South in mirror: Portugal in the contemporary curatorial Spanish imaginary

This text analyses the presence of Portugal in the artistic panorama of contemporary Spain. Through an examination of art exhibitions and cultural politics in the regions of Extremadura and the Canary Islands, we will study how those projects use a certain image of Portugal to negotiate a singular identity within a framework marked by the inclusion of Spain and Portugal in the European Union, the regionalization and modernization of the Spanish territories, and the development of an interest in 'the art of the peripheries'. The main hypothesis of this article, then, is that the artistic relations in Iberian territory cannot be understood if it is not examined within an international framework, attentive to the configuration of regional identities and alliances, and also to the persistence in our present of many contradictions related to the colonial and imperial past of the Iberian space.