To think of the South American as a category of contemporary art is, in the first instance, an invitation to get to know the work of artists who have stood out for their value. But thinking about art from South America also implies questioning an extremely problematic artistic category.

In fact, South America as an artistic category is practically unprecedented in bibliographic terms, being approached in this book as a ghost that haunts the most explored art in Latin America.

The selection of artists is restricted solely to those who come from South America, thus excluding the North, the Center and the Caribbean region of the continent, as it is an area where the very stereotypes about Latin Americans have been under tension and the supposed symbolic unity built from the outside is shattered.

The main purpose is then to dramatize with this fiction of a non-existent unity.