Syncretism and Latin American contemporary art

Abstract

The mixture and co-participation of cultural forms that remain together and coexist, generating a result, is called syncretism. This abstract but real characteristic distinguishes the most representative works of contemporary Latin American art. Ethnology has limited the main relationships of syncretism to the study of the behavior of communities, races and peoples around the survival of pagan rituals mixed with religious beliefs but not in relation to art, hence the importance of a study on the particular relationship of syncretism with the work of contemporary art. This work deals with the relationships of current artistic languages ​​from their poetic tendencies and the most significant elements derived from characters of innovation or obsolescence in relation to syncretism and the notions of identity and culture. It takes into account the symbolic content of contemporary art, considering the conceptual, formal and technical elements, which consider the work of art as a sign or as a system of signs located in a specific social and cultural context, a system that carries informative values ​​that exerts influences on today's society from a historical and geographical context that denotes cultural and identity characteristics in Latin American art.