Peruvian Artists and Activists Share Work on Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation
April 4, 2018
The LAII is honored to partner with the International Museum of Folk Art to provide an opportunity for the UNM campus and broader Albuquerque community to meet Peruvian artists and activists Adelina García, Wari Zárate, and Rosalía Tineo whose work is at the forefront of the fight for truth, justice, and reconciliation in the wake of the 20 year internal armed conflict with the Shining Path that claimed the lives of nearly 70,000 Peruvians between 1980 and 2000. Using their traditional folk arts of Ayacucho, they give testimony to the stories of individuals and communities who endured violence. The discussion will take place in Spanish with English interpretation. The artists/activists will discuss "Haciendo justicia desde la comunidad" at the LAII on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, at 5:00 pm. The event is free and open to the community. Please see the event information for Haciendo justicia desde la comunidad for complete details, including presenter biographies and abstracts.
Exhibit Information
The discussion takes place in conjunction with Crafting Memory: The Art of Community in Peru, an exhibit (December 3, 2017 - March 10, 2019) of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. The exhibit explores the new directions taken by current Peruvian folk artists during the recent decades of social and political upheaval and economic change, and includes the biographies and social histories of contemporary artists along with examples of work that preserve family tradition, reimagine older artforms, reclaim pre-Columbian techniques and styles, and forge new directions for arte popular in the 21st century.
The exhibition as a whole, Crafting Memory, is on display through March 10, 2019. It explores the new directions taken by current Peruvian folk artists during the recent decades of social and political upheaval and economic change. The exhibition will highlight the biographies and social histories of contemporary artists along with examples of work that preserve family tradition, reimagine older artforms, reclaim pre-Columbian techniques and styles, and forge new directions for arte popular in the 21st century.
The past forty years have been a time of tremendous change in the Andes, beginning with the Agrarian Reform of 1969 that broke up the large haciendas; a twenty-year internal armed conflict with the Shining Path that engulfed the 1980’s and 1990’s and claimed nearly 70,000 lives; economic swings, rapid development, the recent large investment in preserving archaeological heritage and the current booming tourism industry.
All of these forces have all shaped the lives of artists and informed the art they create. Crafting Memory visits a series of contemporary folk artists in Peru and places their work within this larger framework of Peruvian history and social change. The exhibition will explore the many routes through which craft and folk arts are learned and practiced, including multigenerational crafting families, self-taught artisans, and others who came to folk arts as a means of economic survival during the time of violence. The show includes a third generation silversmith reviving the art of tupus or shawl stick pins that were worn during the Inca Empire; the art of war orphans from the 1980’s who were trained in traditional arts to give hope in dark times; and a collective of young artists in Lima using the medium of silk screening to promote conversations between rural highland and jungle communities with their counterpart migrant neighborhoods in the city, celebrating their shared arts, culture, and customs and emphasizing the value of the handmade, and the ideas, values, and aesthetics that arise from Cultura Popular - common people and everyday life.
