The Art of the Question in Latin America

This panel explores the role of the grammatical question as a potent aesthetic, political, and epistemological device in Latin American art from the early 20th century to the present. From Oswald de Andrade’s iconic provocation “Tupi or not Tupi?” (Anthropophagous Manifesto, 1928)—a foundational inquiry into Brazilian modernism and identity—to Alfredo Jaar’s public survey ¿Es usted feliz? (1981), and from Marta Minujín’s sensual query “What types of materials turn you on?” (Minucode, 1968) to Clemencia Lucena’s feminist intervention ¿Qué hacen ellas mientras ellos trabajan? (1970), questions have served not only as artistic titles or prompts, but as mechanisms of reflection, resistance, and transformation.

This session invites papers that examine artworks in which the question operates as more than mere rhetoric—where it becomes material, method, and message. We ask: How have Latin American artists used questions in their creative practices? What kinds of spectatorship do these works generate? Are these questions meant to be answered, or do they resist resolution? How do they function as tools of critique, knowledge production, or political engagement?

We are particularly interested in proposals that consider the interplay between visual art and other expressive forms—poetry, sound, performance, literature—where questioning becomes a transmedial strategy. Contributions may focus on artists based in Latin America or those working within diasporic and migratory contexts.

By foregrounding the question as a conceptual and formal element, this panel seeks to deepen our understanding of how Latin American artists mobilize uncertainty, provocation, and dialogue to imagine new aesthetic and political possibilities.