PERU: EXPLORING THREE CURRENT REALITIESPeruvian Embassy Project Within the London Festival of Architecture 2010
18 June – 2 July 2010
Opening hours: Monday to Friday
10.00am - 1.00pm & 3.00pm - 5.00pm
Architectural and design schools, established architectural practices and NGOs based in Peru join efforts to present concepts that explore three current realities in need of urgent attention and that respond to the imperative of helping create welcoming communities, cities and cultural centres for Peruvians and visitors from around the globe.
1. Amazonian Sustainable Communities
Architects and designers explore what sustainable opportunities are available in the Amazon basin that could help protect the natural environment and safeguard ancestral lands, enabling local communities to actively participate and benefit from a more prosperous livelihood.
2. Creating the new City of Pisco
On 15 August 2007 a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Peru 250kms south of Lima destroying many homes. Proposals explore what the master plan for the new city of Pisco could look like.
3. A Memorial Museum
During the 1980’s and 1990’s Peru experienced terrorism which cost the lives of thousands persons, many of which were innocent civilians caught up in the conflict. This proposal explores innovative ideas and concepts of how a memorial museum might be integrated into the city and stimulates better understanding of the events.
CURATED BY
Sophie Le Bienvenu
For further information please visit:
http://www.lfa2010.org/event.php?id=130&name=peru_exploring_three_current_realitiesMARISOL MALATESTAParts of the face are not likely to change much either
20 MAY – 11 JUNE 2010
The Portable Gallery at the Peruvian Embassy is delighted to host a solo exhibition of new paintings by Marisol Malatesta. In this, a new series by the Lima-born artist, Malatesta re-works images of the ecstasy of nature taken from Spanish religious paintings of the XVI and XVII centuries: the period known as the Golden Age of Spanish Art that has influenced and inspired the idiosyncrasies of Peruvian art for centuries.
Sometimes surreal, always painstakingly constructed, traditional figures appropriated from this era of painting are relocated in to bizarre and beautiful set-pieces that are also home to symbols from popular culture, Peruvian folklore and pre-Spanish iconography, as well as images culled from the Internet and from advertisements. Abstraction and figuration sit side by side, creating a winning tension between the known and the unknown.
Somehow, from the melange, there emerges an exploration of gender and ethnic stereotypes, of modern-day consumerism, and of the processes of cultural exchange and social exclusion that have come about since colonialism hit home in Peru.
Malatesta’s practice seems compulsive and driven by the joy of composing, and of creating texture and colour. “My intention is to suggest sinister and perhaps over-joyous sensations by re-interpreting images of ambiguous nature. I reference simple cartoon-like, almost childish figures, positioning them alongside more subversive and apocalyptic things”, she says.
This exhibition is the result of a search for the capacity of constructing meaningful artifice in painting. The title is an excerpt from the text Method for Learning How to Draw Passions (1702) by the French painter and designer Charles Le Brun. By following some of Le Brun’s principles, Malatesta explores the boundaries between ‘artisan’ and ‘sacred’ practices, respectively based on the principles of resemblance and persuasion. The result is this, a delightful group of uncanny figures couched in their Mannerist milieus.
Marisol Malatesta (born Lima) lives and works in London. She gained an MA in Fine Arts (2003) and a post-Graduate Diploma (2002) at Byam Shaw School of Art, as well as a BA at Universidad Catolica del Peru. Previous exhibitions include Russell Herron Collection at Sartorial Contemporary (London 2009), Tail Devourer and Culture Clash at Working Rooms (London 2008-2009), I’m not pregnant! At Meals & SUVs Project Space (London 2008), Jerwood Contemporary Painters 2007 at Jerwood Space, London, BayArt, Cardiff and The Lowry Salford Quays, Manchester.
5th August to 4th September 2009: 'YOUNG PERUVIAN PAINTING IN LONDON'
"EL OTRO GRITO", John Chauca Laurente, 2008
The work of 12 artists who reside in Peru were shown in an exhibition organized by the Anglo-Peruvian Society and the Peruvian Embassy.
July 23rd to 26th 2009: 'PURE PERU' Art Exhibition at the Vibe Bar (http://www.vibe-bar.co.uk/) by six Peruvian artists based in the UK 
'ANGEL' by José Luis Herrera
The Peruvian Embassy displayed the work of six young Peruvian artists at 'Pure Peru' art exhibition, a special showcase within the 'Pure Peru' festival organized by the Cuzqueña beer to celebrate the Peruvian National Day. The exhibition was an overview of the current tendencies on contemporary art by Peruvian artists in the UK.
Marisol Malatesta
Lizi Sánchez
Ximena Garrido-Lecca
Ananú Gonzales-Posada
Gabriel Tejada
José Luis Herrera
Vibe Bar Gallery
The Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane
London
E1 6QL
http://www.vibe-bar.co.uk/
http://www.cusquena.co.uk/
June 4th to July 3rd 2009: 'MYTHOLOGICAL STAYS', paintings by Fernando Cáceres
http://fernandocaceresjara.webeden.co.uk/
Following the subjects developed in his previous work, Bristol-based Peruvian artist Fernando Cáceres continues to explore the myths and legends of his Andean roots. In this new collection of paintings the artist reaches a higher stage in his art, creating his own mythology through the syncretism of Andean and European beliefs.
'Mythological Stays' is the reflection of Cáceres's inner self deeply influenced by his background and present life in Europe. This is a process in which religion and politics, intellect and emotions, mind and body are unified to create a total iconography. The deliberate use by the artist of a symbolic and surrealist style to narrate these new myths invite us to create our own meanings.
April 30th to May 28th 2009: 'MODERNITY IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES'. Photography by Martin Chambi and the Cabrera Brothers
Curated by the Peruvian photographer, Sergio A. Fernández, this exhibition presents the photographic works of Martin Chambi and his apprentices Crisanto and Filiberto Cabrera.
Printed from the original plates in Cusco, Peru, these images attemp to reveal the different layers of artistic accomplishment and social documentary which were blended in the Peruvian Andes during the first half of the 20th Century.
Thursday 16 April 2009, 7.00pm: PERUVIAN VIDEO ART SCREENING
Cristian Alarcón
Martín Aramburu
Gloria Arteaga
Patricia Bueno
Elena Damiani
Diego Lama
Gabriela Talavera
Pilar Talavera
Aníbal Zamora
Curated by Paloma García Valdivia
GROWING PAINS: THE 'RE-INVASION OF THE SHANTYTOWN'
Exhibition within the London Festival of Architecture 2008, 20 June to 20 July 2008
Four young Peruvian architects living and working in London presented a range of 'hypothetical architectural projects', which embarked upon the exploration of ideas, concepts, theories and utopias in relation to the urban amalgam arising from the expansion of the shantytowns around the city of Lima in recent decades.
Curator:
Manuel Mindreau
Participant Architects:
Alberto Dominguez
Federico Dunkelberg
Sophie Le Bienvenu
Lucia Pflucker
Special Collaboration:
Silvia Gordon
Photography:
Antje Bormann
Yayo López
