Curator
Gisselle Girón Casas

Opening
Thursday 26 October 2023
7:30pm

26 October – 9 December

Exhibition Address
Casa Eguren
Calle Colón 201 (corner with San Francisco Plaza)
Barranco

Hours

Wednesday – Saturday
3pm – 8pm 

proyectoamil
Lima

proyectoamil is pleased to present Awakening the Pulse by Jimena Chávez Delion, a Peruvian artist based in Belgium. This is our first exhibition after leaving our dear mall space in San Isidro.

Our collective fascination with the meaning of dreams has produced an infinite catalog for understanding them. We think that in them are encoded our deepest feelings which we cannot name but which the skin feels and the mind carries. Sometimes, we repress them to continue with our usual tasks, but we understand that they are a means to grasp our emotional coordinates. Many dreams generate vivid, yet physically impossible, images, making it difficult to shake the feeling that your body has witnessed events produced by the mind at rest.

It is said that dreaming of still water reflects peace or is an omen of good times to come, but if the water is murky and moving, we may be facing an episode that demands a difficult decision.  It is said that dreaming of death symbolizes an intense desire for change. But which of these repetitive dreams should we be attentive to? Jimena, these reflections triggered a series of conversations with women workers, many of them Venezuelan migrants, who paint fake sneaker soles in the informal shoe industry in the galleries of Peru al Futuro Shopping Mall during 2022.”

Caquetá, like many other markets and galleries in metropolitan cities, is a space Jimena continuously returns to. These commercial enclaves are providers of a wide variety of materials that the artist uses, as well as contexts that condense rhythms, temporalities, aspirations, demands, and social expectations. After searching for cheap alternatives to linoleum during her years as a printmaking student, Jimena comes into contact with Caquetá. Subsequently, she focuses her attention on the hierarchy between materials, distinguishing between what is considered original and fake, such as leather and leatherette, or velvet and corduroy. In Awakening the Pulse, Jimena’s search is informed by the voices and testimonies of women who work with these materials.

The first encounters between Jimena and the workers were marked by harsh exchanges in which they rejected any dialogue beyond that directly related to orders or quotations for slipper soles. As time went by and they saw that they worked with similar materials, the workers became accustomed to Jimena’s presence in their workshops, included her in their conversations, and a relationship of mutual trust developed. They share experiences and dreams related to the work and personal stories, including memories about their origins and work challenges.

Awakening the Pulse is an installation inspired by the testimonies of the workers and the environment of sneaker sole painting. It combines sculptures, drawings, and a documentary video to create a dreamlike landscape. Jimena works with the materialities of plastic, rubber, and metal to reflect on the fragility of structures in the informal trade. She also introduces glass to convey the sense of instability and precariousness shared by the workers as migrants in Lima.

The rubber towers made from the soles of sneakers refer to the uncertain migratory journeys of the workers and the precariousness of labor. The objects and testimonies in the installation are presented as exhausted, reflecting the economic pressure of overproduction. In this context, the workers’ rest is threatened, as constant production takes priority, and their labor, despite yielding a unique product, is valued less than the productivity of the machines. They think about the numerous orders even during their most intimate and vulnerable moments of rest.

In Awakening the Pulse, dreams become connections that reflect shared desires and quests, fostering collectivity rather than individual dreams or quests. The installation invites us to reconsider sleep and rest as daily opportunities for imagining new utopias in a world exhausted by the nightmares of the global age of capital

 Gisselle Girón Casas

After more than ten years at Camino Real Shopping Center in San Isidro, we bid farewell to this place that has given us so many incredible memories. This new chapter fills us with excitement and energy. We are confident that you will continue to be a part of this new stage with us. We will soon provide you with more details about our upcoming plans.

In the meantime, we invite you to continue enjoying proyectoamil’s events and to stay connected with us through our social networks. 

Exhibition Address
Casa Eguren
Calle Colón 201 (corner with San Francisco Plaza)
Barranco