“Museums abroad want to know about Amazonian art”

Ten years ago, in April 2013, a different experience began in Lima. The Peru Contemporary Art Fair PARC opened its doors for the first time in our city with the participation of more than 40 galleries from the continent and innovative proposals in plastic arts, video, photography, installation and design. The activity was repeated every year and, in this way, an artistic scene linked to the fair developed, in dialogue with curators, gallery owners and collectors from different parts of the world.

“I would tell you that these have been 10 very intense years in which I have been lucky enough to see the growth of the Peruvian art scene, of which I feel a part,” says Diego Costa Peuser, the Argentine collector and manager of the fair, who announces an upcoming anniversary edition, between April 19 and 23 at Casa Prado, in Miraflores. Under the name of Pinta PArC, the fair will bring together 45 galleries from different parts of the world in its main section, as well as more than 200 artists, both national and foreign. Costa Peuser also announces new thematic proposals such as a sculpture garden and a section dedicated to emerging contemporary Amazonian art.

—Before talking about the current version, what balance could you make of these ten years of PArC? Where were we and where are we now?

Yes, look, I think they were 10 very intense years, in which I have been lucky to see the growth of the Peruvian art scene, of which I feel part of in some way because at the fair we have always been concerned with work a lot on the content. In these 10 years, we have invited more than 45 curators from different places, and that has also put Peru on an international scene. At this time MALI also grew a lot, the Museum of Contemporary Art began to have its own personality… Today there is something very active, there are many collectors, there are many people who accompany the scene… Today you see Peruvian artists everywhere and Peruvian galleries participate more and more in foreign fairs.

—And what would you say has been the greatest difficulty and the greatest achievement?

The difficulties we have are typical of our Latin American countries. Over there we have problems in the economies and in the political part, and that makes people not calm down, do you understand? But, the truth is that the fair was always above that, and it has been very gratifying because the galleries that have participated have done well, and that is very important because it ends up closing a circle of success. For us, as organizers, that 12,000, 13,000 people visit us is very good, but it is also important that the galleries sell and the galleries have always sold. So, really, it’s been nice to make all this effort.

—Let’s talk about this anniversary edition, you have summoned various curators for each section of the fair, you are also looking to make a leap in quality…

Yes, because the curators make the fair more careful too, and everything is more thought out. So, you have a new section, on the top floor, which is a whole video and photography curatorship; then we opened another section of sculptures, of installations, in the front garden of Casa Prado. The idea, this year, is to create a whole experience and those who go can stay until the end of the day. It is not only a general section, but there are many other activities… The Bottega Dasso is also accompanying us, where people can eat, and on Saturday and Sunday we are preparing activities for the little ones.

—Another important section will be dedicated to Amazonian art…

That excites me enormously, I would tell you that in the last year all the museums abroad are wanting to know a little more about all the Amazonian art, about ceramics… and it seems to me that Peru, in that sense, has always had an art very interesting, but it has never been recognized as contemporary, and Amazonian artists are contemporary, and they also do wonderful works… The truth is, working with Gredna (Landolt, curator of this section) is a pleasure, she knows a lot about this, and is creating a nice section, an important space.

—And what to say about the main section that has always been the heart of the fair.

This year some galleries are coming from countries that had not come before. In the Next section, we have a young emerging gallery from Bolivia called Puro; Later, in Solo Duo Project, we have the Daniel Cuevas gallery, from Madrid, and Elvira Moreno, from Bogotá, and for the main section, the Pedro Cera gallery from Lisbon, Portugal, and the Colombian LGM are coming for the first time. Later, the Vermelho gallery, which is a super contemporary gallery from Brazil, and Espacio Mínimo, from Madrid, continue to accompany us. As you can see, the fair is getting fresher and what one is looking for is to maintain a balance, that there is quality and content for all tastes.

—You have always been very connected to Latin American art, do you think it has evolved in recent times?

I think we had a very important moment when we did Pinta Londres (2010), there was an awakening of Latin American art. I think there are always a lot of emerging artists coming out who are interesting because they use different mediums, different methods, materials and all of that makes it very innovative. But I think that we still need something more… You know that when art works and when the whole issue of culture works, it is because a country also works, and for five or six years we have all been very bogged down in the Latin American economies and that is not It helps a lot… However, art is also something that comes from the soul and those of us who enter this world always find it satisfactory.

—This will be the second face-to-face fair after the pandemic, there will also be an important reunion.

That reunion gives you a lot of strength because we spent about a year and a half or two years doing everything virtual, and virtuality had its very positive part because it taught us to organize ourselves and to be able to reach many more people, but going back to face-to-face makes us want to do all over again, much better. In this edition, the fair has much more content, more than a hundred collectors are coming from abroad and we are working with great enthusiasm for this to be a success as an event.