Guatemala from 33,000 km: Contemporary Art, 1960 – Present features artists, works, and themes that have defined Guatemala's contemporary art scene since the 1960s. The book brings together works that have rarely been seen outside Guatemala, but that speak to a range of formal, political and social concerns that permeate contemporary art both in Latin America and throughout the globe.
Featuring artwork in a range of media that traces the tumultuous route that has traversed the history of Guatemala since the mid-twentieth century, the book is structured around the clusters or groups of works that represent central ideas, themes and media that have been pivotal in Guatemala's art over the last 50 plus years. These clusters are: art and politics; land, landscape, territory; popular cultures; racisms and identities; religion, spirituality, metaphysics; gender perspectives; violence and trauma; art histories; and formal experimentation.
The book contains full-colour reproductions of the works , as well as essays that relay a wealth of new research, by curators and Guatemalan scholars Rosina Cazali Escobar, Silvia Herrera Ubico, Mario Roberto Morales and Martìn Fernàndez Ordóñez. Guatemala from 33,000 km is a visual record of many works that have not been previously documented and will itself be a product of contemporary Guatemalan artistic practitioners, and is designed by Ambush Studio which is based in Guatemala City.
Published in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, in conjunction with the exhibition Guatemala from 33,000 km: Contemporary Art, 1960—Present.
