<nettime> Peruvian Video/Electronic/Art: The Leonardo Gallery

[ATA Cultural <cultural@ata.org.pe>]

Está en linea una selección de artistas peruanos publicados en The
Leonardo Gallery (Leonardo Journal, MIT Press):

A selection of Peruvian media artists published in The Leonardo Gallery
(Leonardo Journal, MIT Press) is now online at:

http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/gallery/index.html


The Leonardo Gallery:

Peruvian Video/Electronic/Art
by José-Carlos Mariátegui

If we may say that the viability of the species depends on, among other
things, its variety, that is, in biological terms, on its variability, the
same could be said of the recent development of electronic arts in Perú.

This development has been hybrid and diverse. One of the main
characteristics of the works done using electronic media in Perú is that
they all differ one from the other. There are no trends definable.
Possibly its recent "second age" (over the last 5 years) makes it a
distinct case in comparison with other Latin American countries such as
Brazil, México or Argentina, in which the tradition of media arts has been
much longer established.

The significance of electronic art in Perú lies in its allowing a new
means of broadening and extending the creative universe, of developing
new, distinctly Peruvian ideas and thoughts in opposition to the
traditional artistic proposals that had made Peruvian art a useless
effort, considering its social context. For the artists selected here,
video and electronic arts act as non-traditional media that provide a
unique opportunity to express their thoughts and represent their very
personal perceptions of reality.

One of those creators who introduced the use of electronic media to Perú
was Francesco Mariotti, a Peruvian of Swiss origin. In the last years of
the 1960s, a time in which the fascination with technological resources in
the arts was just beginning around the world, he began working on
innovative projects. Mariotti's use, from the time he began his work, of
what is currently described as mediated or interactive art presented a
clear understanding of scientific theories in connection with artificial
life, cognition, complex system theories and concepts about nature that
are nowadays closely related to electronic arts.

After this auspicious beginning, the traces of electronic arts in Perú,
beyond some sporadic and isolated interventions, disappeared almost
completely for about 2 decades. The harsh situation for creators, the
minimal infrastructure for research and production, meant that only a few
succeeded, through great professional sacrifices, to raise the needed
funds to get access to expensive technical equipment. A pivotal event
occurred in 1995 when the Italian artist Gianni Toti came to Perú to
present a series of his video artworks. Toti, known as the "father of
video poetics and video synthesis," can be described as an organic
intellectual who confronts theoretical depth and cultural action in his
untiring search for new languages in artistic and scientific creation.

Toti's debate with artists and theoreticians helped to modify the solitude
of electronic arts in Perú. In 1998, and taking as a historical reference
a video-art show that took place in 1977 (presented by Alfonso Castrillón
and Jorge Glusberg), the Second International Video Art Festival took
place in Lima. Fortunately, thanks to the help of international
organizations as well as post-production and computer facilities, local
creations had begun to be produced. Since then, this festival has occurred
annually, with a massive response from the public, which demonstrates the
great interest that these new manifestations of art and technology can
produce. Many of the innovative artistic proposals in Perú in the last 5
years have been realized with or have been associated with the use of new
technologies.

While it is still possible to argue that electronic media can be
considered elitist in some poor countries, the means for their use has
been extended to the vast majority of Peruvians. A key to their further
expansion has been the creation of media centers with the technical
facilities and know-how to help develop creative ideas.

The intent to document social action by various means is evident in the
works of Roger Atasi, José Carlos Martinat and Iván Lozano di Natale. In
these cases, research on a project is presented as part of its process. A
great number of the works presented here also confront the creative
situation in an expository context or in a traditional artistic setting,
for example, the works of Angie Bonino or Iván Esquivel, which tend to be
conceptual and critical or even political. On the other hand are digital
artists such as Ricardo Velarde, who applies his technical knowledge and
aesthetics to develop his atypical 3D animations.

These young artists find in media arts new ways of interpreting local
contexts in the search for artistic, creative expression and resistance.

Resistance is always possible; it provides the context of the works being
developed in the electronic arts scene in Perú, which engages its
resistance through ideas from art and science within the so-called
technological/globalized culture. Peruvian creators analyze technology in
relation to social changes in a digital evolution toward the development
of a more humanizing world.



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