Using tools such as video, installation, sculpture, and drawing, Clara Ianni (São Paulo, 1987) examines how historical and political narratives are constructed from a contemporary perspective.

In the video installation Openings (2022), Ianni brings together animations produced by the Walt Disney Studios for the openings of documentaries about Latin America, made from 1941 to 1949, by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. Created by the United States government, this agency aimed to promote inter-American cooperation within the context of the so-called “Good Neighbor Policy” to expand political, cultural, and economic relations and stop the influence of Italy and Germany in the region.

Although the documentaries’ openings and titles emphasize a discourse of Pan-American solidarity—as in Gracias Amigos, Pan-American Bazaar, and Roads to the South—they also show Latin American countries as suppliers of cheap labor, raw materials, and consumer markets. Brazilian Quartz Goes to War, for instance, highlights the strategic significance of this Brazilian crystal for military equipment in the Second World War (1939-1945). Other films cover different countries in the region: Young Uruguay, This Is… Ecuador, The Incas: Ancients of the Andes, and Monuments of Ancient Mexico. Combining entertainment and didacticism, these documentaries disseminate an image of Latin America as culturally close but economically subordinate.

Almost a century later, Latin America continues to be the subject of US imperialist attacks, employing cultural strategies for political and economic purposes. Ianni puts us in touch with the past, but in a way that is totally grounded in the present. With her collage of titles and openings projected on a support similar to a billboard, the artist highlights the propaganda nature of these documentaries, revealing the visual and discursive patterns that uphold such representations.

Video Room: Clara Ianni is curated by Daniela Rodrigues, Supervisor of Mediation and Public Programs, MASP. The exhibition is part of the year devoted to Latin American Histories, which also includes solo shows by Carolina Caycedo, Claudia Alarcón & Silät, Coletivo Acciones de Arte, Damián Ortega, Jesús Soto, La Chola Poblete, Manuel Herreros de Lemos and Mateo Manaure Arilla, Pablo Delano, Rosa Elena Curruchich, Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, Santiago Yahuarcani, and Sol Calero, in addition to the collective exhibition Latin American Histories, as well as shows in the Video Room by Claudia Martínez Garay, Edgar Calel, Oscar Muñoz, and Regina José Galindo.