When people ask what I'm doing in Peru, I tell them I'm studying the politics of Peru via the art produced in the country, I normally get a slightly confused look from my audience. I could make massive generalizations, but in sum I think those in the US of A normally don't associate politics and art beyond propaganda posters. Of course, a lot of art is political under a broader understanding of what "political" means - art that broaches social, gender, economic, labor, etc. issues. Art that goes beyond being art for the sake of art.
The art we are seeing in Peru presents these various aforementioned issues, but universally the artists we have met address the violence produced by groups such as the Shining Path and MRTA, as well as by the Peruvian government and military (especially under the presidency/dictatorship of Fujimori who is currently imprisoned for war crimes), in one way or another. While the nation acknowledges the atrocities committed by the prior, not everyone admits the government also committed atrocious acts, and if they do, they are considered the unfortunate byproducts necessary to eradicate such groups as the Shining Path. These "excesses" by the military being that of torture, rape, and murder of many innocent people.
One of the forms of addressing war crimes and the suffering of innocent Peruvians (a large majority - roughly 70% - of those directly affected lived in the Andes) is through public memorials and monuments, such as El Ojo que Llora (The Eye that Cries). El Ojo que Llora is a beautiful, meditative monument that includes tens of thousands of small stones on which are written the names, ages, and year of death of people killed during Peru's "dirty war" (they are in the process of carving them, as the ink is fading). These stones form a path around a sculpture that cries, or mourns, for the dead. Tangent interjection: this symbolic gesture is fairly obvious, but I see a second reading of a breast attempting to nurse a broken nation...
Naturally, dissent occurs under the form of vandalism and the monument was defaced by supporters of Fujimori (the color orange is used by Fujimori's party). Though it saddens my heart to see it - that people choose to remain so ignorant of political abuses, in some ways I think it's appropriate to be reminded of the pervasive ignorance and denial that remains within Peru (though applicable to any nation really).
El Ojo que Llora
the eye (breast) - water was not running that day, but you can see the mineral deposits left by the water, as well as the remaining orange paint from the vandalism
stones with carved names
orange paint from vandalism and the remnents of stones with ink inscriptions
a mural about human rights, also vandalized
1 comment:
I was surprised to learn that the CIA, in their many shenanigans in south america, often used teams of graffiti artists to do just this kind of targeted intimidation. This stuff is right out of "The School of Americas" play book.
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