LONDON — Tate’s final venture in the Project Space before it closes for the expansion of Tate Modern, “A Chronicle of Interventions” (through July 13), is a finish with a bang, rather than a whimper.
The exhibition begins back with works from the 1980s, when Central America was the focus of political and economic debate in the West, and the New York-based collective Group Material created its seminal 1984 installation Timeline: A Chronicle of US Intervention in Central and Latin America. This was less of a reflection than a strong reaction to military activity in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador at the time. The project contained more than 50 contributions from New York artists, including Claes Oldenburg and Leon Golub, and was shown at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens (now MoMA PS1).
With this context in mind, and after extensive conversations with Group Material members Julie Ault and Douglas Ashford, organizers at Tate revised the original show’s concept with new works from some of the best-known contemporary Latin American artists—Regina José Galindo, Humberto Vélez, Óscar Figueroa, and Andreas Siekmann among them—who consider the complex history of military, economic, and political conflict.
One of the first works on view is Vélez’s film The Last Builder, 2008, which addresses the U.S. colonization of Panama in the 19th century and the building of the Panama Canal. Connected with the channel’s construction, which was completed after a 33-year building period in 1914, is the myth of the last black—and therefore, slave—builder of the structure. There is a muscular figure stretching on the bank of the canal in Vélez’s work. His objectified but proud body becomes a symbol of brute strength, similar to that of his colonizer.
The history of Latin American colonization is not often approached in British exhibitions, the show’s curator, Shoair Mavlian, says. By broaching this subject, Tate could have presented a didactic survey that risked alienating viewers—but the captivating pieces are widely accessible.
Mavlian added: “Many of the works here are complex and layered—I feel we do ask a lot of the viewer.” But even if it were necessary to make several visits to this show, they would each be a pleasure.
A version of this article will appear in the September 2014 issue of Modern Painters magazine.
