VIGIL GONZALES GALLERY EXHIBITS “DEJO ESTE CUERPO AQUÍ” BY NATALIA IGUIÑIZ

The first is an archive of photographs, taken from the internet, that portray various uses of cardboard to protest, ask for help or shelter. The second is an installation with the cardboard pieces that were placed in various streets of the city of Lima; used cardboards were collected and recycled from family consumption or from warehouses and streets, then screen-printed with three parts of a woman's body and accompanied by phrases taken from Audre Lorde's Cancer Diaries. Finally, the third part integrates photographs that record parts of the life of the body fragments in the streets.

The work is born from precariousness, hopelessness, lack of options, fatigue, impotence. From exhausting all resources or when one can only leave evidence of one’s resistance. This kind of "last hope" sabotages itself by placing messages in areas that are difficult to access and read. The material is perishable and the texts are not clear.

The exhibition also includes the following poem written by Eliana Otta, curator.

UN CUERPO AHÍ / A BODY THERE

¿De quién es ese cuerpo tirado en medio de la calle? / Whose body is it lying in the middle of the street?

¿De quién es esa pierna que observo al cruzar la pista? / Whose leg is that I see when crossing the track?

¿De quién es ese rostro carente de expresión? / Whose expressionless face is it?

¿Qué le impide abrir los ojos y mirarme? / What prevents it from opening its eyes and looking at me?

¿Será el cansancio, / Is it fatigue

el dolor, / the pain,

la impotencia, / impotence,

el trauma, / trauma,

la violencia, / the violence,

la desesperanza? / hopelessness?

La mujer anónima, / The anonymous woman,

¿sufre en silencio? / does she suffer in silence?

¿descansa tranquilamente? / rest quietly?

¿recobra fuerzas? / regain strength?

¿recuerda penas? / remember sorrows?

¿duerme y sueña? / sleep and dream?

¿ha olvidado cómo moverse? / has she forgotten how to move?

¿no se decide a incorporarse? / can't decide to join?

¿espera que la despierten? / expect to be awakened?

¿no siente sus partes? / can’t she feel her parts?

¿las siente intensamente? / feel them intensely?

¿intenta recuperarse? / is she trying to recover?

¿de ejercicio extremo? / from extreme exercise?

¿de placer indescriptible? / indescribable pleasure?

¿de una enfermedad implacable? / a relentless disease?

¿del maltrato cotidiano? / daily abuse?

¿de una violación, un golpe, un grito? / from a rape, a blow, a scream?

¿de sentirse explotada, agredida, amenazada? / from feeling exploited, attacked, threatened?

¿o callada piensa? / or does she quietly think?

¿imagina, idea? / imagine, devise?

¿dibuja en su mente? / does she draw in her mind?

¿un plan, una ruta? / a plan, a route?

¿un escape, una coraza? / an escape, a shell?

¿recrea una caricia? / does she recreate a caress?

¿evoca ternura? / evoke tenderness?

¿se reconcilia en silencio? / reconcile in silence?

¿con ella misma, con otros? / with herself, with others?

¿escucha sus latidos? / does she hear her heartbeat?

¿percibe su respiración? / feel her breath?

¿se fusiona con el mundo? / does she merge with the world?

¿disuelta en el aire? / dissolved in air?

¿flotando en el mar? / floating in the sea?

¿vislumbra un final? / does she see an end?

¿quizá algún comienzo? / maybe a beginning?

¿sobrevive en tu mirada? / does she survive in your gaze?

¿se levantará mañana? / will she get up tomorrow?

The artist, for her part, adds: “In cities, cardboards are available to everyone, they are part of our daily packaging. They carry, bring and are garbage, like our bodies when we get sick, when we become impoverished, when we are discarded, violated, sterilized, mutilated, burned, and yet; the cardboards are there to keep us warm and carry our most desperate messages and our anger."

Natalia Iguiñiz (1973) lives and works in Lima, where she is a visual artist and university teacher. From her studies in Painting at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú – PUCP (1990-95) and the Master's Degree in Gender, Sexuality and Public Policy at the UNMSM, her work explores the construction of discourses around the conceptions of the feminine, the sexuality, domestic work and motherhood.

Her work shifts between art exhibition spaces, public place interventions and feminist activism. Occasionally she works in graphic design, writing, and curating. She has participated in 12 individual projects and in more than two hundred exhibitions and biennials nationally and internationally. As well as in various reviews and publications. Her work is part of important collections, including those of the MOLAA, MALI and Reina Sofía museums. In 2020 she has participated in the Mercosur Biennial in Porto Alegre under the curatorship of Andrea Giunta, and Dejo este cuerpo aquí is presented as her most recent solo show at VIGIL GONZALES Lima.

VIGIL GONZALES is conceived as a contemporary art gallery oriented to the visibility and promotion of artistic production within the Peruvian and Latin American scene. Conceived as a space for research and cultural, disciplinary and knowledge exchange, the gallery focuses on artists whose work dialogues with the socio-political issues of the region. Understanding art as a tool for political and social transformation, VIGIL GONZALES seeks to represent a group of artists who decode the conflicts embodied in everyday relationships. Thus, to account for the work of artists as creators of a sphere of discussion and dialogue that makes the public agenda a hallmark. Along these lines, the gallery also promotes research related to individual and national identities in relation to the geopolitical, economic and cultural factors of Latin America.