For its first major foray in London, the Guggenheim in New York has chosen to partner with the South London Gallery (SLG) on a potted survey of contemporary art from Latin America. Although not the most obvious of pairings, the SLG has a long history of showing Latin American artists and the local area has one of the largest Hispanic populations in Europe.
The resulting exhibition, titled Under the Same Sun, is a glorious cacophony of voices. Sound plays its part: Carlos Amorales invites gallery goers to pick up drumsticks and hit the brass cymbals dangling from the ceiling in a giant mobile. In a film by Tania Bruguera (who will take up residency at the SLG in July) visitors are invited on stage to speak freely—normally denied in Cuba—before being escorted off by two actors in military uniform.
Over the road, on the ground floor of the fire station that has been bequeathed to the SLG, a room of slide projectors whir nosily but project blank images onto the walls. The work, by Luis Camnitzer, is a comment on how art history is written by those in power. Drinking Song (2011) by Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker sees the US national anthem played on Panamanian beer bottles.
With more than 30 nations in Latin America, it’s impossible to define the region’s art scene in one swoop, and Under the Same Sun is a dizzying celebration of its diversity.