Reflections on art installations in Argentina. The case of Tucumán from 1983 to 2007

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to present an advance of the research, which aims to analyze the historical origins of the contemporary artistic practice of installation art in Tucumán from 1983 to 2007. This chronological cut is made by the movements of
gradual change that are emerging in the Tucumán art scene after the return to democracy. The time frame of the research closes in 2007, the year in which the first edition of the national salon of contemporary art of the province was held at the Museum
of the National University of Tucumán, which was dedicated to hosting emerging and contemporary artistic productions, including installations. First, this article addresses different definitions of the concept of installation to conceptualize and explain what it
is about and how this practice is defined. Second, it investigates the emergence of new artistic movements in Argentina from the 1960s onwards, which introduced a series of questions or paradigm shifts. In Buenos Aires, a group of artists began a path towards
experimentation and abandonment of the most conservative art formats, such as the artists aligned with the Visual Arts Center of the Di Tella Institute and artists from the pop movement. Thirdly, the article analyzes how, in the post-dictatorship context, a
series of changes began to take shape in the Tucuman scene and new concerns appeared in relation to artistic production, leaving behind the primary role of the most traditional art disciplines, so that artists began to experiment with practices typical of
contemporary art, such as installations. Fourthly, the article analyzes the characteristics and typologies of these practices within the artistic circuit of the province of Tucuman in the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s.