axis in the debate surrounding the moving image in Peru. Since then, and especially in present times, when the digital format is shared by cinema and video creation, Peruvian video installation brings pertinence and audacity to the constellation of contemporary art in Peru. The construction of a spatial aesthetic for video is pronouncedly different between recent video installations and the works of the first generation of Peruvian video artists that broke into this territory toward the late nineties (e.g. Angie Bonino). Presently, the sustained exploitation of the spatial possibilities of video can be adequately described as the fruit of a new relationship between the citizen and the public space and territory. As such, it is the ethical and aesthetic confirmation of a new social and political dimension, that of an affirmed and assumed citizenship which since 2000 the country has gradually recovered and built upon4. It was at that time that awareness was raised on the role models of civil society roles, relationships and ethics of free work, based on encompassing questions, which was arguably refounded beyond the individual realm to take over the space as the act of designing a field of unbiased and selfless enquiry (as opposed to its use in constraint and political blackmail, ingrained in Peruvian memory through the videographic stain left by Vladimiro Montesinos, the advisor to president Alberto Fujimori).5 The richness of the works selected for VIDEO-TRANSLACIONES: MIRADAS X ESPACIOS (VIDEOTRANSLATIONS: GAZES X SPACES) derives from the use of different resources, the spatial configuration of each work and the relationship they establish with the audience. The works juxtapose genres, stories and technologies that allude to geographical spaces, collective memory narratives and cultural readings of the city and public space, in addition to the trips of imagination, fantastic narrative and an exploration of the characteristics and functionalities of the technologies employed in their production, such as optics and electronics. Visible in each of these works are processes devoted to mapping the limits of an identity both individual and collective. No selection of works comes without omissions, and there is no palliative for the curatorial decisions made. The curatorship has fully assumed its responsibility in an attempt to present the most comprehensive and diverse possible panorama of video installation as an aesthetic practice among Peruvian artists in present times.
4 The year 2000 marked the beginning of a process of democratic reaffirmation in Peru, following the removal of Alberto Fujimori, who maintained a dictatorship for nearly a decade. 5 In a room at the National Intelligence Service, Vladimiro Montesinos would secretly film in VHS tapes his meetings with prominent politicians and businessmen, where he often offered bribes. This collection of tapes, commonly known as Vladivideos, shed light on the acts of severe corruption carried out under Fujimori’s regime. Today, most of them can be accessed on YouTube.
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