ABSTRACT
As early as the 1950s Latin American artists began challenging Western canonical means of making and viewing artwork. By rejecting formalism and product-focused art, Latin American performance art activated West African theories which embody serious play as a vehicle for social change. In this chapter the author considers events from 1965 through 1992 that use body-based artwork and/or exhibitions that directly engage spectators. The analysis includes works by Hélio Oiticica, Marta Minujín with Ruben Santantonín, Lygia Clark, Arte de los Medios, Asco and Coco Fusco with Guillermo Gomez Peña. Examining these performative events, one can see a game unfold as an inversion or redefinition of reality, as an established or implied set of rules that spectators engage with, as an invitation to fun and pleasure, as a reclamation of leisure time in response to capitalist repression, and as a critical hoax. The author places diverse works in conversation with one another to demonstrate how games and trickery shift social consciousness by requiring social participation thereby engendering collective autonomy. Emphasizing experimentation and somatic awareness to expand the definition of art, these artists rejected the superficial valuation of art objects and began to democratize the aesthetic experience.
