This e-book is the second publication of AICA Regional: Latin America and the Caribbean, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).
For a long time, the eleven sections of AICA International in the region have shared the vision of meetings. Now, thanks to the figure of a regional secretariat, Bélgica Rodríguez, and a support committee, this important integration process has been strengthened.
Integration thus takes on a very important meaning, since it accelerates the exchange of information on art and art criticism that takes place in the different countries represented in the region, which share a historical-social past and a critical and cultural process with many characteristics in common, and a present with collaborative approaches.
AICA International has strongly supported this integrated action since it launched its Project Support Program, which allows two or more national sections to meet around the reflection on topics of common interest.
On this occasion, the Regional Sections of AICA in Latin America and the Caribbean have successfully completed, for the second consecutive year, a program of online seminars, with the participation of specialists from different countries. This time, the topic of debate has been art biennials as scenarios for the confluence of modernist and contemporary trends.
In 2022, with the support received from AICA International, the Latin American and Caribbean sections of the International Association of Art Critics developed a program of three online seminars under the title “Modernity, postmodernity and contemporaneity in Latin America”, which allowed us to review and question this process in Latin America from 1920 to the present, considering the fundamental decades for the development of artistic modernity and subsequent contemporaneity in the region, in order to know its importance and legacy for current criticism.
The critical thinking and experiences exchanged in these spaces were compiled in presentations that make up the first bilingual (Spanish and English) e-book produced by the regional organization, which has been very well received inside and outside the region.
In 2023, also with the support of AICA International, the Latin American and Caribbean sections of the International Association of Art Critics developed a second program of three online seminars under the title “International biennials as scenarios for the confluence of modernist and contemporary trends in Latin America and the Caribbean” that evaluated not only the trajectory of the biennials but also their dynamics of continuous adjustment to changing political, economic, and cultural conditions.
In this second bilingual e-book (Spanish and English), nine renowned researchers and art critics from eight countries share their criteria and respective approaches to the biennialization process. It will surely have the same or greater acceptance than the previous one.
Its digital edition has been overseen by the critic and researcher Juan Carlos Flores Zúñiga, MA, with the collaboration of the graphic designer Eugenia Quesada Montero.
Likewise, I would like to express my gratitude to all the national sections of AICA Regional: Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Association of Art Critics who worked together to carry out this second editorial project.
Dr. Malgorzata Kazmierczak
President of AICA International