Editorial

Welcome to the new Winter 2002 issue of ARARA. Following the success of our last special issue, focusing on Brazil, we decided to concentrate on Argentina for this issue; and we were delighted to receive excellent, and varying, papers on recent art from the country.

This special issue includes the first in what we hope will be a series of artist’s editions for ARARA — a text work by Léon Ferrari, Principio y fin de la ecología, which is accompanied in this issue by an essay on Ferrari’s work by Maria Clara Bernal.

In his paper Artists and Their Media: Escaping Stereotypes, Esteban Alvarez uses a question raised during an October 2001 round table organised by the National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, as a starting point for his consideration of the effect of globalisation on aspects of visual language employed by Latin American artists. The theme of the discussion was Visual Arts Today, but inevitably veered toward the more pressing topic of the state of the visual arts following the events of September 11. Lilian Llanes, Founder of the Biennial of Havana, commented on the visual similarity between the impromptu altars created by many victims’ friends and relatives, and some Latin American artists’ work, which invokes similar forms in response to similarly abhorrent events. Where the social referentiality of these types of expression has often affected its artistic disqualification, she suggested the ironic possibility that this aesthetic might now become globalised.

Carlota Beltrame is an artist and lecturer working in Tucumán, Argentina. Her paper, illustrated by recent work, examines a generation of artists emerging from the city in the nineties.

To emphasise the interdisciplinary approach of ARARA we have also chosen a paper focusing on recent literature from Argentina: the poetry of Néstor Perlongher, the poet, essayist, sociologist and key member of the neobarroco movement.

Following our change of address, and software, we have made some changes to the site’s design, but continue to include a diary of events, a forum for current research, and reviews of recent exhibitions.

If you are interested in contacting us, are organising an exhibition or event you would like us to publicise, or if you would like to contribute a paper, review, or overview of your research, please consult the Current Research, Contact, and Notes for Contributors pages.

Maria Clara Bernal & Isobel Whitelegg, Editors