AGAINST THE GRAIN: An Artist’s Survival Guide to Peru
AGAINST THE GRAIN: An Artist’s Survival Guide to Peru – 2008, 65 min
A film by Ann Kaneko
In 1989, Alfredo Márquez uses an image of Mao in an artwork and is sentenced to 20 years in prison. For artists, the need to create and be heard is as basic as food and shelter. But what happens when you live in a country where the state clamps down on free thinkers, forcing artists to censor themselves? This documentary follows four Peruvian visual artists, including Márquez, who defy this tyranny through their work and ignite change, challenging ordinary people to speak out. Their struggles and commitments raise a fundamental question: is freedom of expression a right or a privilege?
Spanning two decades marked by corrupt governments and inept leadership, the film traces the lives and practices of four artists working under political pressure. Claudio Jiménez Quispe flees his home in Ayacucho due to insurgency linked to the Maoist Shining Path, later chronicling this violence through traditional retablos. Alfredo Márquez, emerging from the underground punk scene of the 1980s, continues to produce bold political imagery despite years of unjust imprisonment. Following the fall of former president Alberto Fujimori, Eduardo Tokeshi confronts anti–Japanese Peruvian sentiment by reaffirming identity through repeated motifs of the Peruvian flag. Natalia Iguíñiz challenges the Catholic Church and conservative middle-class values through provocative works addressing gender and class. Together, their practices articulate what it means to persist and make art under repression in contemporary Peru.
Highlighting contemporary Peruvian art, the film combines gritty Super 8 footage with raw vérité documentation. It also features music by iconic Peruvian bands Leusemia and Uchpa, alongside Los Angeles–based musicians Pilar Díaz and David Green of Los Abandoned.
Venue: Sazmanab (Sazman-e Ab St.)
April 26, 2013 – 7–8 PM
