Hay Festival Arequipa 2022: Varela in the white city

Sharp, skeptical and sharply brief, that of White Varela is a definitive poetic voice in the Spanish language. His merciless record of the chiaroscuros of human existence, with constant cruelty and occasional kindness, triggers the most diverse affinities and provocations generated through poetic reading.

This reaction, conversation and plastic interpretation of Varela’s words is what brings together the sample “Annihilate the light or make it”. In it, 18 artists dialogue with the changing poetic landscapes through sculpture, painting, drawing, embroidery, photography and video. The list is long and substantial: Alberto Patiño, Alejandra Ortiz de Zevallos, Alessandra Risi, Alicia Benavides, Bruno Zeppilli, Eliana Otta, Elisenda Estrems, Enrique Polanco, Erika Vásquez, Gihan Tubbeh, Herman Schwarz, Johanna Hamann, Malaki, Mariella Agois, Micaela Aljovín, Nani Cárdenas, Patricia Eyzaguirre, Ricardo Wiesse Hamann.

The sample is based on an emblematic verse of “Canto villano”:

watch me

watch you

or kill a fly without malice

annihilate the light

or do it

do it

like someone who opens his eyes and chooses

an overflowing sky

on the empty plate.

Starting from the universe of possible suggestions offered by both this verse and the rest of Varela’s poetic work, these artists have invested intellect and emotion in exploring possible plastic manifestations of it. The exhibition opens with works that glimpse Varela both in his poetic self and in his public persona, always inclined to a low and discreet profile.

A second set of works is immersed in the landscapes of Varelian poetry. The external and internal are confused, blurring boundaries and identities. Concepts of space, animality, transformation and metamorphosis are evoked: “scars and holes through which love and control escape, but which also signify the possibility of freedom and of reaching ‘some light that makes it less vulnerable to suffering’ ”, according to the curatorial text by Gabriela Germaná.

This exhibition is a curatorial project by Nani Cárdenas with the assistance of Ana Lucía Pinillos, the video by Malaki, the photography by Juan Pablo Murrugarra, the design by Arturo Higa Taira and the sponsorship of Oli and the BBVA Foundation. It opens on Friday, November 4 at the Casona Tristán del Pozo of the BBVA Foundation.