“Journey to the (Sacred) Mountain”: A pilgrimage towards the mystical and earthly at the ICPNA Miraflores

In the cultural heart of the ICPNA Miraflores, the Germán Krüger Espantoso Space becomes the refuge of an exhibition that challenges the conventional limits of contemporary art. “Journey to the (Sacred) Mountain: Pilgrimages towards an Other Art” stands as a visual testimony of the Peruvian artist Javier Ruzo, an exploration that invites viewers to immerse themselves in the crossroads between the mystical, the earthly and the religious.

The exhibition, a fundamental part of the artistic programming of the ICPNA Cultural, finds its anchorage in the tumultuous roots of the Peruvian Weimar Republic (1980-1992). In this crucible of social and political tensions, Ruzo’s work emerges as an echo of the contradictions of that time, but also as an attempt to escape towards genuinely other concerns. With influences marked by his grandfather, Daniel Ruzo de los Heros, a prominent figure in Peruvian Freemasonry and international esotericism, Javier Ruzo’s work is revealed as a kaleidoscope of experiences and searches.

Ruzo and his generation, trapped in an era of political challenges and excessive violence, embarked on a constant search for connections: with the community, nature and the cosmos. His art is presented as a visionary, immersed in psychotropic experimentations that transport the viewer on hallucinogenic journeys, dialoguing with the influences of figures such as Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley and Carlos Castaneda.

Ruzo’s art is not limited to one medium; It is poetry, painting, photography, video, performance and experimental installation. This multifaceted approach becomes a channel to explore the inner landscape and maps of the sky, revealing a constant search for the sacred in its purest form. It is a fluid and mutable art that delves into darkness to unravel a radiant clarity, an “inner God” manifested on the outside.

Ruzo’s works, marked by a spiritual wandering, invite viewers on a cross-cultural journey towards the domains of the personal, collective and divine unconscious. This artistic pilgrimage does not seek a manifest destiny, but rather embodies a siege, a ceaseless search for the sacred that permeates the land and its images. It is an invitation to explore the death rattles of the earth and the music of the heavens, connecting the micro and the macro, the above and the below.

“Journey to the (Sacred) Mountain” is revealed as a mystical-experiential experience that, through Ruzo’s work, invites us to reflect on our connection with the divine, the earth and the universe. In the gloom of the artist’s creations, an ancient call is revealed, a cosmic flow that resonates between the confines of the cellular and sidereal universe. A journey that goes beyond contemplation, delving into the very essence of what it means to be part of this vast cosmos.