Descripción de la Exposición
The exhibition Basta! in the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, focuses on current artistic practices coming out of Latin America – especially those dealing with the interplay of art and life addressing harsh aspects of reality. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication and a symposium on “Art and Violence in Latin America Today,” with discussions on the topic by major scholars and artists in the field. The publication features the works included in Basta! by Latin American artists Iván Argote (Colombia), Marcelo Cidade (Brazil), Regina José Galindo (Guatemala), Aníbal Lopez (Guatemala), Teresa Margolles (Mexico), José Carlos Martinat (Peru), Yucef Merhi (Venezuela), Alice Miceli (Brazil), Mondongo (Juliana Laffitte and Manuel Mendanha -Argentina), Moris (Mexico), Armando Ruiz (Colombia), Giancarlo Scaglia (Peru), Javier Téllez (Venezuela), and Juan Toro (Venezuela). They address topics such as crime, vandalism, transgression, gender-based violence, illegal immigration, drug cartels and state power. The publication also has insightful essays on the subject of art and violence by scholars and curators Claudia Calirman, Isabela Villanueva, Estrellita B. Brodsky, and Cecilia-Fajardo Hill.
EXHIBITION
In a time when we are shocked by images of worldwide atrocities, we should ask where does the horror of the spectacle stop. For many artists, the challenging dilemma is how do they present brutality in the visual arts without adding more terror to it. In order to expose existing mechanisms of injustice, violence, and inequality, the Latin American artists featured in Basta! bring their own experiences and responses to diverse forms of crime, brutality, and exploitation. By blurring the lines between legality and illegality, crime and justice, they are interested in the effects of the remains of violence. Their practices can be viewed as a remembrance of horrific deeds, an act against indifference and forgetting brutality. They follow the traces and vestiges left by violence, so the reminiscences of the events don’t disappear. In most cases they are torn between the desire to depict traumatic events, and the recognition that it is not possible to render them in fullness by its mere visual representation.
SYMPOSIUM: ART & VIOLENCE IN LATIN AMERICA TODAY
This symposium offers a discussion among Latin American scholars and artists on responses to art and violence in Latin America today. The challenge is how to render brutality in the visual arts without adding more dismay to it. How to represent violence without anesthetizing it to the level of the banal? How to honor the death of those who were destitute of legal and political representation? How can artists address the region’s rampant corruption, social inequality, crime, the unlawful operations imposed by the drug cartels in a responsible way, given the paradoxical dilemma: How to visually address what is beyond representation?
SCHEDULE:
3:00pm: Introduction: Claudia Calirman (John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
3:15pm: Keynote Speaker: Gustavo Buntinx (Peruvian Art historian, theorist, curator, and museum activist)
4:00pm: Panel 1: Artists Mondongo (Juliana Laffitte & Manuel Mendanha) and Javier Téllez/ Moderator Isabela Villanueva
4:45pm: Break
5:00pm: Panel 2: Estrellita B. Brodsky, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Gabriela Rangel/ Moderator Claudia Calirman
Q & A
Exposición. 19 nov de 2024 - 02 mar de 2025 / Museo Nacional del Prado / Madrid, España
Formación. 23 nov de 2024 - 29 nov de 2024 / Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) / Madrid, España
