Idea and Ideology in the Latin American contemporary art

Abstract

Marcel Duchamp in his Readymade, as he called it, stated the interest of his work was focused on ideas rather than material production. Later the Conceptual Art continued exploring this same theoretical orientation.
The new proposals introduced an intensive innovation in both the artistic creation and the way to interpret art and its narrative into society. Considering the previous artistic tradition the concept of Art became an intellectual process where within the relationship masterwork-Idea, the strength of the Idea was imposed over the representation.
Breaking with the concept of art as mimesis, the Art has expanded its possibilities and can explore new forms of communication. Art like Idea involves fragments of reality and more articulated notions.
In the Latin American artistic image, divergent trends coexist sharing the concept of art as freedom of materiality with respect to the Idea, and the concept status of Art in society as critical freedom against ideologies and as the place of utopia.
Based on the theory of "Visual studies" of Gottfried Boehm and J.P. Vernant about the theoretical status of the images, and from the principles of Conceptual art, this paper seeks to trace and survey the course of the images in relation to the dialectic idea-ideology in the Latin American contemporary visual production. Taking as a starting point the works of Luis Camnitzer, Alvaro Barrios and Marta Chilindron, I will try to highlight the convergences and divergences between them and with other contemporary au thors.