PERU
"(DES)INSTALACION PERÚ ECCE HOMO", 2000
(CCTV installation and web-FLASH application)
ARTIST'S MATERIAL:
[ENGLISH]
Alfredo Marquez, a designer, architect and cultural activist, was a political prisoner during Fujimori's Government in the 1990s. "PERU Ecce Homo" was a project that he developed for the Second National Art Biennial of Lima, using closed-circuit as well as Internet technology. The space used for this installation was kept in complete darkness, with just two monitors, a computer and a red line with the printed names of all the jails of Peru, creating an asphyxiating visual sensation. A video was shown of a sequence (in closed-circuit) of a room near the installation, which could not be seen, that contained a man inside a space made to resemble a prisoner's cell (the actor was Daniel Brito, who actually spent time in prison with Alfredo). The date printed on the monitor was 28 July, 2000, one of the most critical days in the political history of Peru, being the day in which Fujimori took the government illegally for the third time. The actions of the man in the cell were typical of those in a prisoner's everyday life: pouring a hot drink, doing some exercise, sitting or sleeping in bed. A second monitor showed the audience watching the installation. They thus saw on one side the image of the "prisoner," and on the other side their own image captured by a camera, causing a sensation of simultaneity and confrontation.
A computer off to one side of the space displayed a website showing reports of a special commission for prisoners who were unjustly jailed, including data of those who were jailed and statistics on political violence in Peru. A webcam placed on the computer captured images of the public, again confronting the audience while they reviewed these documents.
Marquez developed the ideas for this work based on his own experience when, during Fujimori's government, he was imprisoned for terrorism and later released because of a pardon signed by Fujimori. As a political prisoner, the little cell was his home; presenting this as an installation allowed members of the public to contrast their situations with that of a prisoner, as well as to contrast a jail cell with the "artistic space."
source: José Carlos Mariátegui in Leonardo Electronic Almanac,volume 10, number 3, march 2002
[ESPAÑOL]
Alfredo Márquez y Perú Fábrica desarrollaron para la II Bienal Nacional de Lima el proyecto (DES)INSTALACION PERÚ ECCE HOMO (2000). Márquez, diseñador, arquitecto y activista cultural, fue preso político durante el gobierno de Fujimori en la década del 90. En este proyecto utiliza tanto el circuito cerrado de televisión como el internet para lograr que el público penetre espacios privados. El espacio utilizado para el proyecto se encontraba completamente oscuro, y evidenciaba únicamente una línea iluminada en rojo con los nombres de todas las cárceles existentes en el Perú, creando una sensación de asfixia. El video es una secuencia, en circuito cerrado “simulado”, del registro de una habitación, supuestamente cercana a la instalación, donde descubrimos a un hombre en una celda (en este caso un actor, Daniel Brito, que también estuvo encarcelado con Márquez, hacía las veces de preso). Una segunda cámara instalada en el espacio en donde el público visualizaba el monitor registraba al espectador. El público entonces tenía a manera de díptico por un lado la imagen del hombre en la celda; y por otro su propia imagen vista por una cámara, una situació de simultaneidad y confrontación sobre la condición de un hombre encarcelado pero también la propia condición de “encarcelamiento” del hombre contemporáneo. Por otro lado, una computadora contenía los informes de la Comisión Ad Hoc para presos injustamente encarcelados mientras que una webcam confrontaba nuevamente al público registrándolo en la pantalla mientras revisaban los documentos. Para Márquez, en su condición de preso político, el espacio pequeño de la celda era su vida diaria, y presentarla mediante esta instalación permite que el público contraste su situación con la de un preso, así como el espacio de una celda con el “espacio artístico”.
source: José Carlos Mariátegui in Miradas-Revista del Audiovisual
[BIO]
DISEÑADOR ARQUITECTÓNICO, COMUNICADOR VISUAL, ARTISTA PLÁSTICO Y OPERADOR CULTURAL. Estudios de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. FAU Universidad “Ricardo Palma”. Lima, Perú (1980-1987). Experiencia Autodidacta y de Trabajo Colectivo en Diseño, Dibujo, Arte con Fotocopias, Fotoserigrafía, Pintura, Diseño Asistido por Computadora, Escenografía, Ambientaciones, Instalaciones, Fotografía y Vídeo en Talleres Independientes y relaciones universitarias extracurriculares (1984-2007). Conformación de COLECTIVOS INDEPENDIENTES de CREACIÓN y TRABAJO. Principales Colectivos: BESTIARIOS / BESTIAS (1984-1987). TALLER NN, NN (1988-1991). MADE IN PERÚ (1992-1994). PERUFABRICA (1999-2003). Gestor asociado de PROYECTOS COLECTIVOS de ARTE: TUPAC*CAPUT (2001-2002), A IMAGEN Y SEMEJANZA (2001-2003), VESTIGIO BARROCO (2005).
[CURATORSHIP TEXT'S EXTRACT]
Peruvian artist Alfredo Marquez and Coletivo Peru Fabrica create with (Des)instalacion Ecce Homo (2000) an ambient of confrontation and confinement, where CCTV provokes tensions between the exhibitional and prisonal space, the act of seeing and being seen, interior and exterior. Two monitors, a computer connected to the Internet and a red line with names of prisons in Peru are displayed in a dark room. One of the monitors shows a sequence of CCTV images from a room simulating a cell, where an actor performs restricted actions of everyday prison life - exercising, sleeping, eating. (The actor and Marquez were political prisoners in the same institution during the 90’s, during the Fujimori Government). The second monitor shows in real time, images of the exhibition visitors in the darkened room, duplicating their gaze in confrontation between their own image and that of others, between the installation space and prison space. Alongside the two monitors a computer shows a website with documents from an Ad Hoc commission for prisoners injustly confined in Peru. A webcam connected to this computer captures the image of the visitors analysing the documents. The spectators see themselves once again in the position seer/seen, now before another kind of “space”: the informational flow of the Internet, whose reticular and distributed architecture allows them to escape the hierarchic contentions of archives traditionally restricted to power circuits and its institutions.
[TRECHO DO TXT-CURADORIA]
Na obra do artista peruano Alfredo Marquez e do Coletivo Perú Fabrica –, (Des)instalacion Ecce Homo (2000), circuitos fechados de televisão criam um ambiente de confronto e confinamento, colocando em tensão o espaço da obra e o espaço prisional, o ver e o ser visto, o interior e o exterior. Dois monitores, um computador conectado à Internet e uma linha vermelha com os nomes das prisões do Peru são dispostos numa sala completamente escura. Um dos monitores projeta uma sequência de imagens capturadas em CFTV de um cômodo que simula o espaço de uma cela, onde um ator realiza as estreitas ações de uma vida confinada ao cotidiano das prisões (exercita-se, dorme, come). Este ator é um ex-presidiário, com quem Marquez conviveu nos anos 1990, quando também foi prisioneiro político do governo Fujimori. O segundo monitor exibe em tempo real imagens dos próprios espectadores da instalação, reduplicando seu olhar segundo um jogo de confrontamentos entre a sua própria imagem e a imagem do outro, entre o espaço da obra e o espaço da prisão. Ao lado dos monitores, um terminal de computador mostra um website com documentos de uma Comissão Ad Hoc para prisioneiros injustamente encarcerados no Peru. Uma webcam acoplada ao computador captura a imagem do público visualizando os documentos. O espectador se vê mais uma vez na posição de vidente-visível, agora diante de outro tipo de “espaço”, o do fluxo informacional da Internet, cuja arquitetura reticular e distribuída permite escapar das contenções hierárquicas dos arquivos tradicionalmente restritos aos circuitos do poder e suas instituições.
