Solidarity in net: mail art in Latin America

Author(s)

Bruno Sayão

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA/SBD)
• Defense date: 2015-09-15

Examining board members

Maria Cristina Machado Freire; Ricardo Nascimento Fabbrini; Gilberto dos Santos Prado

• Advisor: Maria Cristina Machado Freire

Abstract

This study is about the development of the mail art network in Latin America since its beginning at the end of the 60s until its presence on the XVI Biennial of São Paulo in 1981. For this purpose, the Latin American networks of experimental poetry exchange, structured in the 60s, are recaptured. After this, the trajectories of some of the mail art protagonists in this region are described, as well as the collective exhibitions and publications that they organized. At this point, the demonstrations of the mail art networks in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela are approached. Finally, the specific case of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC USP) is analyzed, explaining how that institution connected itself organically to the mail art network. This research starts with the conceptual art collection of the MAC USP and follows the expansion of the network from the large collective exhibitions performed between 1972 and 1981 in Latin America. Besides that, it emphasizes the relation between mail art and the military dictatorships as a decisive part of the characterization of this practice among Latin American. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/21498-7 - Mail art in Latin America: the network developments in the collection of MAC-USP
• Grantee: Bruno Sayão
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master