Photography, discourse and decolonial turn in the Caribbean contemporary art

Abstract

The progressive transformation of the codes of artisticity experienced in the creative processes of contemporary Caribbean art in the second half of the 20th century brought with it zones of intense creative crossings and displacements in the form of a decolonial turn that comprises visuality “as a battlefield,” in the words of Jose Luis Brea. In correspondence with the experimental nature of contemporary art, the decolonial turn is identified with a discursive change forged in the eighties of the past 20th century and includes the themes and creative resources, the social roles of the artist and the modes of circulation of art in the islands with the emergence of decolonizing models such as the Havana Biennial. This turn implies a change in the keys of artisticity in relation to the role of subaltern manifestations such as graphics and photography, the interstices and permeabilities of the creative process, as well as the emergence of emancipating models of legitimization, all of which leads to an expanded field of art and visual discourses in the contemporary Caribbean.