Plural Domains: Selected Works from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collection

reflects on both the multidisciplinary practices of Latin American contemporary art

and on its diversity as a conceptual frame that is inclusive of a varied universe of voices.

The exhibition comprises 31 established, mid-career, and emerging artists from

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay,

and Venezuela, and features works of art in multiple media, including painting, sculpture,

drawing, photography, video, as well as large-scale multimedia installations.

Having debuted at the Cuenca Biennial in 2018, this is the first time this exhibition

is presented at an arts institution in the United States.

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The different fields of knowledge addressed by the artists highlight contemporary

Latin American art’s plurality. As stated by the curator of the exhibition, Jesús Fuenmayor,

the artworks included in Plural Domains evidence “the critical awareness of the political, social,

economic, and cultural conditionings of an ever more globalized and at the same time atomized world, the epistemological problems of contemporaneity, and the relationship of art to other disciplines.”

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This diversity of media and concerns has been used by the artists to explore, for example,

how past artistic practices address social issues in a transformative way. In other cases,

the artworks emerge as a critique of the appropriation of knowledge and technology

as instruments of colonization. In this sense, the artworks included in this exhibition

can be read as part of what achille mbembe has defined for the South African context

as a “decolonization project.” That is, through their practice, the artists advance critiques

of colonial institutions and forms of knowledge.

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The collection of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation is one of the most respected

and well-known collections of contemporary Latin American art. The Foundation provides

the artists with unparalleled possibilities by funding the production and exhibition

of their works of art. This collaboration has ensured the preservation of the works included

in this exhibition, which the artists have donated to the Foundation. Furthermore, CIFO

features a collection of Latin American artists whose works are intellectually, politically,

and aesthetically compelling for how they address the current shifts of existence

and thinking in a global context.

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Macarena Deij Prado

Curatorial Assistant & Doctoral Candidate in Art History, UF