The ‘crumbs’ for the peripheries, a topic addressed in an exhibition at the Nahim Isaías Museum

for the healer Hernan Pacurucu, The most beautiful thing about the peripheries is that they remain as such, despite the changes around them. “If one day the planet suddenly rotated and north became south, the outskirts would remain the outskirts (…) Nothing would change for better or for worse”, states the art critic. Under this reflection he presents the V Exhibition of Contemporary Graphics, called The periphery, the dance of those left over, an exhibition that recently opened in the Nahim Isaiah Museum.

The exhibition is also curated by Victor Hugo Bravo (Chile) and the co-curatorship of the Spanish artist Francis Naranjo (Canary Islands). The exhibiting artists are Noe Mayorga, David Santillan and Mariella Garcia, and others from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Spain.

Its name refers to the “crumbs” that are usually destined for peripheral spaces. “He talks about the issue of empowering the idea of ​​the periphery, understanding that there is a center that consumes everything, that feeds on the peripheries”Pacurucu explains.

“For example, in our country the capitals are the ones that absorb the economy, delegating the peripheries to a contribution of money without remuneration”adds the curator, who intends to generate a debate around this topic.

He defends the peripheries as that space from which knowledge is produced, since they are the only ones that are not involved in actions of power. “Not having access to the big economies, the big cultural managers, or the big galleries allows us to activate our creativity to exhibit in the rooms of our houses, in spaces that are not appropriate, but that we ingeniously enable them to show what we have” , holds.

The exhibition, which will tentatively be for two months, brings together photography, video, engraving, serigraphy, drawing and installation. “There is a lot of diversity of styles, diversity of trends, diversity of ways of making art, but all of them talking about the same subject”indicates Pacurucu, who explains that each artist reflects on this issue from their own perspective.

Spain does it from the power of the centers, while Ecuador and Bolivia speak of an absolute periphery as a country. The essential thing for the selection of exhibitors was their commitment to the theme of resistance, to the theme of building new imaginaries, says Pacurucu.

For example, in the work of Acaymo S. Cuesta, named Plop, the artist places this word on the documents that revealed that the US government was involved in the overthrow of Salvador Allende.

“Like a street advertising poster, these documents are displayed to show us inside what we all already knew; the onomatopoeia PLOP! (like the one used by the characters of the Chilean comic Condorito, when they fainted after having been victims of an embarrassing situation)”, details the description of the work.

Or like in the play Globetrotterfrom Oscar Validowhich makes an allegory of the gypsy people. “A people that knows very well what the periphery is, that has crossed borders and that, exercising its own laws, has known how to survive rebellious, indomitable. A visual metaphor in which the world map is engraved on the soles of his shoes (the world at his feet and not the other way around) ”expresses the artist himself in the description of his work.

The salon takes place in the Nahim Isaiah Museum, located on Pichincha streets between Aguirre and Clemente Ballén. Your access is free, Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Remember to bring your mask and vaccination card. (I)