JUAN PABLO LANGLOIS

(Santiago, 1936 – 2019)

A pioneer of conceptual art in Chile, Juan Pablo Langlois undertook a profoundly critical artistic practice throughout his sixty-year career, taking the form of sculpture, video, and installation. His oeuvre explores the marginalization of certain groups and subjects, and the multiple effects of this repression on the social imaginary. Guided by an interest in obsolescence and precariousness, Langlois used economical materials, like newspaper, glue, and tempera, which he often supplemented with contemporary technologies such as photocopies and animations, resulting in a tense relationship between the work’s materiality and imagery. Reiterating the idea that what is political is also personal, Langlois addressed issues such as gender, ethnicity, and race from many perspectives, incorporating affective and emotional elements into economic and social matters.