Andean Modernities / Contemporary Art: Cultural Transformation in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia

Museum of Art Museum of Art

Exhibition: Andean Modernities / Contemporary Art: Cultural Transformation in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia

Dates:

Location:

Becker Gallery
The exhibition explores how processes of social, political, and cultural modernization have contributed to the unique worldview of Andean communities living in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia

Selected Works

A photo of a street scene, with a stone wall background, a golden statue, and a figure in bright clothing

El Último Inca, Cusco, 2017, digital print by Fidel Carrillo (Peruvian). Museum Purchase, Gridley W. Tarbell II Fund. Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

a photograph of a rocky landscape, with a cityscape in the distance,  and a person holding an umbrella

La Otra Mirada, 2017, digital print by Fidel Carrillo (Peruvian). Museum Purchase, Gridley W. Tarbell II Fund. Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

 

a black and white photo with leaves of a woodland plant on the left, and  a large glove on the right
The Skin of Labour, Adrián Balseca, 35 mm black and white photograph, 2016. © Adrián Balseca. Courtesy of the artist.
a black and white photo of a wall of square stones

Macchupichu, Tríptico 1, 2011, printed 2022, inkjet print from digitized 4 x 5” format negative by Sergio Urday (Peruvian). © Sergio Urday. Courtesy of the artist.

a black and white photo of a woman in a dark shawl on her head.  She is in an room with shiny metal stars/objects suspended above her head.

Devota en Jueves Santo. Semana Santa. Ayacucho, Perú, 1995, printed in 2022, inkjet print by Mayu Mohanna (Peruvian). © Mayu Mohanna. Courtesy of the artist.

About

This exhibition explores how processes of social, political, and cultural modernization have contributed to the unique worldview of Andean communities living in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Bringing together loans from five contemporary Latin American artists with works from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art's collection, Andean Modernities addresses themes such as the environmentalism, religion, migration, and architecture, exposing the tensions between past and present, Indigenous and Western, traditional and modern that characterize Andean worldviews today. This exhibition was co-curated by Carolyn Wolfenzon Niego, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, and students in the class "The Modern Worldview of the Andes: Art, Literature, Architecture, and the Environment," which focused on how artists and authors have represented, responded, and contributed to shaping modern Andean identity.