Arts of Transition: Visual Culture, Democracy, and Disillusionment in
Latin America

George Flaherty, University of Texas at Austin; and Luis Castañeda,
Syracuse University. Email: gflahertymail.utexas.edu and
lmcastansyr.edu

The so-called transition to democracy in Latin America, with origins in
nineteenth-century independence movements, has often turned on acts
ofvisualization. National elites asked compatriots to overlook the
paucity
and social injustice of the present to envision a prosperous and equitable
future as a result of political (and market) reforms. Very often compelled
to take leaps of faith based on modernity rather than modernization itself,
cultural citizenship was greatly if unevenly expanded. Oscar Niemeyer’s
designs for Brasilia and Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jesús Rafael Soto, and
Alejandro Otero’s kinetic art installations in Caracas are “prescient”
examples. The utopian aspects of these interventions—frequently at odds
with social realities—are well documented, but the counter-imaginaries that
flourished within and parallel to them are not quite as evident. This panel
invites papers that investigate the tension between visual/spatial cultures
and manifestations of illusion, disillusion, and representation. Papers
exploring this relationship in understudied regions of Latin America are
especially encouraged, as are papers that situate national studies within
broader networks of real or conjured exchange.

For further information on the CAA conference and directions for
submitting abstracts, please visit:
http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2013CallforParticipation.pdf or
http://www.collegeart.org/news/2012/03/28/propose-a-paper-or-presentation-for-the-2013-annual-conference/--