Encounters in Video Art in Latin America

With insightful essays and interviews, this volume examines how artists have experimented with the medium of video across different regions of Latin America since the 1960s.

The emergence of video art in Latin America is marked by multiple points of development, across more than a dozen artistic centers, over a period of more than twenty-five years. When it was first introduced during the 1960s, video was seen as empowering: the portability of early equipment and the possibility of instant playback allowed artists to challenge and at times subvert the mainstream media. Video art in Latin America was--and still is--closely related to the desire for social change. Themes related to gender, ethnic, and racial identity as well as the consequences of social inequality and ecological disasters have been fundamental to many artists' practices.

This compendium explores the history and current state of artistic experimentation with video throughout Latin America. Departing from the relatively small body of existing scholarship in English, much of which focuses on individual countries, this volume approaches the topic thematically, positioning video artworks from different periods and regions throughout Latin America in dialogue with each other. Organized in four broad sections--Encounters, Networks and Archives, Memory and Crisis, and Indigenous Perspectives--the book's essays and interviews encourage readers to examine the medium of video across varied chronologies and geographies.

Author: Elena Shtromberg
Publisher: Getty Research Institute
Published: 02/14/2023
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 2.11lbs
Size: 9.92h x 7.01w x 0.87d
ISBN13: 9781606067918
ISBN10: 1606067915
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Film & Video
- Art | History | Contemporary (1945- )
- Art | Caribbean & Latin American

About the Author
Elena Shtromberg is associate professor of art history at the University of Utah.

Glenn Phillips is senior curator of modern and contemporary collections and head of exhibitions at the Getty Research Institute.