Collaborative laboratory of contemporary art in Lima
Directed by Martin Gustavsson and Rodrigo Gómez Olivos
February 15 – March 10, 2027
Monday to Friday from 10 to 13 hr and from 15 to 17 hr
Applications deadline: December 15, 2026
Announcement of Selected Artists: The week of January 11, 2027
Exhibition opening: March 11, 2027
Apply clicking here
proyectoamil
Lima
proyectoamil and artists Martín Gustavsson and Rodrigo Gómez Olivos are pleased to announce a national open call for art students and self-taught artists to take part in the contemporary art collaborative laboratory Haciendo Contexto X, Antropomórficas.
Sound as Symbolic Embodiment: Imagined Human Figures in the Performative Experience and Poetics of José María Arguedas
In Arguedas’s poetics, sound is a vector of presence that transcends visual representation. Quechua song, huaynos, ritual and natural sounds, and the voices of the community function as emanations of the social body, capable of symbolically materializing absent subjects.
Arguedas describes sound as a force that “brings to life” that which is not physically present. By functioning as a device of symbolic embodiment, sound is capable of summoning imagined figures that do not exist on the material plane, but do exist in the perceptual and affective space of the viewer/listener.
For the tenth edition of Haciendo Contexto, we want to return directly to the human being and their relationship with the elements—water, earth, wind, and fire—which produce their own noises and sounds that we can hear, imitate, and transform into language and visual art.
To sing is to give voice to that ancestral relationship between us and the elements, and to embody the experience of that connection. The idea that our bodies are made of the natural elements that shape our world, and that our understanding of who we are is connected to them, is not new. It appears in various forms across different cultures and throughout history around the world. Singing and songs have long been a fundamental part of human activity, and through collective singing, we remind ourselves of our place and our relationship with others and with the elements.
If we can agree that singing is one of the earliest signs or indications of artistic creation, what can we learn from it? How can we trans-form these sonic incarnations into tangible materialities? Could language be one of the origins of art as we know it?
For the 2027 workshop, we propose listening as a creative process: listening to the body, materials, colors, sounds, and the environment. This listening can lead to transformations of matter and/or color, from one form to another.
The collaborative process can take many directions, depending on the dynamics and interests of each artist in the group. Participants are encouraged to draw on their personal archives and experiences in relation to the theme, while exploring different ways of creating together.
Participants are expected to commit to the laboratory through regular attendance and active engagement. proyectoamil will cover travel expenses, per diems, and accommodation for artists traveling from other regions of Peru.
