Mathieu Corp
Research Project
Artistic Practices and Iconoclastic Gestures in Latin America: Producing Alternative Visibility Regimes of Heritage
Project Abstract
This research project focuses on a corpus of works, practices, and gestures by Latin American artists that question the notions of heritage and monumentality, as well as the readings and forms of media representation of the past deployed in public spaces by places of power, history, and memory. Their practices stage iconoclastic gestures on statues and monuments, and more broadly on iconographic heritage, in public spaces as well as in exhibition spaces of the art world. They rely on semiotic transformations and sometimes deploy performative gestures that reflect problematic relationships with the past and conflicting memories.
Reappropriation, deconstruction, reinterpretation, or updating constitute different modalities of critical reinterpretations of the history and evolution of Latin American societies and their relationship to images. The practices and gestures implemented by artists aim to question and interfere with the social and political functions of images located in public spaces or museums. By highlighting the conflicts of history, they challenge any hierarchical and univocal conception of heritage and produce alternative visibility regimes.
For New Conceptions of Heritage
The notion of “counter-monumentality” emerged at the end of the 20th century to characterize interventions and installations that, often precarious, oppose the edifying character of monuments and offer alternative narratives to official history. Many Latin American artists participate in and model iconoclastic practices in their works, embracing the notion of counter-monumentality to explore alternative conceptions of heritage and its inherent rigidity. Notable artists include Venezuelans Jessica Briceño and Alexander Apóstol, Colombians Doris Salcedo, Iván Argote, Carlos Castro Arias, and Nelsol Fory Ferreira, Chileans Andrés Durán and Enrique Matthey, Brazilian Rosângela Rennó, and the duo of Cuban Guillermo Calzadilla and American Jenifer Allora, as well as the Bolivian collective “Mujeres creando” and Mexican “Huellas de la memoria,” which eschew individual authorship in favor of collective and militant practice.
The precariousness of their staged interventions, both temporally and materially, opposes the edifying character of monuments and aligns with a renewal of heritage conceptions. In this project, analyzing the aesthetic resources these practices rely on and the heterogeneity of the transformations they deploy should allow for the development of a typology of iconoclastic gestures. This typology ranges from the staging—and imaging—of the disappearance of the image to the reconquest of the projection and visibility space it enjoys in public or symbolically significant spaces like museums.
By mapping iconoclastic practices and gestures on a Latin American scale, we aim to distinguish shared practices and issues. These are hybrid practices, both militant and artistic, implemented by artists and collectives, aiming to extend the potential of visual arts beyond the traditional spaces of the art world, predominantly frequented by an elite. Sometimes grouped under the neologism “artivism,” various terms identify these interpellative practices: artistic activism, happening, performance. In works exhibited in traditional art world spaces, as well as in temporary appropriations of public space by collectives or artists, iconoclastic gestures serve a concrete utopia: to break free from a hierarchical and monolithic representation of the past (and the nation), almost always patriarchal, to pluralize conceptions and readings while embracing conflict as a driver of history.
Biography
Mathieu Corp holds a Ph.D. in Information and Communication Sciences and is currently an Associate Professor in Visual Arts and Latin American Studies at Aix-Marseille University. He is also a member of the Aix Center for Romance Studies (EA 854). His research focuses on the relationships between art, history, and politics in contemporary visual arts in Latin America. In his work, he analyzes images based on their historical, political, and sociocultural contexts, and the devices (media, discursive, and scenographic) that give them meaning. He also traces, beyond the field of art, the iconographic connections and transfers between images, aiming to understand and contextualize the political stakes they embody and the social functions they serve. His research highlights the pivotal role of the arts in understanding visual culture, especially in their ability to highlight and question our use of images.
He teaches visual arts within the Department of Hispanic and Latin American Studies and has participated in and organized scientific events involving educational, cultural, and artistic activities in partnership with art and culture professionals.
