Shrines: In Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, and in the countries of Southern Europe, there is a practice that associates violent death with purity of the soul. It is believed that people who have died violently, suffering tremendously, will have secured a place in heaven because of the pain they endured at the end of their lives. These “popular martyrs” are venerated as if they were canonized saints.
In the places where it is believed they have died, people leave some belongings they hold dear, such as the first shoe of their baby, pieces of hair, or their wedding dress. The site soon becomes a chaotic accumulation of everyday objects that are not ordinarily associated with what is shown as “art” in the museums. Most people do not live surrounded by “works of art;” instead, the kind of everyday objects they offer to their “saints” constitute their visual universe. I wanted to depict these objects within their “sacralized” environments to rescue a visual universe as well as a personal offering to those popularly venerated figures.
Bull-like objects: In the Andean regions of Bolivia and Peru, the image of the bull is used in fertility “fiestas,” festivals that integrate pagan and Christian rituals. In these celebrations, a toy-like image of a bull is carried by a dancer around his/her waist. He/she moves to the music in a sort of ritual dance that recreates the tropes of the indigenous struggle against the European invader. In this environment the bull-figure is associated with habits and ways of living from those Andean societies that have not been completely assimilated whether by the state, the school system, or by institutional religions.
The images of the shrine and the bull offer instances to reflect on the peripheral and marginal aspects of the societies in which they are produced, as well as on their ritual and visual values. These images allow a certain detachment from our own traditions and visual expectations, achieving an effect similar to the Brechtian strangement in art. They inhabit a space marginal to the Western “art” world and its artistic habits that can be fruitfully explored to examine issues of representation in the fringes of society.
Gustavo Fares 