Engaged contemporary art: participation and cultural references as a tactic

Abstract

This article reflects on engaged contemporary art practices that promote the participation of communities and disseminate their cultural references. To do so, it analyzes three Latin American case studies – La Piel de la Memoria (1998-1999/2011), A Vitória do Gallo (2007), and Museo del Estallido Social (2020) – in the light of theoretical subsidies from different authors, who address the redefinitions of the concepts of cultural heritage, participation, social movements, and the relationship of contemporary art with them. From the isolated and comparative analysis of the cases, it understands which tactics were employed, as well as verifies approximations and differences between them. Engaged contemporary art seems to find in the cultural references of the communities involved and in its diffusion an approximation with the social world, blurring the boundaries between art, culture, and society.