“PanAmericana”

Curated by Jens Hoffmann, this group exhibition presents the work of twenty-two emerging artists from the Americas. After observing, during his travels, the scant communication among Latin American artists, Hoffmann set out to construct a setting for dialogue. Here he also attempts to reactivate the idea of Pan-Americanism, as it was theorized in the early nineteenth century when Latin American colonies were gaining independence, as well as the sense of unity expressed by the revolutionary war heroes Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín. The two equestrian sculptures by Adrián Villar Rojas, which were made with the help of César Martins, Alan Legal, and Mariano Marsicano, in The Death of General Lavalle (The Eternal Butterflies) (all works cited 2010), represent such idealistic notions, as well as their ruin. Nearby, Mariana Castillo Deball’s Tu movimiento junta una estatua ficticia (Your Movement Beside a Fictitious Statue) is a fiberglass copy of an ancient sculpture of the Aztec god Coatlicue, which is exhibited at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. This work serves to emphasize Hoffmann’s interest in how “the relics of the past, and their display, interact with the artistic activities of the present,” as he writes in the show’s materials. Hoffmann’s concern for historical displays serves to construct a beautiful exhibition; however, the implications of looking at art from Latin America through the perspective of anthropology generates a feeling of unease. Works like Wilfredo Prieto’s Cuba libre (Free Cuba), which consists of two puddles of rum and Coca-Cola on the floor of the exhibition space, suggest that freedom for Cuba depends on the help of the United States. It therefore prompts the viewer to ponder the implications of the term Pan-Americanism in relation to the Monroe Doctrine, and the consequences of classifying specific artistic practices according to region.