Realne rzeczy, nie fikcje
Realities, Not Fictions

Summary/Abstract: The starting point for the Tools for Utopia: Selected Works from Daros Latin American Collection exhibition (Kunstmuseum Bern, 2020/2021, curator: Marta Dziewańska) are works created between the early 1950s and late 1970s by artists from Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Argentina. The key criterion of selection was political dimension. Conceived when many Latin American countries were driven by internal and international conflicts, and ruled by brutal, corrupt, and unpredictable dictators, these works – whether Concrete, Neo-concrete, or Conceptual – were a way to imagine the possible role of art if institutionalized torture, repression, and censorship were the main characteristics of a political system. The abandonment of the canvas and the breaching of the frame, as well as experiments with new materials, reflected the instability of the times – while also being an expression of the search for an alternative. As such, these artistic experiments were a means of transgression: they included ingredients for a social and political utopia.

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