Universum (Talca. Online)

Juan Ormeño, Ignacio Peña, eds., Reconocimiento y Derecho. Del Yo al Nosotros en las Instituciones Jurídicas. Stgo. de Chile, Universitaria, 2021, 255 pp.

Enzo Solari — 2025-06-20

The Correction of Bodies: State Racism and Academic Sculpture in Chile (1854-1910)

Patricia Herrera Styles — 2025-06-20

Scientific racism, one of the most significant theories of thought of the 19th century, assumed the superiority of one of the human races: the white or Aryan, a hierarchy that had to be maintained in a biological sense for the protection of the species. In this scenario, the State would assume the role of protector of the integrity, superiority and purity of this race, acting through multiple fields and institutions. One of these areas was the fine arts, the Academy and the discipline of sculpture, which played a fundamental role due to their pregnancy and presence in public spaces. The present work investigates how this happened in Chile between 1854 and 1910, analyzing cases of local statuary that represent different races: Afros, indigenous people and whites, detailing the strategies that national sculptors used to aesthetically correct the bodies and demonstrate that the supposed The white race had a monopoly on beauty, intelligence and strength in an eminently mestizo country.

Che in HO: Heroism and Resistance in Hélio Oiticica’s interartistic project.

Matteo Gigante — 2025-06-20

After the assassination of Ernesto Che Guevara in 1967, his myth became a central theme for political and artistic movements active between the 60s and 70s, mainly in Latin America. In the work of Hélio Oiticica (HO), we see intertextual elements that evoke the figure of this revolutionary, referring to the social context of oppression experienced in Brazil during the military dictatorship. Through some literary works, correspondences, heliotexts and references to the Apocalipopótese event, we will interpret two plastic works such as Guevarcália and the Bandeira Guevara commissioned from the artist Claudio Tozzi and incorporated by the author in several events. By analyzing these works, we will try to decipher some conceptual topics of Oiticica's artistic position in the debate between committed and marginal artists, observing the heterogeneous creative reaction to the military coup of 1964. Thus, we will briefly examine the figure of the artist, the hero, the revolutionary and the marginal considering the reiteration and reformulation of Guevarian iconography and mythology in the plastic and literary work of Hélio Oiticica.

Bolívar Echeverría: the Concretion of Capitalist Modernity and the Spatio-Temporal Opening of the Baroque

Adrián Gutiérrez Álvarez del Castillo — 2025-06-20

The aim of this article is to propose some ideas to make visible the spatial dimension of Bolívar Echeverría's thought in relation to his political and temporal conceptions, through a reflection developed in three moments. The first presents various theoretical elements to understand the radical nature of his political perspective based on capitalist modernity transformations undergone in recent times. Subsequently, the focus shifts to these ideas orientation towards concrete temporality experience. In the third moment, the latter is analyzed based on his formulations about the baroque, in order to identify the simultaneously temporal and spatial character of his political interventions in effective reality. These reflections constitute the initial approach of a work in progress focused on the space-time specificity of the baroque, and an invitation to engage in dialogue about the spatial aspects of the Ecuadorian-Mexican philosopher’s work.

The Experience of Aidós as a Condition of Piety According to María Zambrano

Ethel Junco — 2025-06-20

The text will expose the basis of the notion of piety postulated by Maria Zambrano in relation to the Greek idea of aidós; for this purpose, we will start from a minimal description of aidós in two classical examples, namely, the Apollo-Hector relationship in canto XXIV of the Iliad and the Artemis-Hippolytus relationship in Euripides' Hippolytus. Once the concept is framed, we will move on to Maria Zambrano's approach in El hombre y lo divino; we will make a description of the structure of the work up to the point where it deals with the notion of piety, in Greek seat from the texts of the first Plato and according to the treatment linked to the mission of Socrates in the city. Finally, we will describe the religious function of tragedy as an "office of piety". Having presented the concept in a philosophical and religious context, we will now move on to analyze the author's approach to the space that piety occupies in philosophy, its original belonging, but its historical disengagement. As a coda, the author exemplifies this uprooting of the original vision in La tumba de Antígona. This work revisits the explanations of the Sophoclean myth and exposes its interpretation of piety.

Human Rights and Supreme Good: on the Problematic Status of the Value of Life in Arendt

Daniel Michelow — 2025-06-20

Abstract

The article examines Hannah Arendt's work on human rights and the value of life, highlighting her critique of cosmopolitanism and her analysis of totalitarianism. Arendt argues that human dignity must be understood through the "right to have rights," emphasizing the importance of belonging to a political community. The distinction between "naked life" (zoè) and "qualified life" (bíos) is fundamental in her thought, where life becomes a supreme good in modernity, but at the cost of community disarticulation. The article also addresses how the rise of totalitarianism and the nation-state has led to the disempowerment of minorities and stateless individuals, who lack universal rights. The protection of life, rather than being a care for the human, becomes a form of domination that confines humanity to its mere biological existence. In conclusion, Arendt's analysis reveals that modernity has weakened human rights by prioritizing individual life over community, resulting in a state of abandonment for those without a homeland.

Children’s Mortality in the Province of Coquimbo (1905-1930)

José Julián Soto Lara — 2025-06-20

The article analyzes the demographic phenomenon of child mortality in the Province of Coquimbo between 1905-1930. The thesis suggests that the increase in infant mortality at the beginning of the last century transformed the problem into a public issue addressed by the medical-political elite together with the State. The concern of the provincial authorities was translated into a set of health policies that sanitized the environment, food and created a network of medical establishments focused on children. The historical sources on which such premises are supported were newspapers, parliamentary bulletins, specialized books and the Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Chile. The conclusions affirm, among other things, that the institution of a pro-childhood health organization and the incipient development of pediatrics created a historical demographic, scientific and social situation that laid the foundations for a gradual decrease in infant mortality during the rest of twentieth century.

The Lauca Case in the Bolivian Press. La Razón and El Diario in Historical Perspective

Máximo Quitral Rojas — 2025-06-20

This paper seeks to explain the treatment given by the Bolivian press to the case of the diversion of the waters of the Lauca River. We consider that the press is an important actor in the political history between Chile and Bolivia, which has not been given the investigative importance it deserves. We maintain that it assumed a nationalist posture as an institutional design, trying to influence with its opinion in the orientation of the political relations between Bolivia and Chile.

Sexual Dissidence as Dissensus in Chilean Activism between 2005 and 2015. CUDS’s Experience

Felipe Rivas San Martín — 2025-06-20

In this article, the distinction between sexual diversity and sexual dissidence will be explored, focusing on the analysis of an activist experience: the formation and deployment of the Colectivo Universitario de Disidencia Sexual (CUDS) in the context of the 2000s. From a contextualization of the actions carried out and the premises that guided them, the article discusses the implications of using the notion of sexual dissidence to implement a ‘politics of the name’ for sexual dissidence. The thesis of a gradual installation of the concept is thus defended, which is not without consequences for current debates. The introduction of this concept in the first constitutional proposal can, in this way, be linked to the process of emergence of the concept that is presented here.

Editorial

Alejandro Viveros Espinosa — 2025-06-20

Editorial

Writings on Arts in Latin America: Trends and Problems in the Cultural Field of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Introduction

Pablo Berríos — 2025-06-20

Introduction

The Writing and Practice of Diplomacy from the Perspective of Arts Criticism. Alfonso Reyes in Paris (1925-1927)

David Murrieta Flores — 2025-06-20

Mexican writer and diplomat Alfonso Reyes represented his country in France from 1925 to 1927. In his activities as a bureaucrat – on which he focused exclusively – he assigned the arts an important role. As part of the Mexican intellectual field at the beginning of the 20th century, which dedicated to the public discussion of the arts (visual, literary, etc.), politics, and society, he developed a point of view that conceived of culture as a bridge of mutual understanding between nations. For Reyes, culture (materialized in artworks) represented the spirit of nations, which is why diplomacy had to bring together cultural agents and works. In other words, from the perspective of arts criticism, aesthetic matters were connected to political ones, nationally and internationally. This impacted his way of writing, which we analyze in two formats: the diplomatic report and the personal diary. He turned these texts into critical tools to realize his conception of a diplomacy that ought to be cultural. We propose the usefulness of looking at the report and diary as extensions of arts criticism, beyond the environment of cultural and literary reviews of the period, which have been the main subject of study.

Mestizophilia and Nationalism. The Art Writing of Mariano Picón Salas

Matías Allende Contador — 2025-06-20

Mariano Picón Salas (Mérida, 1901 - Caracas, 1965) was a Venezuelan intellectual of deep Americanist convictions and author of an outstanding work for the history of Latin American essay writing in the 20th century. Art and regional literature occupied a relevant place in his work, both disciplines in which he made significant contributions at a time when they were defining their contours and objects. This article deals with aesthetic thought and art writing in Picón Salas, less explored than other aspects of his work, focusing on the Chilean stage of his intellectual life (between 1923 and 1936), where he germinates an aesthetic thought and produces a corpus of essays in which the concepts of mestizaje, nationalism and artistic experience are central. It is also argued that this thought on art is closely linked to an institutional and political trajectory that must be included in the analysis, specifically within the University of Chile. That is why, in order to examine his writing on art, his work will be analyzed using tools of intellectual, institutional and cultural history.

Racialized Discourses: Latin American Art Exhibitions at San Francisco Museum of Art in the Second World War

Fabiana Serviddio — 2025-06-20

During Second World War the United States government promoted a series of cultural diplomacy programs to improve relations with Latin American countries. Circulation and contact with Central and South American artists critics and curators had an impact on a racialized discourse about Latin American art that focused its interest on folklore and ethnography. This discourse gradually underwent transformations that dissociated Latin American modern art shows from exhibition typologies linked to imperial world fairs. The collaboration between the director of the San Francisco Museum of Art Grace Morley and Cuban art critic and curator José Gómez-Sicre was an episode in this process.

Romero Brest in Uruguay. His Influence on the Consolidation of National Arts Criticism (1946-1959)

Federico Sequeira — 2025-06-20

Between 1946 and 1959, Jorge Romero Brest (1905-1989), gave seminars at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of the Republic. According to the archive of the aforementioned faculty, in 1955 the students of its Art History seminar requested institutional support to attend the third São Paulo Biennial on a ‘study mission’ to receive their classes in that context. Among the applicants were Nelson Di Maggio (1928-2021), María Luisa Torrens (1929-2013), and Celina Rolleri (1932-2018). They, along with Fernando García Esteban (1917-1982), –who served as Romero Brest's assistant professor at the University of the Republic, and was one of his collaborators in the publication ‘Ver y Estimar’–, established themselves as critics influential in the Uruguayan field of visual arts in the second half of the 20th century. Considering this, the article will analyze the influence of Romero Brest –from his internationalist conception of Latin American art, perhaps as the opposite of a Latin American conception– in the consolidation of a Uruguayan criticism of the arts, also seeking to reflect on this criticism of arts, identifying possible dialogues, tensions or disputes between the artistic and political fields of those times.

Texts for a New Discipline: Positions on Argentine Printmaking in the 20th Century

Silvia Dolinko — 2025-06-20

This article focuses on some texts on Argentine printmaking in the twentieth century to consider the role they played in the construction of a place of progressive recognition for this practice within the field of modern art. The cases considered are linked to relevant moments and proposals in the process of legitimizing printmaking as an artistic discipline. Although there were texts subscribed by critics or writers, most of the proposals came from the artists' perspective. In this sense, it is possible to argue that the inscription and recognition of Argentine printmaking as an artistic production within the modern cultural field of the twentieth century was largely due to the direct actions of artists and managers, rather than to the work of art critics and institutional impulse. Some of the writings published in the magazine ‘El Grabado’ (1916) are taken as a starting point, as well as texts by Antonio Berni, Gustavo Cochet and Adolfo Bellocq, among other authors.This article focuses on some texts on Argentine printmaking in the twentieth century to consider the role they played in the construction of a place of progressive recognition for this practice within the field of modern art. The cases considered are linked to relevant moments and proposals in the process of legitimizing printmaking as an artistic discipline. Although there were texts subscribed by critics or writers, most of the proposals came from the artists' perspective. In this sense, it is possible to argue that the inscription and recognition of Argentine printmaking as an artistic production within the modern cultural field of the twentieth century was largely due to the direct actions of artists and managers, rather than to the work of art critics and institutional impulse. Some of the writings published in the magazine ‘El Grabado’ (1916) are taken as a starting point, as well as texts by Antonio Berni, Gustavo Cochet and Adolfo Bellocq, among other authors.

Bibliographic Approach to the History of Latin American Art Criticism between 1950-1970

Pablo Berríos — 2025-06-20

Since the beginning of the new millennium, there has been a growing interest in Latin American art criticism as a fundamental area of study to comprehend the artistic processes of the continent from innovative perspectives that go beyond traditional narratives of art history. This interest focuses on exploring the complex institutional relationships, intellectual networks, and theoretical propositions that have shaped artistic transformations in Latin America during the 20th century, highlighting the crucial role of criticism in this dynamic cultural environment.

This article particularly surveys publications from the last two decades that address the history of Latin American art criticism between the 1950s and 1970s. Through a bibliographic review, it identifies different levels and approaches of analysis, highlighting key elements to understand the characteristics and context of this specific period in Latin American art history. Organized in a regional, national, and critic-focused bibliographic structure, this article offers a panoramic view of advances and developments in understanding this crucial stage from the perspective of art criticism.

We are Multitude. Writings on Art and Feminism in Latin America (2010-2023)

María Laura Ise — 2025-06-20

This article summarizes the main problems of writings on art and feminism in Latin America in the last decade. We carried out a document analysis of books published in academic and independent publishers, research articles, curatorial texts and postgraduate theses that critically address the inclusion of women artists in the field of art. The review realizes the main points of tension that these writings have positioned in recent years. This allows us to observe existing and possible dialogues between the authors, open new questions, and provides us with a complex and rich understanding of the limitations and potential of feminist artistic practices in the region.