America is not the US
The collection of Latin American art at IMMA is a cohesive and unified exhibtion with a strong identity, writes Billy Leahy
'A Logo for America' by Chilean and US artist Alfredo Jaar is an effective piece of art, with a simple message: America is not the United States. If Jaar's piece were to leave the viewer in any doubt, the current exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), The Hours: Visual Arts of Contemporary Latin America, eradicates any hegemony-induced doubts. Since autumn, IMMA has been home to 121 works from the Daros-Latinamerican collection – one of the largest, most significant private collections of Latin America contemporary art – which is located in Zürich. Curated by Sebastián López, the IMMA exhibition has been whittled down and arranged under the theme of time.
The notion to curate The Hours along the idea of time comes directly from Buenos Aires writer Jorge Luis Borges, for whom the idea, concept and behaviour of time was one of the grand central themes running through his entire oeuvre. It is also fitting that Borges should be a key figure in an exhibition which brings together contemporary art from the whole of Latin America, as he once famously declared: "Of the many myths, there is one that is very harmful, and that is the myth of countries. I mean, why should I think of myself as being an Argentine, and not a Chilean, and not a Uruguayan. All of those myths that we impose on ourselves – and they make for hatred, for war, for enmity – are very harmful."
To bring together such a large amount of works from across Latin America to create a cohesive and unified exhibition cannot have been an easy task, but López's treatment of the Daros-Latinamerican collection is hugely impressive. Internationally renowned artists such as Guillermo Kuitca and Vik Muniz rub shoulders with those currently coming to global attention, such as the Guatemalan artist Dario Escobar and Colombia's María Fernanda Cardoso. Muniz, who exhibited in Kilmainham just last year, provides an excellent example of how the idea of time permeates The Hours.
The Brazilian artist appropriates images and photographs from the chronicles of contemporary art and transforms them into works relevant and directly related to the present. The most eye-catching Muniz work incorporates the most recognisable of images – Alberto Korda's iconic picture of Che Guevara – with the artist referencing contemporary Latin American culture by reproducing the photograph using Black Pepper Soup. Again, similar concerns are taken on by Muniz in 'I Am What I Read', a photograph of books on art and philosophy which opens up a debate on their current relevancy. In this manner, Muniz's work reflects López's hope to display works that deal directly with the continent's past and the way it still plays a role in the present.
Some of the more intriguing works deal with the social and political circumstances of contemporary Latin America (the shift of emphasis from "contemporary art" to "contemporary Latin America" in the subtitle of the exhibition is planned to stress this element). Juan Manuel Echavarría's video work, for instance, deals with the recent history of Colombia. For the series, he has filmed several of the witnesses of acts of violence recounting their experiences of displacement, atrocious killings and torments through song. Echavarría's video pieces make up some of the most memorable works in the exhibition and perhaps above any others, invoke Borges' well-known quote from his essay A New Refutation of Time: "Our destiny is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real."
?More The Hours: Visual Arts of Contemporary Latin America, displays at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 5 October 2005 to 15 January 2006. www.imma.ie