Digital Latin America

June 7, 2014 – August 30, 2014

June 7 – August 30, 2014

516 ARTS and partners hosted Digital Latin America, an outgrowth of the Latin American Forum for the award-winning International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA2012) produced by 516 ARTS last fall (www.isea2012.org). It explored the North/South axis of cultural development and exchange between South America, Central America and the Southwest United States.

Connecting individuals, cultures, traditions and social histories to a rapidly expanding global network remains not only a pressing challenge but a profound opportunity and necessity. The utopian notion of closing the digital divide represents a paradigm shift that encourages the participation of all communities and cultures to express themselves through contemporary methods and continue a progressive existence in today’s technology dependent society. Digital Latin America looks at the ways in which artists negotiate the complex terrain between global and local, virtual and real, and political and private, in the creation of work that proposes alternative understandings of technology, art and cultural exchange.

The multi-site International Art Exhibition, based at 516 ARTS’ museum-style venue in the center of Downtown Albuquerque, highlighted contemporary artists from Latin America and the Southwestern United States with high caliber, innovative, interactive artworks, accessible to the general public and presented in an educational context. Satellite artworks and exhibitions were located at The Albuquerque Museum of Art & History and UNM Art Museum.

At 516 ARTS:

Jessica Angel (Colombia)
, Hernando Barragán (Colombia)
, Giselle Beiguelman (Brazil)
, Rejane Cantoni & Leonardo Crescenti (Brazil), 
Paula Gaetano-Adi (Argentina), 
Matt Garcia (Kansas)
, Amor Muñoz (Mexico)
, Jessica Pizaña Roberts (Texas), 
Paola Torres Nuñez del Prado (Peru), 
Claudia X. Valdes (New Mexico/Chile)
, Gabriel Vanegas (Colombia)
, Javier Villegas (Colombia)
 and William Wilson (New Mexico).

At the UNM Art Museum: Oscar Muñoz: Biografias 
Curated by Lisa Tamiris Becker, Director, UNM Art Museum

At the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History: Elizabeth Cunningham

Special Feature at 516 ARTS:

Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection
Researcher: Ricardo Dal Farra
Host: The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology
During Digital Latin America, a listening room for the public to experience 550 of the almost 2,000 electroacoustic music works by Latin American composers from Ricardo Dal Farra’s collection hosted by the Daniel Langlois Foundation of Montreal will be running throughout the exhibition at 516 ARTS

Latin American electroacoustic music has a long and prolific history, but it’s a history that is little known even within the region itself. Many composers born or living in Latin America have been very active in this field, going back as far as 50 years in some countries, but the availability of electroacoustic music recordings and information in Latin America has been a problem for educators, composers, performers, researchers, students and the general public.
In an effort to preserve, document and disseminate at least a portion of the wealth of electroacoustic music created by Latin American composers, an archive has been developed at the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology.

Press

Grace Labat, “Art in Review: ‘Digital Latin America’ at 516 ARTS” Santa Fe New Mexican

Diane Armitage, “Critical Reflection: ‘Digital Latin America’” THE Magazine

Margaret Wright, “Albuquerque’s ‘Digital Latin America’ Etches Parallel Visions” Adobe Airstream

Teresa Buscemi, “5 Minutes with New Media Artist Jessica Angel” Pyragraph

Matthew Irwin, “New Mexico hosts a range of new media art this summer in a pair of joint projects - ‘Currents’ and ‘Digital Latin America’” Art Ltd

Rafael Martinez, “Digital Art with a North/South Consciousness” New Mexico Mercury

Peter Frank, “Haiku Reviews” Huffington Post

Cristina Baccin, “DIGITAL LATIN AMERICA & ‘Florcita Andina’” KUNM

Megan Kamerick, “Digital Latin America Explores Art and Technology” KUNM

Cristina Baccin, “Latin American Electroacoustic Art” KUNM

Benito Aragon, “516 ARTS Digital Latin America Block Party” New Mexico Mercury (YouTube)

Benito Aragon, “‘Digital Latin America’ Artists in Their Own Words” New Mexico Mercury