Reception and Contingency in Recent Art from Chile

The re-edition of the book Margins and Institutions by Nelly Richard, a landmark in the study of Chilean art produced during the dictatorship of General Pinochet, reminds of how the original publication contributed to shape a particular reception of these ephemeral works that almost nobody witnessed. The images of the book appear removed from time and space and do not give much information about their original situations, yet this article discusses how, paradoxically, this has enabled an intimate reception of those works: the personal memories of the audience filled in the gaps left by the book, as attested by an ethnographic research project carried out to explore the constructed nature of this response. These ideas are discussed in relation to the recent process of internationalization of Chilean art, highlighting the differences between the contemporary context and the former one, and the importance of paying attention to the late receptor of these pieces.