Permission to be Global/Pr??cticas Globales": Latin American Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection is the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston's first ever exhibition centered on contemporary Latin American art. The exhibition re-evaluates the idea of globalization through visual language. The show was jointly curated by MFA staff members Jen Mergel and Liz Munsell and Jes??s Fuenmayor of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation.

The exhibition is divided into four different themes: Power Parodied, Borders Redefined, Occupied Geometries and Absence Accumulated. Mergel describes the show, which includes work from 46 artists from 1960 to present day, as an exhibition with not just a "critical edge," but also "an exhibition with teeth."

Through an exploration of scale and repetition, Power Parodied questions the status quo. Nelson Leirner's dyptich, "Untitled," from the series "Assim ?(c)... se lhe parece... (Right You are If You Think You Are)," depicts two graphics. On a bright yellow background there is a map of North and South America and this image is repeated on a red background. The outline of the continents is defined, yet the man-made geographic boundaries of states and countries are not depicted.

Instead, on one panel, North America is engulfed by a horde of cartoony and sinister, yet smiling skeletons and South America is populated by different renditions of cheery Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters. The second panel inverts this and depicts North America overrun by the cartoon characters and South America by the skeletons. Somehow, in this image, it is hard to decipher where cultural homogeneity ends and where it begins-the two continents seem to seep together. 

While Leirner's work depicts one interpretation of the relationship between North and South America, the Cuban artist Wilfredo Prieto reduces the Earth to a tiny, spherical chickpea in his work "Untitled" (Globe of the World). Inked onto the surface of a dried chickpea, a common food in Cuba, all seven continents have been shrunk. This globe can fit in the palm of one's hand; globalization has been reduced to a mere morsel that can easily be crushed. 

Meanwhile, the curators of the exhibition utilize the theme of Borders Redefined to illustrate how the visual poetry of lines through the bars of a fence or jail, evoke division. "Reja Naranja (Orange Bars)" by Daniel Medina, depicts bold, yellow linear marks on the white museum wall which eventually lead to a black, barred fence that protrudes from the wall and disrupts the space of the room. 

The third exhibition theme, Occupied Geometries, engages with the individual and his or her relationship to public spaces. In the installation "O Tempo Oco (The Empty Time)" by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, soft, bulbous forms filled with silicon languidly fall from the ceiling in flesh-colored fabric. Visitors are invited to step through the space as these body-like shapes engage and interact with one's personal space.

The final theme, Absence Accumulated, explores history and that which is forgotten and remembered. Images are mixed with stories and performance art is imbued with social causes. From Oscar Munoz's "Sedimentaciones (Sedimentations)," which projects photographs as they are developed by ghostly hands over a table-like surface, to the Chilean Eugenio Dittborn's "Neo Transand Airmail Painting No. 41," which mixes poetry, military photography and a drawing of a legendary indigenous boy who was mummified, into one image that was then mailed to a predetermined receiver outside of the country who could display the piece without fear.

The exhibition, which closes on July 13, will also include specially commissioned live performances by the Cuban artist L??zaro Saavedra and Guatemalan artist Regina Jos?(c) Galindo.
Saavedra will finally realize one of his dreams by performing a piece that was originally prohibited by the cultural authorities in Cuba in 1990, while Galindo, a performance artist who specializes in hauntingly, poignant body work, will perform a specially commissioned work that specifically addresses the Boston community. The details of both performances will be released to the public shortly.

The artists of Permission to be Global are incorporating such vast mediums as sculpture, painting, photography, video, installation and performance art to address communication on a both local and global level. The works produced by these artists are visually assertive in their manipulation of humor and parody, line and form, narrative and history.

In actuality, these artists do not need permission to be global-their work and its implications are inherently entrenched in the global.