May 3, 1972 - May 15, 1972
Santiago de Chile, Chile

This was the first of two meetings–the second would be held in October of 1972 in Havana–aimed at outlining an internationalist and socialist cultural policy. Scholars have placed this exhibition in a longer genealogy of internationally-minded artistic solidarity stemming from the the boycott of the 1969 São Paulo Biennial. One could also consider the meeting at the Instituto de Arte Latinoamericano within the genealogy of more localized efforts to democratize culture by bringing works of modernist art outside of the museum; broadening the national canon to include aesthetic works traditionally classified in terms of craft; and lending authorship to workers of different stripes. When viewed at the crux of these two trajectories, the Encuentro de Artistas Plásticos del Cono Sur places into question the relationship between art and the popular politics of the Chilean Road to Socalism.