Contemporary Art and Community Altruism in Oaxaca

Book excerpt: This book relates the longitudinal participant observation and analysis of the behaviour of the Oaxacan art community, focusing on the cultural production, interaction and collective action of its members as an integrated sector of civil society. It presents a theoretical framework that succinctly defines and discusses postmodernism as a globalising force in the development and use of creative expression, the media and communications technology in a postcolonial context. The theoretical investigation is supported by ethnography that ascertains how hybrid political thought and community altruism characterise the behaviour and the aesthetic expression practised by a new generation of Oaxacan artists. Their collective action towards a pacifistic solution to the Oaxaca Conflict of 2006, a six-month socio-political uprising caused by actual and historic conditions in the national, regional and universal Left-Right political duel, is detailed. The transdisciplinary approach makes the work very relevant for researchers, educators and students of social anthropology, visual communication and media studies, in addition to those interested in Oaxacan, Mexican and Latin American art and culture.