Abstract

CANTERO, Emanuel. To cure the past: theory, curatorship and dialogue in a contemporary indigenous art exhibition of the Gran Chaco Gualamba. Mem. Soc. [online]. 2018, vol.22, n.44, pp.6-23. ISSN 0122-5197.  https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.mys22-44.cptc.

This work is a response to a contemporary indigenous art exhibition titled «Gran Chaco Gualamba - Arte, Cosmovisión, Soberanía» (Chaco, Argentina; July 2013). Consistent with the purposes of this exhibition, the arti cle problematizes curatorial practice as a way to present the artistic production of the indigenous populations as significant artifacts inti mately involved in the daily community life, and not merely as autonomous artistic objects with no social function. By contrasting the definitions provided by the curatorial team, the corpus of artworks exhibited and the native peoples' speech, the article shows how the exhibit fails to recover the link between art, cosmovisions and community life because the native populations themselves consider these three spheres as an outdated historical circumstance, previous to the colonization processes. Finally, the current struggles of the communities are mapped which, in the absence of that harmonious past, pose their identity as a necessary resistance for a better future.

Keywords : indigenous art; contemporary art; curatorship; cosmovisions; identity.

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