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CREATED BETWEEN the 1960s and the present—often amid milieus of political oppression and socioeconomic unrest—the works in this survey of twenty Latin American artists include computerized sculptures, performance documentation, kinetic assemblages, interactive installations, videos, and wearable art. The exhibition touches on themes such as cybernetics, environmental issues, feminism, and colonialism, with much of the work addressing how technology mediates communication and experience.
The show revolves around the concept of “arteônica,” the term a portmanteau of the Portuguese for “art and technology” that comes from Italo-Brazilian artist Waldemar Cordeiro (1925–1973). In his treatise for a 1971 show of the same name in São Paulo, Cordeiro presented a broad definition of arteônica as a means of “objectifying ideas through images” by synthesizing computers’ systematic logic with artistic experimentation. His computer-generated abstractions of Time magazine pictures only coalesce into images when viewed from afar, bringing to mind how important issues are reduced to ones and zeroes within the digital realm—a notion that could be interpreted as freeing or confining, depending on one’s outlook.
Some of the most compelling pieces in the show are interactive, with experiential light, color, and sound components changing according to viewers’ movements. Inside Peruvian artist Teresa Burga’s dark room, Work That Disappears When the Spectator Tries to Approach It, 1970/2017/2024, is a large patterned square formed by colored lightbulbs that gradually turn off, line by line, as the viewer approaches, with the square getting smaller until it abruptly disappears, leaving glowing afterimages upon the retinas of anyone having come too near. In addition to the phenomenological aspects of this piece, the elusive quality alludes to the futility of grasping for meaning and to the idea that distance is necessary in order to gain perspective. It also gestures toward the literal disappearances of people under Peru’s 1968–80 junta, during which information was regularly restricted.
Several of the younger artists included here think beyond the current narrow conceptions of what computers are by synthesizing old and new technologies. Examples include Tania Candiani’s Maquina telar, 2011–12, a hand-cranked machine combining an early punch-card computer system with a Jacquard loom to embroider the phrase HECHO A MANO (made by hand) onto decorative labels, and Chilean artist Constanza Piña’s Khipu Prehispanic Electrotextile, 2018, a textile inspired by the Incan information system of cords and knots, which the artist describes as ancient computers made from organic materials. Colonizers burned the original quipus, but Piña’s installation reimagines them as an “antenna” composed of 180 strings hand-spun from copper wire and alpaca wool, which, according to the artist, are knotted in codes containing astronomical data. The cords radiate from a circuit that creates white noise derived from a viewer’s movement in the gallery. Such works drive home the notion that what we take to be cutting-edge technology is actually rooted in centuries of progress and innovation.
It’s interesting to think of this show as a link between the Getty’s previous iteration of Pacific Standard Time, “LA/LA,” which focused on Latin American and Latino art, and the current edition spotlighting art’s relationship to science. Eschewing a singular conceptual thesis in favor of wide-ranging inclusion, “Arteônica” fulfills its mission of demonstrating the enduring appeal of Cordeiro’s call for the union of binary logic and artistic experimentation, while championing historical works by artists from an oft-overlooked region. These artists found ways for their creative expression, societal criticism, and technical innovation to flourish despite oppressive regimes and political unrest. The theme seems particularly relevant in the US right now.
“Arteônica: Art, Science, and Technology in Latin America Today” is on view through February 23.
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