FERNANDO TICOULAT / JOÃO PAULO SIQUEIRA LOPES
The book brings together 35 emblematic sites for the artistic and cultural circuit of the Brasil, Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, México, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Panamá and Cuba, documenting art exhibitions, buildings, institutions, and activities to promote art. The publication presents unpublished images, critical texts and interviews with curators and leaders, establishing connections, similarities, and differences in the Latin American artistic environment. The purpose of this mapping is to be a worldwide artistic reference of museums, foundations, art residencies, independent art spaces and sculpture parks in Latin Amrica. "Success itself is a measure that belongs to the logic of the unsustainable, and the results of such a valuation method are evident; exhibitions are increasingly costlier to produce as insurance, transportation and packing expenses increase; collecting works of art is nearly impossible, among many other issues. Many museum institutions in Latin America have entered this vicious cycle, looking towards institutions in the United States or Europe without thinking of their local contexts, organizing blockbuster exhibitions of so-called blue-chip artists to bring in a public that is only interested in the selfie moment with an instagrammable artwork. If this model has not already proved itself unsustainable (especially in public institutions vulnerable to budget cuts), in time it will, and will only result in the depletion of institutions' energies and resources, both human and material, to the point of exhaustion and even foreclosure." --Page 46.
