10.18.2013 — 02.10.2014
A new journey through contemporary Latin American art, featuring a selection of more than 100 works from the museum's collection and a series of loans. Included are paintings, drawings, objects, installations, and videos by 60 prominent Latin American artists.
Encounters / Tensions is organized into seven sections, grouped by thematic and formal affinities. It begins with a series of key works from Latin American conceptualism in the late 1960s —which echoes the chronology of the current permanent collection— and continues up to the present day.
As part of this exhibition, Malba presents the addition of six new pieces to its collection by artists Ana Mendieta (Cuba), Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Oscar Muñoz (Colombia), Alfredo Hlito (Argentina, in Gallery 2 on the first floor), Pablo Suárez (Argentina), and the duo Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla (Puerto Rico), thanks to purchases and donations managed by the Acquisitions Committee.
With Encounters / Tensions, Malba reaffirms its mission to collect, preserve, study, and disseminate Latin American art from the early 20th century to the present day. “We reaffirm the museum's commitment to promoting art from the region through the constant expansion of its collection and the exhibition and promotion of the region's leading artists,” says Eduardo F. Costantini, founder and president of Malba.
Current debates on contemporary art highlight the tension between local and universal relationships. Today, the Eurocentric notion of art is considered obsolete, and there is talk of a breakdown in the globalization project, with cultural regionalism becoming more pronounced. In terms of artistic production, Latin America is a region with distinctive characteristics, but also with well-defined local cultures.
The exhibition space was organized according to conceptual axes and points of contact, but also according to tensions or discrepancies between the beginnings of contemporary Latin American art and current art, and between diverse artistic postulates. The aim is to show continuities or legacies, but also dislocations, controversies, reactions, and changes.
Clusters and Artists
Conceptualisms – Mira Schendel, Liliana Porter, Antônio Dias, Luis Camnitzer, Anna Maria Maiolino, Guillermo Deisler, Nelson Leirner, Margarita Paksa, Marta Minujín, Helio Oiticica, Ana Mendieta
The 1980s, Postmodernism – Guillermo Kuitca, Julio Galán, Marcia Schvartz, Pepe Fernández (José María Fernández), Pablo Suárez, José Bedia Valdés
Neo Dadá – Marcelo Pombo, Alejandra Seeber, Liliana Porter, Liliana Maresca, Sergio Avello, Feliciano Centurión, Omar Schilliro, Andrés Toro, Los Carpinteros, Allora & Calzadilla, León Ferrari, Jorge Gumier Maier, Jorge Macchi, Mondongo
New minimal – Anna María Maioilino, Artur Lescher, Waltercio Caldas, Iran do Espirito Santo, Mariano Dal Verme, Ramsés Larzábal, Lucio Dorr, Oscar Bony, Tomás Saraceno, Fabio Kacero
Transformation of Matter – Leo Battistelli, Artur Lescher, Daniel Joglar, Tomás Espina, Víctor Grippo, Ernesto Neto
Violence – Alfredo Jaar, Fernando Brizuela, Adriana Bustos, Tomás Espina, Oscar Muñoz, Alejandro Cesarco, Víctor Grippo
Geopolitics – Cristina Piffer, Francis Alÿs, José Carlos Martinat, León Ferrari, Miguel Angel Ríos, Fernando Bryce, María Teresa Ponce, Civil Society Collective
Works by artists Matías Duville, Eduardo Stupía, Pablo Siquier, Gachi Hasper, Cristina Schiavi, Mónica Giron, and Gabriel Baggio will also be on display in the second-floor gallery.
