12th EDITION (2019/01) - CALL FOR PAPERS

PERSPECTIVES AND POETICS OF CONTEMPORARY  ART PRODUCTION IN AND ABOUT THE VISUAL ARTS  IN AND FROM LATIN AMERICAPaz Lopez - Diego Portales University, Chile - plopess@gmail.comRosângela Fachel - Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas - paralelo31.revista@gmail.comDeadline for submissions: June 12, 2019Figure: Image of "A Logo for America" (1987), by Alfredo JaarPERSPECTIVES AND POETICS OF CONTEMPORARY  ART PRODUCTION IN AND ABOUT THE VISUAL ARTS  IN AND FROM LATIN AMERICAPaz Lopez - Diego Portales University, Chile - plopess@gmail.com Rosângela Fachel - Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas - paralelo31.revista@gmail.comIn 2014, the Guggenheim Project UBS MAP Global Art Initiative held the exhibition Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today (https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/under-the-same-sun-art-from-latin%20-america-today), with the Mexican curator Pablo León de la Barra. The exhibition was presented as an investigation into the contemporary Latin American artists' response to the complex reality they share from their colonial and modern histories of repressive governments, economic crises and social inequality, as well as simultaneous periods of economic wealth, development and progress in the region. The exhibition would then present contemporary artistic responses to the past and the present, as well as imaginary possible futures. Combining works from thirty-seven artists from sixteen countries, the exhibition was organized around five thematic axes: "Conceptualism and its Legacies", "Tropicologies", "Political Activism", "Modernism and its Failures" and "Participation / Emancipation", which, according to the curators,  would contemplate art-defining issues in Latin America at the time. In 2015, the exhibition with its title translated into Portuguese  - Sob o mesmo sol: arte da América Latina hoje, was presented at the Museum of Modern Art - MAM, São Paulo, Brazil; and with its title translated in Spanish   - Bajo el mismo sol: arte de América Latina hoy, was exhibited at the Jumex Museum, Mexico City, Mexico.This exhibition can be read as the heir of a series of curatorial projects, based in the hegemonical centers of art production, that had attempted to redefine the ethical, political and aesthetic problems that would determine the conditions of production and circulation of Latin American art. We recall, for example, Magiciens de la terre (Georges Pompidou, 1989); The Bride of the Sun (Royal Museum of Antwerp, 1991); Latin American Artists of the 20th Century (Museum of Modern Art of New York, 1993). So what would Latin American Art be? The question does not refer to an essence, but to questioning the representations that are at stake when it comes to "rewriting the historical geography of modern and contemporary art" (BARRIENDOS, 2009) in Latin America, and its struggles to redefine itself. The very denomination (more geopolitical than continental) -  Latin + America - combines references to the new and the old world, alluding to its hybrid and composite aspects, besides being a new way to name the continent that ended up losing its name to the United States, that is, ‘America’. But while there was an attempt made at continental identification, one must also recognize the geographical diversity that divides the continent into four sub-regions: Andean, Amazonian, Platina American and Central American Caribbean, in which different cultures and civilizations have developed, and what Ángel Rama (2001) calls "cultural counties [cultural districts]”. It should be kept in mind that although Latin American peoples possess common cultural features, they also have, as Hugo Achugar (2004) points out, heterogeneities based on places, landscapes and territories, which have distanced them.But even if the idea of the existence of an artwork that can be understood as Latin American seems to us questionable, above all, because it comes from a geopolitical classification, which takes the place of origin and production as defining cultural identities. This allows us to (re)think and (re)define the existence of common visual poetics and discourses that permeate the various art practices and question the Latin American representations in contexts of cultural hegemony. It is therefore fundamental to generate constant and simultaneous issues about how these cultural frames and perspectives are chosen, for they try to classify and define these productions, as they identify tendencies and angles for perception, they can also create new ones.With these questions in mind, we propose this dossier as a space for the discussion of contemporary Latin American art production in all its aspects and shades. In addition to theoretical-critical reflection on works, artists and trends, developed in articles in essays, we are also interested in visual essays produced by contemporary Latin American artists, as well as interviews and reviews of works, publications and exhibitions related to the theme.Deadline for submissions: June 12, 2019In addition to the "Dossier" proposed, Paralelo 31 accepts original and unpublished papers - articles, critical reviews, essays, visual essays and interviews on the contemporary arts and on art education, curatorship, criticism and contemporary art history. The journal Parallel 31 publishes twice a year and also accepts submissions in continuous flux written by doctoral researchers, professors and master's students in co-authorship with their advising professor.