Courses

This course studies the work of a number of Latin American artists that, despite their prolific and influential practices, never actually existed. Operating throughout the 20th and 21st centuries in various contexts and with very different purposes, these artists—often created collaboratively by real artists—constitute a productive gateway for understanding the preoccupations, interests, and explorations of different Latin American artistic and literary milieus.

We will carefully explore the life and work of some of these fictional beings with two main objectives in mind. First, we will strive to recognize the processes by which they came into being, to understand their creations and effects as well as their interactions with their cultural, political, and artistic traditions. Second, we will use these cases as pretexts to discuss theoretical questions that pertain to the creation of the Other and the role of artistic practices in such an endeavor. Related discussions often see the creation of the Other as an instrument to materialize and prolong domination—do these fictional Latin American artists propose a different way to perform this construction? One that is not rooted in fear and discrimination, but is based on admiration, desire, and playful provocation? Could these cases help us understand the Other not as a negation of the Self but rather as its enhancement?

Students will develop a semester-long project in which they will have the option to create their own fictional artist and a sample of their work or to critically study a similar case.