MARIALEJANDRA LOZANO​

This project represents in a symbolic manner the Peruvian conquest, its process and its ruins. Having in mind the concept of territory, I try to re-signify and reassess the book, and to bring back from the past this object, whose purpose, in my opinión, is being forgotten more and more with the increase of tecnology.

 

In the piece titled, “The conquest”, books of geographical and historical content that narrate the process of the appropriation of territory are being used. A sword goes across and into this kind of “delimited territory” formed by the books, while glorifying the act of conquest.

 

The ruins or “huacas”, not only represent the end of the book, but also, fragmented and almost destroyed, talk about a civilization that was culturally summited through the use of this same object during the conquest. As well, this piece represents what actually happened to Lima as a territory itself, Lima was almost all desert and ruins and the city was constructed upon the ruins, now historical landmarks. For me, the different colours and shapes of the books somehow reflect the pluricultural country that Peru is and how it is not important to unify all the pieces but to learn how to work with all those different identities together.

 

The series of found books, some of them ready-mades, some others assamblages; each of the books are intervened in a manner in which they are read as a particular perception of Peruvian history in relation with the meaning it has as a country and autonomous territory. The transcendence of any country is achieved through collective memory and it is important to me to try to narrate it in that way.

 

Finally, and almost after a 4-year period I’ve worked with book covers of iconic and important books in peruvian history and painted them large-scale in oil.