“It is impossible to beat the algorithm, but we can go deeper through originality and creativity”

In the digital age, where the act of capturing one’s image has become as trivial as reaching out and clicking, artist collective Fixed Project Lima embarks on an introspective journey. In his new group exhibition, “Selfie in the mirror: contemporary portrait”eleven creators converge to explore self-photography as a profound and serious means of expression, moving away from the banality that often permeates social platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

“What we propose here is how visual artists confront self-portraits, not with the speed of a selfie, but with something that takes longer and explores greater depth, since there is a work of self-discovery and reflection on oneself in the process of creating a self-portraitsays the person in charge of the exhibition, Gonzalo García Callegari.

The art of self-reflection is manifested through oil paintings, acrylics, watercolors, porcelain, rice papers and digital photographs. The exhibition, which opens its doors on December 2 at the La Rebelde bookstore in Barranco, reveals a universe where the selfie is not simply a narcissistic gesture, but an intimate exploration of human complexity in the digital age.

Fixed Project Lima

The Fixed Project Lima collective was born 5 years ago with the idea of ​​bringing together several artists who wanted to exhibit and make their work visible in Peru and abroad. In addition, they sought to create a new space where artists could present their works, considering the decrease in galleries and places where different artists from various disciplines could show their work to the public.

“We are all immersed in our worlds, but working collectively makes us get out of the routine and think about broader issues, although we also see the diversity because everyone puts their own thing into each work that makes up this exhibition,” says García Callegari.

Among some of the members who are part of the collective are Juan José Barboza, Joan Jiménez (Entes), and María Pía Torrejón, along with Sonia Cunliffe, Aaron López, Kevin de la O and others, who under this new exhibition find a new way of addressing current problems through different artistic techniques.

An example of the works found in the exhibition is that of Kevin de la O, titled “The Impact of Your Words”, an acrylic that shows a man asleep while reading a book. The image, with his icy gesture and a blue ball on his nose, evokes a disturbing and disturbing atmosphere. Meanwhile, Aaron López’s oil on jute painting “Valentín” features an enigmatic masked character emerging from an oil barrel, and Gonzalo García Callegari uses watercolor, pencil, and photography to construct a “Mental Museum” inhabited by a soulless girl.

Other proposals found in “Selfie in the mirror: contemporary portrait” are the untitled work by Melissa Larrañaga, in oil on canvas, which shows the figure of a tree-lined lady immersed in the stillness of her own branches, exhaling peace and stillness. . While Eli Bedón exhibits an oil painting of a lady in an unusual trance with her underwear, Paola Baertl cuts out “In Pieces” four pieces of porcelain that contain the fragmented face of an old woman in blue.

“Camille”

For her part, the multifaceted artist Sonia Cunliffe immerses the viewer in the essence of a teenage muse through her work “Camille”. In a palette of black and white, the freshness of youth flirts with the shadow of premature wisdom. In this play between light and darkness, a backdrop unfolds that encapsulates a timeless image, where sadness and beauty intertwine in an ethereal waltz. The rising column of smoke, probably a metaphor, suggests time fading away in spirals of eternity.

“In the work ‘Camille’ I wanted to capture that change from childhood to adolescence, where the freshness of youth also converses with the shadow of a wisdom that seems to have come too soon. The use of the cigarette disturbs you as you are not sure of the true age of the girl/woman presented to us and the black and white makes the work timeless, where nostalgia and the inevitable passage of time places us all in a same stage in the theater that is life”Cunliffe mentions.

intimate exploration

In a world saturated with images and where technology drives immediacy, “Selfie in the mirror: contemporary portrait” stands as a gesture of empowerment. It constitutes an existential statement in the midst of the digitally ephemeral, demonstrating that beyond the narcissistic reflection, self-photography can become a canvas on which the singularity and complexity of the human being is painted. This act transcends egotism and cements a place in the world for the contemporary self.

“It’s interesting how technology means different things to different generations. For some, they are tools; For others, they are their entire world. It is fascinating to observe how artists are living these times. Although it is impossible to beat the algorithm, we can go deeper through originality and creativity.”mentions García Callegari.

With the exhibition, Fixed Project Lima challenges the transience of social platforms and offers a deeper and more reflective vision of self-photography. In times where everything is fast, the exhibition suggests that there is still room for pause and reflection, demonstrating that some artistic expressions can endure and provoke reflection beyond the superficiality of the digital age. In this collective act, the artists do not seek to compete with the algorithm, but they do offer an original and different point of view that penetrates deeper into the essence of the human experience.

“There are many artists who copypaste because they use formulas that work, but at Fixed Project Lima we want to go further, not to tell personal issues explicitly, but how these things feed one’s work to move the viewer. It is not just seeing that things are pretty, but that there is something beyond the illustrations”concludes García Callegari.