Politics, desire and memory: the construction of landscape in the Argentine desert

LAURA MALOSETTI COSTA

Intellect. Journal of Visual Arts

London Metropolitan University

Lugar: London; Año: 2006 p. 107 - 119

1470-2029

Title: Politics, desire and memory in the construction of landscape in the Argentine pampas.Author’s name: Laura Malosetti CostaBiographical note: Laura Malosetti Costa PhD is Professor and researcher in Arts and Cultural History at the University of Buenos Aires and CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technological Research). She is the author of a number of books and articles, including Los primeros modernos. Arte y sociedad en Buenos Aires a fines del siglo XIX (Buenos Aires – Mexico, FCE 2001 and 2003), awarded by the Association for Latin American Art in 2003. Is member of the board of CAIA (Centro Argentino de Investigadores de Arte) Has been Fellow of ARIAH (Association of Research Institutes in Art History), Smithsonian Institution, University of Buenos Aires, Rockefeller Foundation and J. Paul Getty Foundation (Post Doctoral Fellowship).Institutional Affiliation:CONICET / Institute of  Art History and Theory, University of Buenos Aires (UBA)Author’s Addresses:Instituto de Teoría e Historia del Arte “Julio E. Payro”Facultad de Filosofía y Letras – Universidad de Buenos Aires25 de Mayo 217 – 4º pisoCP: 1002 Buenos Aires, ArgentinaEmail: lmalosetticosta@lobianco.com.arAbstract: Although some German, English and French artists who came to South America from the beginning of the nineteenth century travelled to the Argentine pampas, they failed to see them as a possible landscape. Along the century – the era of exploration, colonization and landscape painting in America – no landscapes were painted of those immense plains. This absence will be the centre of these reflections, focusing on two main issues:  on one hand the role of schemata from the perception to the representation of nature, and on the other, the interaction of national politics regarding the ways of appropriation of the land with the emergence of desire and memory in the construction of landscape.  I will also analyze the photoperformances of  contemporary artist Juan Doffo as a visual and affective reflection on these issues.Key words:Landscape – Culture - Memory – Argentina - History – Latin American ArtWord length:  5.738