Book 'Espaços de Trabalho de Artistas Latino-Americanos' Explores Studios as Creative and Political Spaces

The book 'Espaços de Trabalho de Artistas Latino-Americanos,' published in early 2020, presents the studios of 27 Latin American artists, curated by Fernando Ticoulat and João Paulo Siqueira Lopes. Chilean artist Cecília Vicuña, who has lived in New York for 38 years, chose the polluted Mapocho River in Santiago as her symbolic workspace, described in seven pages as a manifesto. Photographer Fran Parente provided all images for the publication. The selection emphasizes representativeness, including Black artists like Lucia Laguna and Arjan Martins from Brazil, and Indigenous artists like Vicuña herself. An essay by Pablo Leon de la Barra, a Mexican curator based in Rio de Janeiro, opens the book, describing the studio as a place for dreaming new works and worlds, and also as a site of revolution, activism, and gentrification. Journalist Beta Germano conducted concise interviews with each artist. The book, funded by Brazil's Lei de Incentivo à Cultura, features artists such as Beatriz Gonzalez from Colombia, Liliana Porter and Marta Minujín from Argentina, Graciela Iturbide from Mexico, and Cildo Meireles from Brazil. It argues for a Latin American identity, highlighting contributions from artists like Alfredo Jaar from Chile and Miguel Ángel Rojas from Colombia, and frames the studio as a space resisting capitalist logic.