European Network on Latin American Art Studies (ENLAAS)

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From the archive of ISLAA Explore: "Temporality and Technics in Tiempo de descuento" by Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra, who was an ISLAA Writer-in-Residence.

In this article, published last year, Polgovsky Ezcurra offers a close reading of Margarita Paksa’s 1978 video and poem "Tiempo de descuento–cuenta regresiva–la hora cero," exploring how the artist used video technology to question linear time, historical progress, and the relationship between the human body and the machine. The essay also reconsiders Paksa’s place within CAYC’s audiovisual production and highlights the contributions of women artists to the institution’s history.

Click below to read the full essay:

Temporality and Technics in Margarita Paksa's Tiempo de descuento

Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra analyzes Margarita Paksa's performative video and poem Tiempo de descuento-cuenta regresiva-la hora cero, commissione

Photo: Margarita Paksa, Tiempo de descuento-cuenta regresiva-la hora cero (Extra Time-Countdown-Zero Hour), 1978 (stills). Single-channel video, UMATIC/Betamax, color, sound, 10:41 min. Centro de Arte y Comunicación Archive, Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) Library and Archives. © Estate of Margarita Paksa

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At the LASA (Latin American Studies Association) annual congress, ENLAAS will host two roundtables and three members will participate as speakers and present their latest papers.

Programme: 

26 May 2026

13:45 - 15:15 h, Studio B Panel: Arte en movimiento: de bienales у diásporas a estrategias antiimperialistas у antifascistas Speaker: Katerina Valdivia Bruch “Presentist Reframing or Historical Interpretation? Revisiting Teresa Burga’s “Perfil de la mujer peruana””

27 May 2026

10:15 - 11:45 h, Studio I Roundtable: The State of Latin American Art Studies in Europe: Institutions, Networks, and Infrastructures

Participants: Margarida Brito Alves, Katarzyna Cytlak, Laura Karp Lugo, Giulia Lamoni, Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra, and Katerina Valdivia Bruch

Session organiser: Katerina Valdivia Bruch Chair: Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra

12:00 - 13:30 h, Studio F Roundtable: Off the Record: Curatorial Narratives on Latin American Artists from the 1960s and 1970s

Participants: Margarida Brito Alves, Katarzyna Cytlak, Laura Karp Lugo, Giulia Lamoni, Katerina Valdivia Bruch, and Claudia Calirman

Session organiser: Katerina Valdivia Bruch Chair: Laura Karp Lugo

15:30 - 17:00 h, Studio A Panel: Mediated Utopias: Art, Technology and the Environment” Speaker: Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra “On Painterly Vitalism: The Work of Elda Cerrato at CAyC”

29 May 2026

19:00 – 20:30 h, Studio B Panel: Arte y performance en emergencia y flujo Speaker: Katarzyna Cytlak “Artistic Networks on the Margins of the Cold War: Artistic Links Between East European and Latin American Cultures During Late Socialism”

Address: Paris Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel & Conference Centre 17 Boulevard Saint-Jacques, 75014 Paris

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We are glad to share that Katarzyna Cytlak has just published her monograph The Red Atlantic: Artistic Networks on the Fringes of the Cold War. Artistic Connections Between the Cultures of Central-Eastern Europe and South America During the Late-Socialist Period. The book engages with the growing interest in Latin American decolonial theory and explores how it can be applied within art history. By placing Latin American art alongside Eastern European art, it opens up new perspectives on global artistic relations and challenges Eurocentric transatlantic narratives. This publication will be of interest to scholars and readers exploring transatlantic, transmodern, and decolonial approaches to art history. The book is written in Polish and is available open access.

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Reparative Histories and Feminist Curating from the Archive: Curators Zanna Gilbert and Elena Shtromberg on "Transgresoras"

Organised by Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra

13 April 2026, 16:30-18:30 h

Birkbeck University, Malet Street Main Building (MAL), Room G23

Join us for a conversation on "Transgresoras" with curators Zanna Gilbert and Elena Shtromberg, exploring how Latinx and Latin American women artists have used mail art as a powerful tool of resistance, connection, and feminist expression from the 1960s to today.

"Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s" surveys decades of artistic exchange that bypassed censorship and challenged systems of control, from authoritarian regimes to gender norms. Featuring visual poetry, performance, video, photography, and more, the exhibition brings historic works into dialogue with a new generation of artists engaging with correspondence and networks today.

Through themes of censorship, migration, feminist resistance, colonial legacies, and ecological thinking, "Transgresoras" restores overlooked artistic lineages and reframes urgent questions in today’s media and political landscape.

Supported by Birkbeck's Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS).

Photo: Graciela Sacco, Urban Intervention No. 2, from the series “Bocanada,” 1993 © Graciela Sacco Estate

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On 7 April at 10:00 h, MAC USP will host the open lecture “Heliophyte Art: a curatorial and research project on feminisms and the environment in the MAC USP collection,” with artist Paola Anziché and art historian Giulia Lamoni.

The talk will be about a curatorial research project based on the museum’s collection, bringing together works by women artists who have explored the relationships between art and the environment. The discussion builds on a historical exhibition proposed by Italian artist Sibilla Costarossa in São Paulo in 1976.

Giulia Lamoni first presented a draft of this project at the ENLAAS inaugural event “Mapping Space and Time” in Berlin in June 2025.

This activity is part of the undergraduate course MAK0149 – Introduction to Research in the Arts III, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Ana Gonçalves Magalhães, with support from the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di San Paolo.

Address: Walter Zanini Auditorium (1st floor, MAC USP) Free admission, no registration required Limited seats available, with simultaneous translation

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On the occasion of International Women's Day, Katarzyna Cytlak will give the lecture “A Decolonial Approach in the Art of Women from Latin America” in Toruń. Join us on 10 March 2026, 19:00 h Drawing on the concept of ch’ixi, developed by Bolivian sociologist and activist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui as a framework for thinking about difference, tension, and coexistence in decolonial aesthetics, the lecture explores works by artists including Cecilia Vicuña, Anna Bella Geiger, Regina Silveira, Regina José Galindo, and Sara Flores, reflecting on how their practices engage with history, memory, and identity from a decolonial perspective.

Address: Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej "Znaki Czasu" Wały Generała Władysława Sikorskiego 13, 87-100 Toruń, Poland Photo: Cecilia Vicuña, "Semiya" (Seed Song), video still, 2015.

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On Friday 27th March 2026, Katerina Valdivia Bruch will present the book "Repensar el conceptualismo: vanguardia, activismo y política en el arte latinoamericano (1960s-1980s)," a volume that brings together the proceedings of the symposium of the same name held online in March 2021. Join us for this event, where we will discuss the development of "Rethinking Conceptualism: Avant-Garde, Activism and Politics in Latin American Art (1960s-1980s)," a three-year programme (2020-2023) that included a symposium, an exhibition, workshops, book presentations, book reading sessions, and discussions. You will also have the opportunity to learn more about the work and experiences of artists Daniela Lehmann Carrasco and María Linares, who were part of the project. The event will be held in Spanish. Everyone is invited!

Address: Andenbuch, Bergmannstr. 59, 10961 Berlin

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You are cordially invited to attend the lecture by Jorge Fernández Torres, Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana and Professor at the Instituto Superior de Arte (Cuba).

The event has been organised by the Autonomous Section of Artistic Studies, in collaboration with the Department of Art History and with the support of the IHA – Institute of Art History at Nova University in Lisbon (NOVA FCSH).

Lecture "From the Havana Biennial to the National Museum of Fine Arts: Curatorial Strategies"

13 February 2026, 15:00 h at the Auditorium C1, NOVA FCSH (Av. de Berna, 26 C 1069-061 Lisbon)

Free entry, open to the public

ENLAAS member Margarida Brito Alves is one of the organisers of the event and will co-moderate the lecture with Cristina Pratas Cruzeiro.

In this lecture, Fernández Torres reflects on his extensive curatorial experience, drawing on his work as chief curator of three editions of the Havana Biennial, marked by interdisciplinarity, social engagement, and a focus on micropolitics and micro-communities. He will contrast this approach with the strategies he has developed at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, where he has questioned the traditional pinacotheca model through thematic and transversal narratives. The presentation will also address a curatorial project that reflects on the role of collecting and art in shaping the narrative of a national project.

About the speaker:

Jorge Fernández Torres is the current Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana and former Director of the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Centre and the Havana Biennial (2008–2016). A long-standing art critic, curator, and educator, he has lectured internationally at institutions including the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Art Institute of Chicago, UNAM (Mexico), and many others.

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Join us next Thursday, 22 January 2026, for the opening of the exhibition “Melanie Smith: Tixinda, a Snail’s Purple,” curated by Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra at Peltz Gallery in London.

What stories can a colour hold?

Tixinda is the Mixtec word for the sea snail Plicopurpura pansa, which is the name given to a rare purple dye extracted without harm, sustained for centuries by Indigenous communities along the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America.

In this multi-media installation, British-Mexican artist Melanie Smith, in collaboration with Mexican artist Patricio Villarreal Ávila, explores purple as a sensorial, sacred and political material – marked by systems of exchange, colonial erasure, resistance, and survival. Against narratives of extraction and extinction, the work highlights histories of coexistence, care, and ecological knowledge.

Opening reception: Thursday 22 January, 6–8pm

Exhibition: 23 January – 11 March 2026

Address:

Peltz Gallery 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, UK

Photo: Tixinda (2025) by Melanie Smith

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Katarzyna Cytlak and Katerina Valdivia Bruch participate in the conference Global and Forgotten Connections: The Circulation of the Visual Arts Between Socialist European Countries and Asia, Latin America, and Africa During the Cold War.

The conference will take place from 5 to 6 February 2026 at Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.

Papers: 

Katarzyna Cytlak: "Cultural Antropophagy: Ângelo de Aquino’s decolonial dialogue with the Polish artist Jarosław Kozłowski"

Katerina Valdivia Bruch: "Third World Solidarity: Transnational Cultural Encounters in 1970s Peru"

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We are thrilled to announce our participation in the LASA Congress 2026, taking place in Paris from 26 to 30 May 2026.

The European Network on Latin American Art Studies (ENLAAS) will host two roundtables:

1. The State of Latin American Art Studies in Europe: Institutions, Networks, and Infrastructures

2. Off the Record: Curatorial Narratives on Latin American Artists from the 1960s and 1970s

In addition, ENLAAS's members Katarzyna Cytlak, Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra, and Katerina Valdivia Bruch will present their papers:

Katarzyna Cytlak: Artistic Networks on the Margins of the Cold War: Artistic Links Between East European and Latin American Cultures During Late Socialism

Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra: On Painterly Vitalism: The Work of Elda Cerrato at CAyC

Katerina Valdivia Bruch: Presentist Reframing or Historical Interpretation? Revisiting Teresa Burga’s "Perfil de la mujer peruana"

We warmly invite you to join our panels and paper presentations. Looking forward to seeing you in Paris next year!

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Margarida Brito Alves at the international conference Arte e política: Rastros da violência no Brasil, na América Latina e em espectros além-mar 

The conference took place from 1 to 5 December 2025 at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo in Vitória, Brazil.

Organisers: Gaspar Paz (Ufes), Thaynã Targa (Nova de Lisboa), Thays Alves Costa (IFPA), Roney Jesus Ribeiro (Ufes), Margarida Brito Alves (Nova de Lisboa), and Cristina Pratas Cruzeiro (Nova de Lisboa).

Click here for more information

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On 22 November 2025, Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra presented “Minujín and E.A.T.: The Art and Politics of Relation” as part of The Lesser-Known Experiments in Art and Technology Symposium at LUMA Arles.

Bringing together close to twenty curators, artists, and academics, the event offers a critical re-examination of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).

The symposium was held alongside the exhibition "Sensing the Future", which is the first comprehensive exhibition in France dedicated to the E.A.T. movement (on view through 11 January 2026).

Symposium: Friday, November 21 (5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) / Saturday, November 22 (2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.)

LUMA Arles, 35 Avenue Victor Hugo, 13200 Arles

Photo: Marta Minujín, Postcard from 1969 featuring "Minuphone" (1967)

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Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra contributed to the journal Art History 

Journal article: "The Essence of Cybernetics Is Nothing Cybernetic: Manuel Felguérez and the Aesthetic Machine", available in Art History, volume 48, issue 3, June 2025, 482–505. 

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"Sobre a proporção das formas," exhibition co-curated by Margarida Brito Alves and Giulia Lamoni

You are cordially invited to the opening of "Sobre a proporção das formas" (On the Proportions of Shapes), a solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Flávia Regalado, curated by Giulia Lamoni and Margarida Brito Alves, members of the ENLAAS network.

Opening: 25 October 2025, 18:00 - 21:00 h

Address: Coletivo Amarelo, Rua Capitão Leitão 74, Lisbon 1950-052, Portugal

Click here for more information

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Katarzyna Cytlak contributed to the volume "Contemporary Transnational Feminist Visual Activism and Gender-Based Violence"

Katarzyna Cytlak’s text, titled "The Visual Sociology of the manqhapacha: Aníbal López’s Anthology of the Violence in Guatemala and Gender-Based Violence in Latin American Art", is part of the volume "Contemporary Transnational Feminist Visual Activism and Gender-Based Violence", edited by Basia Sliwinska.

Learn more about the book here

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Book release: "Repensar el conceptualismo: vanguardia, activismo y política en el arte latinoamericano (1960s-1980s)", edited by Katerina Valdivia Bruch

"Repensar el conceptualismo: vanguardia, activismo y política en el arte latinoamericano (1960s-1980s)", edited by Katerina Valdivia Bruch, brings together recent scholarship on conceptual and experimental art in Latin America between the 1960s and 1980s. The texts examine the intersections between avant-garde and politics, the critical thought of Latin American thinkers such as Juan Acha, Marta Traba, and Luis Camnitzer, the preservation of artists’ and collectives’ archives (such as that of Clemente Padín and the CADA Archive), artistic practices on memory and violence in Colombia and Peru, the contributions of Latin American women artists, and the connections between Third Cinema and internationalism.

The Spanish edition of the book is available in three formats: e-book, PDF, and print-on-demand.

More information here