On Art, Globalization and the Cultural Difference

Abstract

The accentuation of the artistic practice as the creator of the cultural difference is being confronted by the orientation of modernist discourses in Latin America. The latter have attempted to accentuate the opposite direction, namely, the way in which art coincided with the already given national culture. Perhaps they contributed so much to the predominant nationalism so as to legitimize themselves within it. In spite of this confrontation the artists who created the new trends in Latin America took the context as their main approach. Nonetheless, their works arise from contexts not only to name, analyze, express, or build them. Cultural and social identities and environments now act rather than show. Instead, these are cooperating identities and contexts in an »international« artistic meta-language and in discussions about contemporary »global« themes.