Sabotage is the deliberate disruption of a dominant system, be it political, military or economic. Yet in recent decades, sabotage has also become an artistic strategy most notably in Latin America. In Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina, artists are producing radical, unruly or even iconoclastic work that resists state violence, social conformity and the commodification of art.

Sabotage Art reveals how contemporary Latin American artists have resorted to sabotage strategies as a means to bridge the gap between aesthetics and politics. The global status of and market for Latin American art is growing rapidly. This book is essential reading for those who want to understand this new, dissident work, as well as its mystification, co-option and commercialization within current academic historiographies and art-world curatorial initiatives.

Sophie Halart is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago de Chile and a Teaching Fellow at University College London, UK, where she received her PhD on contemporary women artists in the Southern Cone.

Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra is Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London, UK and received her PhD in Latin American Cultural Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK.