The camera as an interface

Closed Circuit Video Projects in Peru*

By José-Carlos Mariátegui

Prologue
Electronic and video art in Peru: yesterday and today
Before getting into the specific theme it’s important to shortly explain the electronic art
panorama in Peru. Historically speaking, in September 1977 the first Video Art Festival
was organized in Lima by Jorge Glusberg, director of the Center for Art and
Communications of Buenos Aires (CAYC), and the Peruvian art critic Alfonso Castrillón
at the Continental Bank Gallery. In this occasion several works of international artistic
presence were shown (such as Nam June Paik, Valie Export, Wolf Vostell) incorporating
also the works of the Peruvian artist Rafael Hastings. We have also to note the works of
Francesco Mariotti, which together with Klaus Geldmacher, presented during the
Documenta IV of Kassel, an enormous, penetrable, light pail of seven meters, whose
sound and light effects answered to the interaction of a keyboard. After this first and
auspicious period, however, the electronic art in Peru stopped almost completely among
us during about two decades, although we have to take into consideration the active role
of visual artists couple known as Arias & Aragon, who have been accomplishing
multimedia performances around the beginnings of the 90’s.

In 1998 this solitary panorama of electronic arts in Peru begins to be modified: in that
year, and taking as historical reference the already mentioned event of 1977, the 2nd
International Video Art Festival is accomplished in Lima, organized by ATA (Alta
Tecnología Andina) and the Visual Arts Gallery of the Ricardo Palma University, this
one directed also by Alfonso Castrillón. Initially it was thought in appealing solely to
foreign artist projects, but fortunately local videos were produced, and were also
presented within the Festival. Since then, this Festival is accomplished annually, with a
massive response of the public, which confirms the great interest that this new
manifestations of art and technology can produce. Emerging and young artists like
Eduardo Villanes, Roger Atasi, Rafael Besaccia, Alvaro Zavala, Angie Bonio and Ivan
Esquivel where pioneers during the first versions. Recent proposals as those of Diego
Lama, Renzo Signiori or Ricardo Velarde in the creation of digital images; Delia
Ackerman, JuanMa Calderón, Carlos Letts and Fermín Tangüis in fictional/experimental
videos or conceptual proposals like the ones of Max Hernández Calvo reveal us that the
current development of video and electronic art in Peru already is not difficult neither
discouraging. The electronic art in Peru, even though is found in an initial second age,
can be defined as the new creative metaphor that is identified with the young public, that
seek a more authentic form of expression associated with the Peruvian reality.

*
Published in: Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN #1071-4391), Vol. 10, num. 3, march 2002.
Introduction
The concept “closed circuit” implies in artistic terms a sign recorded by a video camera,
which goes to a monitor in a particular way and, usually, in real time. In the closed
circuit works, the artist is not interested in what it communicates but how it
communicates, as well as the public’s awareness of this process. In some projects, such
as the ones were the public participates in the work, confronting their image in a monitor,
for example, the closed circuit installations are the “interface” which integrates the
audience with the work of art, that is, the camera acts as the “medium” (or “interface”)
between the public and the artistic result. Taking this into consideration, it could be
interesting to argue that closed circuit and remote transmission projects can be considered
as the first experimentations in the use of what we now call interactive installations, or
“interactive art”, which try to be works developed as a result of the spectator’s
participation (responsiveness).

Although closed circuit projects started around the 60’s, in Peru there is no historic data
of works using closed circuit until the beginnings of the 80’s. This is far from pioneer
works done in other places of Latin America like the CAYC in Buenos Aires, Argentina
since the 70’s decade.

In some closed circuit and remote transmission works that have been done in Peru, we
see that there is a double function, on one side, to capture the live actions that are going
on and to confront them in many ways, and on the other side, to document (or record) a
work in a determined moment. In this way, the documentation of a project is presented
as the final part of its process. A great part of these works also confront the art’s position
in an exhibition context or in a traditional artistic situation.

The following essay describes some of the most prominent and interesting works done in
Peru using closed circuit and real time technologies since the 80’s decade until recent
days.

Francesco Mariotti

Francesco Mariotti, a Swiss-born Peruvian (Berna, 1943), has been developing, since the
late 60’s, art projects using technological resources. The practice of what we now call
“media art” and “interactive art” in Mariotti’s first productions are founded over his
correct use of technology linked to a clear knowledge of the scientific proposals and
artificial life concepts, very associated nowadays to artistic manifestations.

Between the years 1981-1984, Mariotti did a series of works using closed circuit
techniques. The works are referred to images generated by two video cameras, mixing
and cross-fading both images in one screen. The images correspond to the same person’s
portrait in different angles, to an object with a portrait and/or to two different objects.
From this experience, the result was a series of photographs: he took a screen picture with
the different juxtapositions in video and chose the ones he considered most expressive.
He also documented the experience with serigraphies, pictures and a video.

The most “famous” portraits are such as the one of Vittorio Fagone (Italian art historian)
and Rinaldo Bianda (Locarno’s Videoart Festival director, in which the series was done)
combined with a pre-Columbian figure.

Fernando Bryce
“Huaco TV”
Luis Miró Quesada Garland Gallery, Muestra Puntos Cardinales (July - August 2001)

Fernando Bryce, studied arts in Lima (Universidad Católica, workshops and individual
studies) and in Paris (Université Paris VIII - Arts Plastique y L’Ecole National
Superieure de Beux Arts de Paris), he is a young and active Peruvian artist with a
successful international perspective.

As part of the project “Puntos Cardinales 2001”, Fernando Bryce presented in the Luis
Miró Quesada Garland Gallery a pre-Columbian cuchimilco (pre-Columbian clay-made
figure, generalized also with the term ‘huaco’), which was registered in closed circuit and
presented in a small black and white screen that was next to the object. He titled it
“Huaco TV” in a free but conscious association with “TV Buddha”, one of the most
recognized works of video sculptures from Nam June Paik, which was presented in many
versions since 1974. The idea came when he thought of what object was he going to put
in the exhibition space along with the hundreds of drawings he had made. “I thought of
the cuchimilco since I had it already represented before as a drawing, so now I put it in a
technological support making it much more ‘contemporary’, containing in this way an
additional ironical sense”, affirms Bryce. What he was doing now is to convert the image
of the object into a new artistic work. The cuchimilco is an allegoric object that
personifies a symbol of Peru’s history, which is why behind the cuchimilco there is a
series of books on the History of Peru. In this way, a real historical object is associated
with the ‘academic’ vision of the history of Peru. Besides this concept, these are two
objects that he always saw in his father’s library, that is, in a domestic context, putting in
evidence the relationship between books and objects from pre-Columbian culture, such as
huacos, but taking them out of the traditional context.

That’s the reason why the camera and the screen are an extension of the initial object, or
as a couple of objects more that come to play into this allegorical game: “The idea has
been to reproduce an object, but also to take into consideration these objects with a
historical-cultural sense” adds Bryce.

The installation is not only summarizing an idea, but it can be taken as a “modest”
contribution which links contemporary art in Peru with a Paikian referent and the use of
video art in Peru, which during the last years, has developed as an important movement
around the electronic arts that Fernando Bryce without wanting to analyze it in a critic
way says: “I also wanted to do a video art work, “Huaco TV” is a humble piece with big
pretensions…”.

It’s important to notice an aspect of this work compared to its Paikian descendant:
“Huaco TV” does not put the screen in front of the object like “TV Buddha” does. In this
case, the mediatic interests differ to present the set of objects like a new image that is
represented as it is, without existing a direct relation between the cuchimilco and the
screen, existing otherwise a relationship between the cuchimilco and the camera, that,
like a mediatic trigger, brings to a new medium the pre-Columbian object. In a way it
mediatizes and modernizes the pre-Columbian concept.

Darya von Berner/Aguaitones

“Lupus Viator”
Cultural Centre of Spain, Lima (1999)

The "Aguaitones", a group of young Peruvian students of architecture and visual arts
leaded by teacher and activist María Burela and art critic Jorge Villacorta, rescue the
process of the collective experience associated to the use of new media. In 1999 they
participated in the project “Lupus Viator”, ephemeral and traveling work of art by
Spanish artist Darya von Berner (Pescara 1993, Basilea 1993, Zaragoza 1994, Madrid
1995, Internet 1996, Atlanta 1996, Lima 1999, Asunción 2000).

In Lima, the exposition was done in three acts, each one in a different room: In Room 1
(Act 1) each of the faces (specially the eyes) of the group of artists who participated in
the project where projected one after the other on the wall. On the floor there were 200
mirrors that reflect in a fragmented way the image.

In Room 2 (Act 2), a small window allows the public to get a view of the room. This
window has the same size of any of the pages of the book “Lupus Viator”, that is inside
the room. There are a hundred of books open (of two hundred pages each) each put on in
a big book rest, reconstructing an installation that travels around the world since 1993.

While the books can be seen by the window, the participant’s view is captured by a
closed circuit, and simultaneously someone else sees it in room 3 (Act 3), where a
projection shows a white wall and a black square which is the window of Act 2,
mentioned earlier.

Alfredo Márquez / Peru Fábrica

“(DES)INSTALACION PERU ECCE HOMO”
II Bienal Nacional de Lima, (November – September 2000)
Alfredo Márquez, designer, architect and cultural activist, was a political prisoner during
Fujimori’s Government in the 90’s decade. “PERU Ecce Homo” was a project which he
developed for the Second National Art Biennial of Lima, using the closed circuit as much
as the Internet technology to achieve the confrontation of the audience into a private
space. The space used for this installation was in complete darkness, with just two
monitors, a computer and a red lighting line with the printed names of all the jails of
Peru, creating an asphyxious-visual sensation.

The video is a sequence in closed circuit of a room near the installation, which could not
be seen, that contained a man inside a space ‘decorated’ as a prisoner’s room (in this case
the actor, Daniel Brito, was also in real life in prison with Alfredo). The date printed in
the monitor was July 28, 2000, one of the most critical days in the political history of
Peru, since it was the day in which Fujimori took the government illegally for the third
time. The action of the man in a prisoner’s room was a typical situation of a prisoner’s
everyday life: pouring a hot drink, doing some exercise, sitting or sleeping in bed.

A second camera placed in the space was showing in another monitor the public that was
seeing the installation. The public had in a diptic way on one side the image of the man
in jail and on the other side their own image captured by a camera, which makes people
have a situation of simultaneity and confrontation.

In the computer that was in a side of the space, a Web Site showed reports of a special
commission for prisoners that where unjustly jailed, including data of the innocents and
statistics on political violence in Peru. A web cam placed on the computer capturing the
public, was again confronting the public while they reviewed these documents.

Alfredo Márquez, developed this idea based in his own experience, when during
Fujimori’s Government was imprisoned because of terrorism and got out because of a
pardon signed also by Fujimori. In his politics’ prisoner condition, the little space of the
prisoner’s room was his everyday life, and presenting it as an installation allows the
public to contrast their situation with that of a prisoner, as much as the space of a jail with
the “artistic space”.

Iván Esquivel

Iván Esquivel participates since 1991 in many collective exhibitions of visual arts.
Having studied in the School of Plastic Arts in the Universidad Católica del Peru, he then
studied professional photography and graphic design. His work soon would make a shift
when in the beginnings of 1998 he assumes the name “Plaztikk” and produces the
videoclip Number, which was transmitted very often by the international network MTV,
and in this way becoming a symbol of Peruvian electronic art. His most recent works
consists more of installations or pieces based in electronic mediums. Iván Esquivel has
developed two projects using closed circuit, which are defined as an answer to the
existing social and artistic ‘establishment’.
The first one was done for the 3rd International Festival of Video Art in 1999, at the
Universidad Ricardo Palma. During the opening of the Festival, Plaztikk, put two
screens, one next to the other: on the right one, “garbage” videos recorded from TV were
shown, while in the left one images of people watching the installation were presented in
real time and at the same time being recorded by the camera, which was located at the
back of the space. From the closed circuit point of view, this project made the public
confront themselves with what they were seeing (the garbage images from the TV) in an
artistic space. After the ephemeral installation (which only lasted the day of the opening
of the Festival), Plaztikk presented the video “15 seconds (chollywood pt 1)”, in which
the people who came to ‘admire’ the installation were shown. These images have been
modified and were seen in double speed playback with the “Blue Danube” as musical
background, in a Chaplin-style similar to the one of silent cinema movies, emphasizing
the postures and actions of people while watching the installation. Some of the viewers
(that could be considered as ‘actors’ in the video) include Peruvian art critic Gustavo
Buntinx, video artist Roger Atasi and Iván Esquivel itself.

For the project Terreno de Experiencia (Luis Miró Quesada Garland Gallery, 2000),
Plaztikk put two cabins, each one consisting of a camera and a video screen. A cabin was
installed in the interior of the gallery and the other one in the outside working this way,
with the concept of “inside/outside”, that is, explain visually what is defined as ‘inside’ of
the gallery and what is ‘outside’ of it, like an information exchange between the two
spaces. Each cabin showed in its screen the image of the person who was there, but there
were also two external screens that showed the public actions from both cabins. The idea
was to analyze the attitude of the people who goes out and gets into an artistic space
(inputs and outputs). Being the cabin a private space, the concept of using closed circuit
was done so the public participation in cabins could be seen from screens installed in the
outside parts of the space. This installation lasted nearly a week, where the action of each
of the persons who participated in the project was recorded for then selecting the ones he
liked to produce a 5-minute edited video.

Because of the use of cabins for the spontaneous participation of people in a public space,
this work could have had some similarity to “Parabolic People” from Sandra Kogut
(Brasil/France).

Angie Bonino
"No Logo"
Internet (http://www.H8fulworld.net/), October 21, 2001

"H8fulworld or the unbearable modernity of slavery” was a project done at the 30th
Edition of the International Festival of New Cinema and New Media in Montreal, and
produced by the CICV Pierre Schaeffer (France) and the Platform Next-Movies
(http://www.next-movies.com). Eight performances where done by artists from different
parts of the world (Argentina, Peru, France, England, Slovenia and Spain) using the
Internet to demonstrate and denounce the everyday dominance and exploitation. The
eight artistic images took the shape of a “digital fresco” as were mixed up in a screen.
Every 2 minutes artists put forward their own point of view and commitment defined by a
specific framework of 15 keywords. As the Peruvian project, ATA (Alta Tecnología
Andina) presented the work “No Logo” by Angie Bonino.

In the Peruvian case, this project had an additional meaning, because it was the first
electronic art project with the use of the Internet as a transmission mean of images in real
time done in Peru. On the other side, it is symbolic since the space used for this purpose
was the Peruvian Scientific Network (http://www.rcp.net.pe), the organization that
initiated the development of the Internet in Peru in 1991.

Angie Bonino is a young artist that works mainly in video and video installation. She
studied at the National School of Art and has done projects that include developments
and investigations on elements related with the popular culture. On this topic she has
maintained a constant interest, continuously using similar phosphorescent colours as the
ones used to identify certain popular holidays advertising, as well as announcements of
public transportation routes. These colours reflect a transcultural phenomenon, since
they are a characteristic of the icons introduced by the migration process to the capital.
Among her recent video art projects are found: “No video” (1999) and “Mr. President”
(2000).

Guisseppe De Bernardi y Oscar Naters

“Considerando en frío (…) al hombre” (performance)
II Bienal Nacional de Lima, (November – September 2000)

This action was done in the garage of the Rímac House, one of the spaces used for the
Second National Art Biennial of Lima. The concept was to ‘create’ a real situation. The
action consisted on how the participating team of the project use their time to do
everyday things for a lapse of 4 to 6 hours: they washed things, played with a dog, doing
nothing in particular, only common actions that everybody does. The cameramen who
filmed the action also participated, letting aside their cameras and taking part in the
situation.

In other floor of the Rímac House 12 screens with the different views of the cameras that
were recording the action were presented in a compositional way. This enormous collage
of screens also contained the sound of the space recorded. The images also corresponded
to spaces next to the garage where the action was recorded, such as old buildings, public
spaces and other urban elements.

The work’s concept was that everything anyone does is information, and the authors
wanted to mediatize it. According to Guisseppe de Bernardi: “We are the work. A
situation without a concrete role. The idea was to make a link between structures and
information systems.”
Epilogue
Homage to Parafernalia Gallery

Parafernalia was the Gallery that recorded it all: during each exhibition opening there was
a closed circuit system that was recording all that was happening, making it a mediatized
space. By the year 1993, it was not usual to find in Peru an artistic space that had in all
around the place, screens or video cameras. For Jorge Villacorta, Artistic Director of
Parafernalia Gallery at that time, the screens had different functions: on one side, they
allowed closed circuit or video works to be developed, like “Objetivo” (“Target”) by
Walter Carbonel, were a person is seen always seeing the public giving the impression of
a ‘big brother’. On the other side, during the openings, these screens presented in real
time the people’s actions, which were in the first and second floors of the Gallery. That
is, during each opening the public became part of an art project or action.

In spite that the Parafernalia Gallery and its particular mediatic proposal are no longer
with us, it can be considered as one of the places in which more activity was done in the
field of contemporary visual arts using closed circuit video in Peru.

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Dr. Slavko Kacunko (Düsseldorf) for his initial interest on
closed-circuit projects in Peru which inspired me to prepare this text.