Marcelo del Hoyo

Around the mid-20th century ⎯ after humanity had explored its limits in Auschwitz and Hiroshima ⎯ Latin America was torn between the fear of an apocalyptic atomic war and the revolutionary actions against political-economic dictatorships, inheritors of the status quo established in the 19th century during colonial independence struggles. In this context, there emerged ‘third-world’ intellectuals who sought an ontological explanation of the Latin American being, awaiting the fulfilment of a utopia tinged, on the one hand, by the religious creed of Christianity and, on the other, by the revision of Marxist thought. From the constant dialogue between these influences, analogies were sometimes drawn between revolutionary figures and Christian apostles. This was a way of reinstituting a myth that speaks of revolutionary and religious ideas, which merge chimerically to give rise to the end of waiting: so that we may be able to see the utopia fulfilled.

The body, institutions, nature and narrative constitute the four bases underpinning modernity, from which some artists have challenged other limits. Some of these artistic practices and their results coincide with my project, with the aim of proposing a way out towards another subjectivity: another body, another institution, another nature, another narrative, deriving from interactions between artist, artwork and spectator. From this exchange new topologies arise to analyse from the utopian genre and its possible derivations: the ecological, the queer, the technological, the feminist, the negative ⎯also known as ‘dystopia’. I will add other topologies to this, specifically those which we can analyse within the framework of eschatology, understood as the study of the end of a time or of the ultimate ends.

During this residency, I propose to develop curatorial research in the universe that comprises the Museo de Arte Moderno’s artistic collection, documentary archive and library. My aim is to construct a possible cartography ⎯ but not an exclusive one ⎯ through which we will be able to establish links with other products of our cultural, political and social practices. At the same time, I hope to be able to design didactic/pedagogical exercises that can be applied in the context of Museum tours and also as resources to work with visiting educational institutions.