Descripción de la Exposición
The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) is delighted to announce the opening of Poema Colectivo Revolución, curated by Luis Camnitzer, in its New York City space. Bringing together more than three hundred contributions to the international mail art project Poema Colectivo Revolución, this exhibition continues the inaugural series of ISLAA’s on-site curatorial program, which highlights conceptual strategies in Latin American art.
In 1981, the Mexican artist group Colectivo 3—comprising Aarón Flores, Araceli Zúñiga, Blanca Noval Vilar, and César Espinosa Vera—issued an open call for contributions to a collaborative artwork titled Poema Colectivo Revolución. Inspired by the 1979 Sandinista-led uprising in Nicaragua, the group sought to produce a “collective poem” about the theme of revolution, inviting artists and writers to submit their responses to this open-ended prompt on copies of the same letter-size sheet of paper.
The open call received hundreds of mailed-in replies from forty-three countries that, viewed in unison, map out a network of solidarity at a moment of mounting global tensions and economic turmoil. Encompassing typed and handwritten verses, ink and pencil drawings, newspaper collages, and Xerox photocopies, the project cohered a vast array of artistic approaches and ideological perspectives to creatively imagine alternatives to social realities. While some contributors directly addressed the political situation in Nicaragua, most reflected on personal interests and on the ideals and implications of revolutionary action, with works ranging from playfully subversive to skeptically critical. Revisited today, Poema Colectivo Revolución remains a remarkable document of mail art whose radical spirit and aesthetic eccentricity continue to resonate, forty years after its creation.
This exhibition presents the majority of the existing contributions to Poema Colectivo Revolución, including 338 multimedia works on paper. It is accompanied by an original bilingual publication, featuring an essay by Luis Camnitzer in Spanish and English. Poema Colectivo Revolución is curated by Luis Camnitzer, with assistance from Olivia Casa, Exhibition and Curatorial Manager at ISLAA.
ISLAA is open from Tuesday through Saturday, and guests are required to follow COVID-19 precautions while on-site. To schedule a viewing, please visit the appointment page.
ISLAA would like to express its gratitude to Araceli Zúñiga and César Espinosa Vera for preserving the contents of Poema Colectivo Revolución before they entered the Institute’s collection. Their efforts have made this exhibition possible.
About the Curator
Luis Camnitzer (b. Germany, 1937) is a Uruguayan artist and writer who moved to New York in 1964. He was at the vanguard of 1960s Conceptualism, working primarily in printmaking, sculpture, and installations. Camnitzer’s work explores themes of repression under systems of power, pedagogical norms, and the deconstruction of familiar frameworks. His humorous, biting, and often politically charged use of language as an artistic medium has distinguished his practice for over four decades.
About ISLAA’s Exhibitions Program
ISLAA is proud to present its exhibitions program on modern and contemporary Latin American art. This initiative continues ISLAA’s mission of advancing scholarship on art from Latin America. It consists of an interrelated series of physical exhibitions in ISLAA’s New York City gallery space and online presentations on its website. Guest curators are invited to draw from ISLAA’s library, archive, and graphic arts collection to develop original research and realize new exhibitions that consider underexamined figures, areas, and periods. This program seeks to promote curatorial innovation and to offer scholars and arts professionals the opportunity to realize exceptional projects that will generate further interest in Latin American art.
About ISLAA
The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) was established in 2011 in order to increase the visibility of Latin American art on a global scale. Since its creation, it has played an international role in fostering advanced research in this field. ISLAA sponsors lectures and symposia given and organized by renowned scholars, contemporary artists, and graduate students. It supports publications that include academic volumes, exhibition catalogues, and artists’ books, as well as groundbreaking exhibitions on modern and contemporary Latin American art.
Exposición. 13 dic de 2024 - 04 may de 2025 / CAAC - Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo / Sevilla, España
Formación. 01 oct de 2024 - 04 abr de 2025 / PHotoEspaña / Madrid, España
