The Shifting View on Anthropofagia
Tarsila is closely associated with the establishment of the Brazilian art movement known as cultural “cannibalism,” or “Anthropofagia”: the then-radical idea that a truly Brazilian art would emerge by ingesting all the different cultures that intermingled within the country, rather than simply copying European styles.
MEXICO CITY — Of the half-dozen pieces that form Tania Bruguera’s series “Tatlin’s Whisper,” the one that the Cuban government silenced may have resounded most.
The Eye that Cries (El Ojo que Llora, in Spanish) is a memorial that was born as a private initiative designed to honor the thousands of victims as a result of terrorism in Peru, to strengthen the collective memory of all Peruvians and to promote peace and reconciliation in the country.
On August 16, 2019 thousands of women marched in various cities across Mexico. One particular case may have triggered them, but these marches were an answer to the systematic violence against women and girls in our country.
A troupe of approximately thirty women and men of various ages, sizes, ethnicities and performance backgrounds marched through the performance art space of SESC-Vila Mariana in Sao Paulo and then through the streets of downtown Sao Paulo, silent, blind folded, dressed in business attire, and covered completely with a gray mud. The performances walked slowly in unison at turtle's pace.
Artists in Rio de Janeiro have staged a pop-up street show to protest against the closure by the new far-right state government of an exhibition because of a performance attacking dictatorship-era torture.
"Brazilian artist Mundano is used to spending his time on the road and in the streets, making art as an act of protest. Known for leaving his colorful works of graffiti on walls around the world, Mundano is especially dedicated to issues of environmental and social justice and spotlighting the overlooked work of Brazil’s trash collectors through his Pimp My Carroça campaign.
"A week-long party characterizes Brazil’s Carnival, the Mardi Gras of the southern hemisphere. Celebrations and parades are held throughout the country, most notably in the city of Rio de Janeiro and the Brazilian states of Bahia and Pernambuco. Carnival celebrations vary in length and content, depending on the area.
It was October 31st, 2012, when a new artist appeared on social media. In a series of video clips, she proposed with a soft and slow speech that Peru hide its poverty. Her project consisted of installing vinyl pieces to avoid what she called "the visual pollution." She titled the project Don't be poor, be fashion(able).
Daniel Arzola, a digital artist and activist originally from Maracay, Venezuela, began his series, 'No Soy Tu Chiste' ('I Am Not A Joke') in 2013 intent on combating the stereotypes and cruelty so often facing LGBT identifiers; youth in particular. The project went viral in 2014, around the same time it teamed up with the It Gets Better Project based in the United States.
The "I'm Not A Joke" campaign from Daniel Arzola is a series of images inscribed with compelling truths about human diversity that encourages individuals to live as their authentic selves. He wants the images to eventually appear on buses and subways, exposing audiences to the realities of queer experiences in an attempt to break down prejudice in a form of activism that he calls "Artivism."
Through his environmental, social justice organization, Instituto-E, Dr. Oskar Metsavaht, the creative director behind ethical fashion brand, Osklen, joined forces with Rainer Nolvak, founder of international civic sanitation movement, Let's Do it and Umer Pter, head of External Relations and Estonian delegate at the Rio+20 U.N.
Last month, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, dozens of women gathered outside the supreme court building in Santiago, Chile—a country now beset by popular uprisings against inequality—for a feminist flash mob.
Thousands of Indigenous activists and environmentalists have converged in one of the Amazon’s biggest cities to voice their hopes and fears about the future of the world’s biggest rainforest.
The Brazilian city of Belém will this week host a two-day conclave bringing together the presidents of eight Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
ARTS/CULTURE
FOKAL is the hub in Haiti where locals and international visitors from all walks of life -- artists, writers, citizens, activists-- come together to discuss the most pressing nation- and community-building issues, enjoy cutting edge artistic expressions, and share their ideas.
In March this year, less than 100 days since he took office again, Luis Castañeda Lossio, Mayor of Lima, announced that the Municipality would remove the street art murals painted on the walls of downtown Lima’s historical city streets. “Lima has to recover all the architectural quality it has. They have chosen us and we will comply with the obligation that the population has consigned us,” said the mayor.
Vegan-friendly cosmetics brand LUSH is launching the “Shark Attack” campaign to save sharks from slaughter on World Oceans Day (June 8). Starting today, LUSH will re-launch its popular vegan Shark Fin Soap online (available in-store starting June 8) and donate 100 percent of the $5.95 sales price to The Rob Stewart Sharkwater Foundation, an organization created to continue the work of late ocean conservationist and filmmaker Rob Stewart.
Regina Galindo is a Guatemalan performance artist that uses her body as a means to explore many of the human rights violations in Guatemala. In one of her performances, " no perdemos nada con nacer," or " we don't lose anything by being born," the artist "disposes" of herself in a plastic bag.
A young man melting into a puddle of himself is something you don’t see everyday, much less in a busy public square. Yet this humourous but surprisingly effective spectacle is the latest effort by the Red Cross of Argentina to raise awareness about climate change.
La Casa Negra is a moving artist squat that occupies houses destined for demolition as temporary venues for site specific performance art in Barranco (Lima, Peru). Artists use all of the available rooms (kitchen, bathrooms, stairs, backyard) to enact a series of critical art pieces, while using the space as a demonstration of artist resilience in an increasingly gentrifying neighborhood.
Aníbal López, also known by his government identification number A-153167, is a pioneer of performance art in Central America. ArtBus describes his work as, "Generally aimed at immersing viewers into the region’s social and political tensions, his works combine the dry language of 1960/1970s conceptual art with the revolutionary ethos of a Latin American guerrillero.
I think this is a very interesting project that is intended to pay hommage by showcasing portraits of survivors of the Cuban revolution. They are displayed in the streets of Havana and, as the artists explains, this is a place that lacks commercial advertising/ billboards in the streets. So they are displaying the courage and strength of those, people who should be admired, earned their place in a sense.
The notorious, wanted, and merciless leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico,"Jouquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was captured by Mexican Marines last month. This marked a small victory for Mexico's fight to rid the country of its corrupted drug trade. How did this happen? Through intelligence of course, but let us remember Anonymous in Mexico.