The Politics of Brazilian Contemporary Art

In this text, I compare the works and speeches of Adriana Varejão and Ernesto Neto, Brazilians belonging to a successful generation of contemporary art artists. I inquire about the notions of past, present and future that are inscribed in their works and how the singular temporality of their works is associated with the content of the mission they attribute to art. My hypothesis is that in the transition from modern art to contemporary art, the prerogative of art imagining/fantasizing a single future was discarded, however, the intention of bringing it closer to the spectator was maintained. The policy of approaching art, however, has undergone such a turnaround that it is no longer just a question of awakening the spectator's feelings or making him a being endowed with sensitivity, but, effectively, of inviting him to political participation.