Subterranean memories and censorship mechanisms: Art exhibitions, ‘El Tercer Mundo’ in Venezuela and ‘Queermuseu’ in Brazil

ABSTRACT:

Censorship occurs in contexts where dominant discourses establish the invisibility of subterranean memories; thus, artworks act as vehicles of memories by their external symbols. The research presents case studies on the censorship of the individual exhibition ‘ El Tercer Mundo ’ by MAx Provenzano at the Museum of Art in Valencia, Venezuela, and the unexpected closure of the collective exhibition ‘ Queermuseu: Cartografias da diferença na arte brasileira ’ at the Santander Cultural in Brazil, in the years 2015 and 2017, respectively. The mechanisms of censorship were analyzed to identify subterranean memories in art exhibitions, as discursive practices to determine control over cultural memory through power conflicts. Furthermore, discursive and ideological formations were analyzed to understand the elements behind the acts of censorship, in order to understand divergent narratives reflecting on the different identities and memories of Latin American regions.

KEYWORDS:
Censorship; Subterranean memory; Discourse analysis; El Tercer Mundo; Queermuseu