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July 11, 2013
Table 1: Encounters between Spain and Latin America
Moderated by: Jesús Carrillo
10:00 a.m.
Presentation
Paula Barreiro López, Jesús Carrillo, Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez and Gabriel Pérez Barreiro
10:30 – 11:10 a.m.
Keynote address
Olga Fernández López. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Notas sobre un relato migrante: vanguardias artísticas entre Latinoamérica y España
11:10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Communications
Eamon McCarthy. Queens University, Belfast
Norah Borges: el arte de la negociación
Rodrigo Gutiérrez Viñuales. Universidad de Granada
La vanguardia oculta. Trayectos del diseño gráfico rioplatense (1920-1935)
12:00 – 12:30 p.m.
Break
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Communications
Irene Herner. Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City
Siqueiros contra el fascismo y la guerra (1932-1939)
Joan Robledo-Palop. Yale University, New Haven
Frente a Frente y Nueva Cultura: narraciones transatlánticas de la violencia y el fascismo
Idoia Murga Castro. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Encuentros en escena: danza mexicana y exilio republicano
Miguel Cabañas Bravo. History Institute CCHS-CSIC, Madrid
Legados y esperanzas en los creadores españoles del exilio de 1939 en Cuba
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Lunch Break
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Communications
Ana María León. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Antonio Bonet: el último indiano
Aitor Acilu and Juan Biain. Universidad de Navarra and Arantzazu Gaur Foundation
Jorge Oteiza. De San Agustín a Santiago. Miradas al origen: el pasado como amigo
Jennifer Josten. University of Pittsburgh
La migración de formas entre España y México: Mathias Goeritz y la difusión del arte abstracto en la posguerra
Imelda Ramírez. Universidad EAFIT, Medellín
Relatos de la escultura moderna en Colombia: Jorge Oteiza y Edgar Negret
5:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Break
5:30 – 6:40 p.m.
Communications
Ernesto Hernández Busto. Independent researcher
El sueño y la piedra: notas sobre João Cabral de Melo, Joan Miró, “Dau al Set” y la estética de la composición
María González Pendás. Columbia University, New York
Intercontinentes: ilusiones del exilio republicano en México a través de unas formas de hormigón
Fernando Herrero Matoses. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Alberto Greco y Julio Cortázar: el 'juego' y la trayectoria nómada de la vanguardia
6:40 – 8:00 p.m.
Responses to the communications and colloquium
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July 12, 2013
Table 2: Modernity and Modernism(s): Displacement and Divergence
Moderated by: Paula Barreiro López.
9:00 – 9:40 a.m.
Keynote address
Michael Asbury. Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN), University of the Arts, London
Contesting Notions of Hybridity in Brazilian Modern Art
9:40 – 11:10 a.m.
Communications
Lori Cole. Brandeis University, Waltham
¿Qué es la vanguardia? Ultraism Between Madrid and Buenos Aires
Mara Sánchez Llorens. Universidad Nebrija, Madrid
Cuando los límites del arte son invisibles. Cartografías universitarias latinoamericana
Kaira Cabañas. PhD. Princeton University
Modern and Mad: Ethics of Reception, Rio de Janeiro
Catrin Seefranz. University of the Arts, Zurich
Modernismo Pobre. The Emancipatory Practices of the “Avant-Garde in Bahia” in the 1950s
11:10 – 11:30 a.m.
Break
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Communications
Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez. Saint Louis University, Madrid
The Paradoxes of Modernism, and the Divided Legacies of Surrealism and Abstraction in Mexico
Cecilia Fajardo Hill. Independent art historian and curator, Los Angeles
Las ‘otras’ modernidades
María Iñigo Clavo. Spanish University of Distance Education and Universidade de São Paulo
Las preposiciones de la modernidad
Edith Wolfe. Tulane University, New Orleans
Latin America’s Discrepant Cosmopolitanisms and the Limits of Center and Periphery Models for understanding the Avant-Garde
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Responses to the communications and colloquium
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Lunch Break
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July 12, 2013
Table 3: Museography, representation and curatorial narratives
Moderated by: María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco.
3:30 – 4:10 p.m.
Keynote address
Gabriel Pérez Barreiro. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection Foundation
Algunos apuntes sobre exposiciones de arte 'latinoamericano': constelaciones, estrellas, temas y variaciones
4:10 – 5:40 p.m.
Communications
Dafne Cruz Porchini. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City
La Exposición Internacional del Surrealismo en México (1940). Símbolo de un cambio de paradigmas
Aleca Le Blanc. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
Under Construction: Calder at Rio de Janeiro’s Museu de Art Moderna in 1959
Carmen Juliá. Tate, London
Julio Plaza y el arte postal: redes de intercambio transnacional
Gina Tarver. Texas State University, San Marcos
Espacios ambientales en el Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá: fomentando una neo-vanguardia internacional en Colombia
5:40 – 6:10 p.m.
Break
6:10 – 7:40 p.m.
Communications
Miriam Basilio. New York University
El canon latinamericano en desarrollo: exponiendo la colección en el Museo de Arte Moderno, 1945-1954
Blanca Serrano Ortiz de Solórzano. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
La abstracción geométrica cubana: intercambios artísticos internacionales y políticas museológicas locales
Lucas Baden. Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG), Karlsruhe
'Vochito' contra 'Murales'- de 'Motor' a 'Promotor': Fernando Gamboa, la vanguardia del arte méxicano y la Bienal de Venecia
Francisco Godoy Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
El modelo constelar: Mari Carmen Ramírez y su estela
7:40 – 8:00 p.m.
Break
8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Responses to the communications and colloquium -
July 13, 2013
Table 4: Genealogies and Discourses of the Avant-garde
Moderated by: Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez.
10:30 – 11:10 a.m.
Keynote address
Andrea Giunta. University of Texas, Austin
Transatlánticos / Transcontinentales. Una discusión sobre diálogos y genealogías
11:10 – 12:20 p.m.
Communications
Harper Montgomery. Hunter College, New York
The Critic and the Visionary Avant-garde, a Transnational Network
Manuel Gutiérrez Silva. Rice University, Houston
Vision and Distinction: Avant-garde Artwriting and the Deconstruction of Visual Culture in Post-revolutionary Mexico
Cecilia Braschi. University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne
La ‘síntesis de las artes’ en las revistas brasileñas de posguerra: herencias vanguardistas y postulados locales
12:20 – 12:40 p.m.
Break
12:40 – 2:00 p.m.
Communications
Daniela Lucena. Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET
Tensiones entre arte/política en la asociación arte concreto-invención
Paula Barreiro López. History Institute CCHS-CSIC, Madrid
Hacia la izquierda: el acomodo de una vanguardia “sans rivages” en el discurso estético marxista de los años sesenta
Jaime Vindel. Universidad de León
Conciencia ética y conciencia estética en la vanguardia argentina de los años sesenta. Una crítica del esteticismo de la teoría de la vanguardia posmarxista
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Lunch Break
4:00 – 5:10 p.m.
Communications
Mariola V. Alvarez. Rice University, Houston
Neoconcrete Books and the Politics of Participation
Ornela S. Barisone. Universidad Nacional de Rosario, National Board of Scientific and Technical Research, Institute of Latin American Literature, Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos
Discursos de la vanguardia e intercambios transnacionales ‘fuera de foco’: sobre el invencionismo y la propuesta integrativa de E. A. Vigo
Fernanda Nogueira. Universidade de São Paulo
La vanguardia más allá de la vanguardia. El caso del Poema/Processo en Brasil
5:10 – 5:30 p.m.
Break
5:30 p.m. – 6:40 p.m.
Communications
José Luis de la Nuez Universidad Carlos III, Madrid
La difusión de las neovanguardias en América Latina y su repercusión en la crítica
Eve Kalyva. Universidad de Buenos Aires
Unas reflexiones sobre la vanguardia después el arte conceptualMara Polgovsky Ezcurra. University of Cambridge
Materia política: Marcos Kurtycz, León Ferrari y el retorno de lo (sur)real
6:40 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Responses to the communications and colloquium
8:00 – 8:15 p.m.
Closing act
Transatlantic Encounters: Avant-garde Discourses in Spain and Latin America
Held on 11, 12, 13 jul 2013
This international event, which brings together researchers, artists and curators from both sides of the Atlantic, seeks to stimulate reflection about the notion of avant-garde in relation to the experience and discourse of modernity between 1920 and 1970.
The main object of this reflection is the political and aesthetic avant-garde that formed in the context of the first and second Avant-gardes (or Neo-avantgardes), and also the role that the exchanges between Spain and Latin America played in the construction of this notion. Through keynote addresses and communications, the various sessions will present the latest research, thus contributing to a better understanding of the relationships and exchanges between Spain and Latin America (which have been little studied to date), and to a reconsideration of historiography and the dominant discourses of modernism and modernity.
Organised by
CSIC History Institute (1), Saint Louis University Madrid, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection and Museo Reina Sofía
(1) Supported by the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation Project After the Republic: networks and two-way paths in Spanish art since 1931
Participants
Scientific committee
Paula Barreiro López. History Institute at the Human and Social Sciences Centre, CSIC (Spanish National Research Council)
Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez. Saint Louis University, Madrid
Jesús María Carrillo Castillo. Museo Reina Sofía
Gabriel Pérez Barreiro. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection Foundation
![Miguel Brieva, ilustración de la novela infantil Manuela y los Cakirukos (Reservoir Books, 2022) [izquierda] y Cibeles no conduzcas, 2023 [derecha]. Cortesía del artista](https://recursos.museoreinasofia.es/styles/small_landscape/public/Actividades/ecologias_del_deseo_utopico.jpg.webp)
![Ángel Alonso, Charbon [Carbón], 1964. Museo Reina Sofía](https://recursos.museoreinasofia.es/styles/small_landscape/public/Actividades/perspectivas_ecoambientales.jpg.webp)
Más actividades
Francisco López and Barbara Ellison
Thursday, 11 December - 8pm
The third session in the series brings together two international reference points in sound art in one evening — two independent performances which converse through their proximity here. Barbara Ellison opens proceedings with a piece centred on the perceptively ambiguous and the ghostly, where voices, sounds and materials become spectral manifestations.
This is followed by Francisco López, an internationally renowned Spanish sound artist, who presents one of his radical immersions in deep listening, with his work an invitation to submerge oneself in sound matter as a transformative experience.
This double session sets forth an encounter between two artists who, from different perspectives, share the same search: to open ears to territories where sound becomes a poetic force and space of resistance.
Long Live L’Abo! Celluloid and Activism
4, 5, 6 DIC 2025
L’Abominable is a collective film laboratory founded in La Courneuve (Paris, France) in 1996. It came into being in response to the disappearing infrastructures in artisan film-making and to provide artists and film-makers with a self-managed space from which to produce, develop and screen films in analogue formats such as Super 8, 16mm and 35mm. Anchored in this premise, the community promotes aesthetic and political experimentation in analogue film opposite digital hegemony. Over the years, L’Abominable, better known as L’Abo, has accompanied different generations of film-makers, upholding an international movement of independent film practices.
This third segment is structured in three sessions: a lecture on L’Abo given by Pilar Monsell and Camilo Restrepo; a session of short films in 16mm produced in L’Abo; and the feature-length film Une isle, une nuit, made by the Les Pirates des Lentillères collective.
Estrella de Diego Lecture. Holding Your Brain While You Sleep
Wednesday, 3 December 2025 – 7pm
Framed inside the Museo Reina Sofía’s retrospective exhibition devoted to Maruja Mallo, this lecture delivered by Estrella de Diego draws attention to the impact of the artist’s return to Spain after her three-decade exile in Latin America.
Committed to values of progress and renewal in the Second Republic, Mallo was forced into exile to Argentina with the outbreak of the Civil War and would not go back to Spain to settle definitively until 1965 — a return that was, ultimately, a second exile.
Mallo saw out her prolific artistic trajectory with two impactful series: Moradores del vacío (Dwellers of the Void, 1968–1980) and Viajeros del éter (Ether Travelers, 1982), entering her most esoteric period in which she drew inspiration from her “levitational experiences” of crossing the Andes and sailing the Pacific. Her travels, both real and imaginary, became encounters with superhuman dimensions.
In parallel, her public persona gained traction as she became a popular figure and a key representative of the Generation of ‘27 — the other members of which also started returning to Spain.
This lecture is part of the Art and Exile series, which seeks to explore in greater depth one of the defining aspects of Maruja Mallo’s life and work: her experience of exile. An experience which for Mallo was twofold: the time she spent in the Americas and her complex return to Spain.
Juan Uslé. That Ship on the Mountain
Tuesday, 25 November 2025 – 7pm
Ángel Calvo Ulloa, curator of the exhibition Juan Uslé. That Ship on the Mountain, engages in conversation with artist Juan Uslé (Santander, 1954) in the Museo’s Auditorium 400 to explore in greater depth the exhibition discourse of this anthological show spanning four decades of Uslé’s artistic career.
The show casts light on the close relationship Uslé’s work bears to his life experiences, establishing connections between different stages and series which could ostensibly seem distant. Framed in this context, the conversation looks to explore the artist’s personal and professional journey: his memories, experiences of New York, his creative process, conception of painting, and ties with photography and film, and the cohesiveness and versatility that characterise his art. Key aspects for a more in-depth understanding of his artistic sphere.
The conversation, moreover, spotlights the preparatory research process that has given rise to this exhibition to grant a better understanding of the curatorial criteria and decisions that have guided its development.
These inaugural conversations, part of the main working strands of the Museo’s Public Programmes Area, aim to explore in greater depth the exhibition narratives of the shows organised by the Museo from the perspective of artists, curators and specialists.
Crossed Vignettes
Friday, 21 November 2025 – Check programme
The Crossed Vignettes conference analyses the authorship of comics created by women from an intergenerational perspective and draws from the Museo Reina Sofía Collections. Across different round-table discussions, the programme features the participation of illustrators Marika, Carla Berrocal, Laura Pérez Vernetti and Bea Lema and researchers Viviane Alary, Virginie Giuliana and Elisa McCausland.
The aim of the encounter is twofold: to explore in greater depth the different forms in which women comic book artists have contributed to developing a counterculture; namely, the appearance of ruptures, reformulations and new genres within the ninth art. And to set up a dialogue which ignites an exploration of genealogies linking different generations of artists.
Moreover, the activity is put forward as a continuation to the exhibition Young Ladies the World Over, Unite! Women Adult Comic Book Writers (1967–1993) and the First International Conference on Feminist Comic Book Genealogies, held in April 2024 at the Complutense University of Madrid.
In redefining the visual narratives of the comic book and questioning gender stereotypes in a male-dominated world, women comic book writers and artists have impelled greater visibility and a more prominent role for women in this sphere. The study of intergenerational dialogue between female artists past and present enables an analysis of the way in which these voices reinterpret and carry the legacy of their predecessors, contributing new perspectives, forms of artistic expression and a gender-based hybridisation which enhances the world of comics.
The conference, organised jointly by the Museo Reina Sofía and Université Clermont Auvergne/CELIS (UR4280), features the participation of the Casa de Velázquez and is framed inside the context of the CALC programme The Spanish Artistic Canon. Between Critical Literature and Popular Culture: Propaganda, Debates, Advertising (1959–1992), co-directed by Virginie Giuliana. It is also the outcome of the projects Horizon Europa COST Actions iCOn-MICs (Comics and Graphic Novels from the Iberian Cultural Area, CA19119) and COS-MICs (Comics and Sciences, CA24160).