Leonardo

Peruvian Video/Electronic Art Author(s): Jos-Carlos Maritegui Source: Leonardo, Vol. 35, No. 4 (2002), pp. 355-363 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577392 . Accessed: 17/10/2013 15:21
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Peruvian

Video/Electronic Art

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 Peru. This development has been hybrid and diverse. One of the main characteristics of the works done using electronic media in Peru 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, Mexico or Argentina, in which the tradition of media arts has been much longer established. The significance of electronic art in Peru 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 Peru 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 wasjust 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 Peru, 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 Peru 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 Peru. In 1998, and taking as a historical reference a video-art show that took place in 1977 (presented by Alfonso Castrillon 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 Peru 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.

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LEONARDO, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 355-363, 2002

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The intent to document social action by various means is evident in the works of Roger Atasi,Jose Carlos Martinat and Ivan 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 IvainEsquivel, 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 alwayspossible; it provides the context of the works being developed in the electronic arts scene in Perui,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.
Acknowledgments
The authorwishesto thankAngieHellerand Carlos Lettsfor theirfine revision of the Englishtext. MARIATEGUI JOSE-CARLOS Alta Tecnologia Andina (ATA) Paseode la Republica 3691, Of. 1001 Lima 27 Peru E-mail:<jcm@ata.org.pe> Web site:<http://www.ata.org.pe>

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FRANCESCO MARIOTTI
(left) Cuboluminoso,electronic installation, Projekt Geldmacher-Mariotti, Documenta IV, Kassel, Gerelectronic installation, Gran many, 1968. (Photo: Wolf Spemann) (center) Gran Guacamayo precolombino, Premio Citta di Locarno XIII Festival Videoart de Locarno, 1992. (Software: Manuel Rodriguez, Chile. Photo: Georg Stark.) (right) El templo de las luciernagas(The Temple of Fireflies), electronic installation, Museo de Arte de Lima, 1996. (Photo: Tachy Lay) (All works ? Francesco Mariotti) When I was 13, during the summer holiday I went to the jungle, in Tingo Maria, where one of my classmate's parents, who were of Swiss origin, had coffee plantations. In Peru, summer starts in the month of December. For Christmas, my parents gave me a rifle. I remember that one day I went out alone into the hills with my rifle. In the immense greenery surrounding me I discovered a small, colorful bird. I approached as closely as I could, I aimed and I shot. I felt as if the whole universe trembled in that moment. The small bird disintegrated in tiny particles of multicolored feathers. I had made a mistake that day that I have repented ever after. I am not sure if it is due to that day and because of that shooting, but I have an infinite debt towards beauty and harmony-which at that moment I did not recognize-and I also have an enormous suspicion of human nature and technologies. The paradox is that I use technological products in my artwork. Contact: Francesco Mariotti, Postfach 369, 8024 Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail:<francesco@mariotti.ch>. Web site: <http://www.mariotti.ch>.

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ROGER ATASI ROGER ATASI

(top left) Hola y c/tao,video, 2 min, Embassy of France, Lima, 2001. (top right) Killingfor Living, video installation, 5 min, Yohni se vende: espacios sobre Gamarra, Exhibition Centro Cultural de Espafia, Ultimo Lustro, Exhibition Centro Cultural de Bellas Lima, 1999. (bottom left) YoRobot, video, 6 min, lJltimo Artes, Lima, 1998. (bottom right)? To:Me, video, 4 min REC.Media.Uno, Exhibition Centro Cultural de Espafia, Lima, 2000. (All works ? Roger Atasi) My interest in plastic arts and my use of electronic media emerge from my interest in spaces that can be "used"and intervened into. Surely, this is because of my background as sculptor. I feel that in a 5-year period my work has passed through many diverse stages, starting from my interand then, litfie by est in urban zones (Neo 7iokio Mon Amour, ituraly transhist6rico, Paisajetranscu Cyclolima), little, moving to an urban self-portrait stage, in which I built the characters (YoRobot,Killingfor Living) to represent all that burdened me at a specific moment, whether I did so in a satirical or documentary way. In October 2000, with the video To:Me I began to transform my use of media into self-portraits incorporating everyday scenes, continuing with the construction of scenes in which I act (Hola y c/tao) chao) and this will culminate linked with scene: the urban finding the traces that identify my finally personality my personality with the development of a project that consists of three parts and finishes in public action. This entire project is supported by many songs from my own collection, which direct my steps to develop them into artworks. Contact: Roger Atasi,Jr. Pacifico 470-474, Urb. San Felipe, Lima 7, Peril. E-mail:cramdual@ supereva.it>.

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RICARDoVELARDE
video, 2 min, 5th Langoy,video, 3 min, 4th Festival Internacional de Video Arte, Lima, 2000. Viste?, Festival Internacional de Video/Arte/Electronica, Lima, 2001. (Music byJohnny Collantes) (All works ? Ricardo Velarde) I have alwaysfelt a great attraction to creating illustrations or drawings. I started a long time ago in the traditional way: drawing by hand. Then what computers had to offer began to capture my attention. Finally, I noticed that this was a way in which I could integrate my two major interests. Thus, I began learning many 3D animation techniques by myself. The idea of giving life to my own creations and characters interests me greatly. My impulse in starting these two projects was to create characters. My method, whether in doing videos or animations, starts in the same way:with the creation of a character. I then create scenery and atmosphere appropriate to that character. It is only with all these elements in place that I create a story-not the other way around. These two works, each one with its own characters and scenes, are like personal interpretations of diverse parts or aspects of my own personality. I see them as self-portraits. Contact: Ricardo Velarde,Junin 301#3a Barranco, Lima, Peru. E-mail:<rvelarde@amauta.rcp.net.pe>, <chifaalpaso@yahoo.com>.

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IVANLozANo
(top, bottom right) gD6nde Habitas? (Qu rica combinaci6n), video, 4 min, 5th Festival Internacional de Video/Arte/Electronica, Lima, 2001. (bottom left) Combimen (Web-based video project, 2001-2002). (All works ? Ivan Lozano) In recent years large-scale migration towards the Peruvian capital has generated many social and cultural

changes. This has caused the appearance of new methods of development in the city of Lima. The invention of new means of subsistence creates a product with formal characteristics,but also with a new type of
informality. Public transport reflects the new popular aesthetics of a changing city, resulting from the union

of different cultures with the proximity of formerly distant human groups. The journey inside public transport is linked to the idea of dressing and undressing (getting on, getting off) analogous to acceptance and rejection (hostility = migration) or to the adoption and refusal of some attitudes and cultural elements. The walls of the streets describe changes in our society; they are a mixture resulting from Lima's peculiar development, posters with different things written on them, graffiti with political, commercial or fashionable aims, etc. Myworks are a new approach to this new aesthetics, using massive and reachable media: introducing new human groups to a reality that seems far awayfrom our society, searching for an identity
that until now was denied by our collective minds. Contact: Ivan Lozano di Natale, Mz "R"Lote 1, Carlos Mellet, San Judas Tadeo, Chorrillos, Lima, Peru. E-mail: <lagarto_rojo@yahoo.com>.

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JOSE CARLOS MARTINAT Casa (House), multimedia/interactive installation, Municipalidad de Miraflores, Lima, 2000. (?Jose Carlos Martinat) Casarescues an inhabited space that has been associated with my family's history for 70 years. My grandfather lived in this space from childhood. He grew up and then formed a family there, converting the building afterwards into his workshop. I lived a few meters away during my childhood. This project was done in that same house and was divided into two wings: Wing 1: This wing was the starting point of the installation, an obscure interior containing 65 colored pictures, which included individual and serial images forming a route. One then confronts a closed door, which yet allows one to see inside the room behind it, in which there is a TV set placed so that the viewer cannot watch the images it broadcasts, but can hear two audio streams: one from the TV (a soap opera) and the other from the environment (the sound of crying). Wing 2: A dark interior, consisting of three rooms. Here, the visitor, with the help of a flashlight, interacts freely with the space, finding in each room different feelings instilled by the use of video projections, audio that is activated with the help of sensors, odors and the placement of objects in the rooms. Contact: Jos6 Carlos Martinat,Jose Gonzales 190, Miraflores, Lima 18, Perfl. E-mail: <unbicho@hotmail.com>.

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ANGIE BONINO
(top left) Feet on the Ground, video installation, Festival Interferences, Belfort, France, 2000. (top right)

No Logo,part of the real-time Internet performance H8fulworld,or the Unbearable Modernity of Slavery,
produced by the CICV Pierre Schaeffer, France, and the Platform Next-Movies 30th Edition of the Inter-

national Festival of New Cinema and New Media in Montreal, 2001. (bottom left and right) TheLine, video, 4 min, 5 Festival Internacional de Video/Arte/Electronica, Lima, 2001. (All works ? Angie Bonino)
Since my first individual exhibition (Esquemas, 1995), I have been working in the electronic arts. I believe that the new technologies in art provide us with new ethical questions; in my work the question is always present: What's behind all this? This is how works such as Feet on the Ground, a video installation in which I used 30 1.5-meter-high pneumatic spheres as a "screen" on which to project garbage-images of the Internet and TV, emerged; viewers had to find their way through the work to the "exit door," turning into active participants. The products of scientific and artistic creation that resound in global activities often contain a dual load that goes between profit or benefit and manipulation. In this con-

text, I have made such works as TheLine, a video artwork about the Fibonacci sequence and the complexity of the universe; LaserHand (Laberinto Sonoro, 2001); and the Net performance No Logo,done in which I participated along with other seven artists from various parts of the world, for H8Fulworld, connected in real time and presented at the Festival of Cinema and New Media in Montreal, Canada. Contact: Angie Bonino, Jose Bartoli 101 Esquina con Juan Numazon, Urb El Pacifico, Lima Per(f. 31, E-mail: <a_bonino@hotmail.com>. Web site: <http://www.H8fulworld.net>.

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IvAN ESQUIVEL
video, 3 min, 2nd Festival Internacional de Video Arte, Lima, 1998. (bottom) RGB,video, (top) Number,; 4 min, Lima, 1998. (All works ? Ivan Esquivel) The circus has come to town. How much RAM do you have? IDE or SCSI?Accelerator cards or render farms? 3D? 2D? Lightwave, Softimage or Maya? Firewire? Raid? Linear or non-linear? It's hard to say whether we're looking at a video-related exhibition or a power computer technology showcase. "Bigger is better," goes the saying, as the monitors show the workers' skill with their shiny machines. That's what I see, and I'm impressed. But in the same way that a surfing championship or a bikini contest might impress me. Everyone is showing what they have and what they know how to do better. "Ican render 90,354 million polygons per second, and you?"Well, I can't, but to see such digital onanism brings other concerns to my mind. A shameless trend towards excess and fireworks, eye candy as religion, and not only in First-Worldexhibits; I've seen it in small countries' work, too, where, to achieve that "contemporary look," artists tend to make intensive use of an always-handy (and vast) collection of plug-ins, not to mention abandoning their more "conventional" art practices for the same reason: working with video is trendy, you know, and austerity has become a crime. No, my system can't render 90,354 million polygons per second; I know it's a shame, but if my software and hardware work OK, taking me from premise A and B to conclusion C, it will be more than enough for me. About the other hardware-the computer itself-it has never been a problem. If something happens, fortunately, I know I'll find the best way to sort things out. Contact: Ivan Esquivel Naito, Edificio Los Olivos, departamento 612, Ingreso 3, Residencial San Felipe, Jesus Maria, Lima, Peru. E-mail:<osterizer@ hotmail.com>.

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