms part of the ABC—Arte Brasileira Contemporânea—a collection published by the Fundação Nacional de Artes (Funarte), a governmental organization with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The volume contains the [...]

Artist Milton Machado discusses the response abroad, specifically in England, to the group show Continuum Brazilian Art 1960s–1990s, held in Essex in 1995. Machado comments on the appeal of a certain “exoticism” attributed to [...]

This text by art critic Paulo Venâncio Filho, written for the joint 1989 exhibition of Tunga (1952–2016) and Cildo Meireles held in Belgium, addresses the vision of Brazilian art within Brazil and from abroad, among other matters. [...]

In this essay, the critic Ronaldo Brito reviews the experimental installations created by Cildo Meireles, and discusses the constant deconstruction of expectations he finds in the artist’s work. According to Brito, Cildo’s work “dismantles the [...]

This work by Cildo Meireles is a clear rebuff to the art world, a pointed politico-ideological dismissal of the artistic status quo as manifested in capitalist society. It is essentially a thoroughly political work that arises from the same [...]

This interview features Luís Otávio Pimentel and Flammarion, the organizers of and participants in Orgramurbana, the happening at the Aterro do Flamengo beach in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. Both of them say that Orgramurbana was a “post concept” [...]

This is a proposal for a work of art, by Cildo Meireles, to be called “Inserções em Circuitos Ideológicos — Projeto Coca-Cola.” In the proposal, the Brazilian artist gives specific instructions for the execution of the project: make the [...]

This is a review of the following emblematic works produced by Cildo Meireles: “Inserções em Circuitos Ideológicos,” “Espaços Virtuais: Cantos,” and “Blindhotland.” According to the art critic Wilson Coutinho, these works suggest a [...]

Cildo Meireles explains his series Blindhotland in the wider context of his production. In his view, Blindhotland demonstrates the limits and limitations of vision as opposed to the senses of touch and smell. Indeed, this would be a constant concern [...]

This is a description of Sermão da Montanha: Fiat Lux, the work by Cildo Meireles that consists of a pile of 160 thousand match boxes. The exhibition was installed at the Centro Cultural Cândido Mendes, in Rio de Janeiro, on April 25, 1979. There [...]

According to curator Carolina Ponce de León, the recent focus on multiculturalism, identity, and difference has lent renewed visibility to Latin American art, although it is understood strictly in terms of otherness. Multiculturalism has also given [...]

Aracy Amaral comments in this essay on the term “Latin American” as an aesthetic category, which would suggest being identified as something different and also the need to search for universal values. This would be one of the paths: the denial of [...]