Beginning with a Bang! features the shift between the explosive and experimental moment in the Argentine art scene of the 1960s, and the current scene emerging after the extreme crises in Argentina during the last 40 years. In the 1960s, artists explored destruction and dematerialization to propose original contributions to the fields of conceptual and action-based art. Today, artists explore fiction and intimacy as critical strategies to review and rebuild the artistic system. The exhibition catalogue brings together a historical section as well as information of performance-based actions and sound and video works by Argentine contemporary artists: Marina De Caro, Ana Gallardo, Graciela Hasper, Roberto Jacoby and Syd Krochmalny, Fabio Kacero, Fernanda Laguna, Patricio Larrambebere, Eduardo Navarro, Leandro Tartaglia, and Judi Werthein.

Included are essays by Ana Longoni, Victoria Noorthoorn, Daniel Quiles, and Gabriela Rangel; manifestos by Alberto Greco, Aldo Pellegrini, Manuel Peralta Ramos and Eduardo Costa, Raul Escari, and Roberto Jacobi, as well as a historical timeline of Argentine art.

Victoria Noorthoorn is an independent curator.

Susan Segal is President and CEO of the Americas Society.

Gabriela Rangel is Director of Visual Arts at the Americas Society.

Other HUP Books by Gabriela Rangel

• A Principality of its Own: 40 Years of Visual Arts at the Americas Society
• Emancipatory Action: Paula Trope And The Meninos