Latin American Baroque and Neobaroque in a Global World

June 2014, University of Zurich

The seminar held by Prof. Dr. Jens Baumgarten and Prof. Dr. Tristan Weddigen presented central aspects for the research on Latin American Baroque and Neo-Baroque by discussing especially theoretical and methodological aspects as well as case studies. An introductory lecture was given to introduce into the main questions of the seminar with focus on cultural transfer, circulations of objects and ideas and visual systems. The so called approach of the “glocal” should also be applied for colonial art of Latin America, especially Brazil. The objective is not only to discuss the artistic productions, distribution and reception of the 16th to 18th century, but also its re-appropriation, for example in the Brazilian modernism as well as in popular mass culture. Further main terms and topics discussed included visual systems, transculturality, transfer, translations, hybridity, and sensorial regimes. The seminar presented an overview about the Iberian-American Baroque and allowed to get to know main objects, artifacts, and buildings as well as the central terms and approaches of the field.

The presentations in the seminar linked historical Baroque and transhistorical Neo-Baroque topics:

• Art of the conquest and "virreinal" Baroque in Mexico
• Exhibition Das Familiensilber at the Jacobs Museum Zurich
• Circulation of European and Asian artifacts in Latin America
• Bolivia: art between silver and cult
• Urbanism, architecture, and painting in the context of Lima and Cuzco
• "Jesuit Art" in colonial Latin America
• Neobaroque in the 19th century: historicism in Latin America
• Neobaroque and Modernism
• Contemporary film and the Neobaroque

The following introductory literature helped to focus on central question of the field:

• Gauvin Bailey, Art of Colonial Latin America, London 2005
• Gauvin Bailey, The Andean Hybrid Baroque: Convergent Cultures in the Churches of Colonial Peru, Notre Dame 2010
• Angela Ndalianis, Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment, Cambridge 2004
• Germain Bazin, L’architecture religieuse baroque au Brésil, Paris 1956-58
• José Lezama Lima, Die amerikanische Ausdruckswelt, Frankfurt am Main: Edition Suhrkamp 1992 [1957]
• Peter B. Schumann, Handbuch des lateinamerikanischen Films, hrsg. von den Freunden der deutschen Kinemathek aus Anlass von: "Horizonte 82", 2. Festival der Weltkulturen, Berlin, Frankfurt a. M.: Klaus Dieter Vervuert 1982

The seminar also included museum visits organized by Prof. Dr. Julia Gelshorn, such as the exhibition on the Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi at the Jacobs Museum and the exhibition La búsqueda by the Mexican contemporary artist Teresa Margolles at the Migros Museum.