Avant-Garde, Art and Politics in Rio De Janeiro, Since 2013

This paper attempts to discuss the relationship between museums and the avant-garde, regarding the practices of innovation in the arts and their critique. As Andreas Huyssen after Peter Burger has shown,the avant-garde project of relating art to life, once hosted and exhibited by museums, has given shape to new practices. The preeminence of curators, the emphasis on the foundation of cultural centers and the educative policies on exhibitory institutions are some of the consequences now related to a series of exhibitions that hosted and welcomed avant-garde art. In recent years, however, althought many have proclaimed the end of the avant-garde and the dissolution of the effectviness of its discourse once incorporated by art system, political critique has been once again reinforced in young artists works of art.

Since 2013, Brazil has been going throught a major political crisis that has growing impact in artistic practices. This paper aims to discuss recent movements forged in the city of Rio de Janeiro that have been building a narrative in which performances and art installations have been gaining space inside and outside the institutions as forms of political action. Collectives, artivism and institutional criticism are some of the new forms of action that challenge the limits of the avant-garde and blur the boundaries between the art and the public sphere. Therefore, this paper aims to understand new art institutions that have been emerging in the city, changing not only the urban scenario but also mainstream institutions that are urged to react.