Author Description

In the framework of the celebration of the 15th anniversary of MALBA's founding, the museum presents Verboamérica, a new exhibition of its permanent collection, curated by historian and researcher Andrea Giunta and by the museum's artistic director, Agustín Pérez Rubio. The exhibition -the fruit of a wider research project that has been underway for over two years- proposes a living history of Latin America in actions and experiences, a postcolonial history that does not understand Latin American art in the terms proposed by European art, but rather on the basis of the words that the artists themselves used in devising their aesthetic agendas. As a comprehensive project, Verboamérica encompasses all areas of the museum. A catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition. The catalogue includes a glossary of key terms tied to the works in the collection and to the broader artistic, social, and cultural experience of Latin America. The catalogue opens with a glossary of terms, nomenclatures, and definitions that can be seen as part of a specifically Latin American vocabulary. As such, Verboamérica is a possible re-writing of modern and contemporary Latin American history. "It recognizes the works and concepts that structured the European avant-gardes to then swallow them up and add local ingredients (terms). A crucial component of the project is, for us, the power of language to create realities and to construct worlds-and not only in order to represent them: anthropophagic and speaking America," Pérez Rubio explains. The terms in the glossary are not only related to style and art; they are also political, social, literary, and cinematographic in nature. The array of terms in the glossary includes "Activism," "Destructive Art," "Military Dictatorship," "Madi," "Postcolonialism," and "LGBT." The glossary is envisioned as a living organic project; researchers and students, as well as the general public, are invited to suggest new entries on the website http://