Latin American art at MiArt 2008
4 – 7 April 2008
Opening: 3 April, on invitation
MiArt’s Guest Nation project in 2008 is featuring Latin America, a group of countries going through a period of enormous cultural change and perennial transformation in which art is playing a major role in defining the political and cultural identity of each nation.
The Anteprima section of the exhibition will feature a series of international galleries, selected by curator Omar-Pascual Castillo, that, through the works on display, will present an overview of Latin American
art today.
Titled En el posterior de las American, the project boasts the participation of over 20 important international galleries that exhibit Latin American artists. The galleries include Iturralde Gallery of Los Angeles with a solo show by Oscar Munoz, White Box Gallery of New York with an exhibition of works by Teresa Margolles, Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery of Miami with a solo show by Eugenio Espinoza, and EDS Galeria of Mexico City featuring the artist Emilio Chapela Perez.
Castillo says that the selection criterion hinges on the idea that “the Latin America of today goes beyond Latin America, that is, it exists wherever there is a Latin American person. People are constantly on the move, without being limited by geography and, in most cases, out of purely personal interests.” Starting from this premise, the curator has set up a dialogue between Latin American and European galleries and artists who work with contemporary artists who, while they have Latin American roots, are very international. The goal says Castillo, “is to create a dialogue between artistic personalities who trace out an outward and
return journey.”
The invited galleries and artists are therefore attempting to showcase Latin American creativity, a panorama of art that continues to be kaleidoscopic, exciting, irregular and difficult to sum up with generalities. The displayed works demonstrate an interesting variety of languages that the artists use to go beyond traditional techniques in favor of extra-pictorial media. These are the tools the artists use to tell the stories of a great region that is looking for a model for autonomous development. The emergencies of social disintegration and exclusion that the various democratic governments are facing come alive in the region’s artworks, in which the urban space – as the focal point of change and contradiction – is often the central theme.
Each artist has been selected for having pursued a coherent line of experimentation based around an idea art for art’s sake and without regard for today’s cynical marketing of culture.
According to Castillo, the Latin American art Project Room will navigate “a world in which an encyclopedic approach is not possible and the maps are part of process whose ending you cannot guess. The decision to focus on the subject is the best, since it corresponds to the interpretation of the continent in which we are located as mere observers.”
MiArt 2008: 4 -7 April 2008
Opening: 3 April, on invitation
Fieramilanocity, Milan, pad. 1-2-4
MiArt – Fiera Milano International
Via Varesina, 76 – 20156 Milan – I
Tel. + 39 02 485501 / Fax +39 0248550420
e-mail miart@fmi.it
Press Office
Maria Grazia Vernuccio:
Tel: +39 02 48550474 / Mob: +39 335 1282864 / E-mail: press_miart@fmi.it
Equipe Milano – Olivia Spatola & Valentina Sartorio:
Tel: +39 02 34538354 / Fax: +39 02 34538355 / E-mail: olivia.spatola@equipemilano.com & valentina.sartorio@equipemilano.com
