“Why do we pretend to have a state?”
José Ignacio Cabrujas, 1987
The Venezuelan playwright Cabrujas once compared the nation to a hotel, a temporary place that doesn’t belong to its inhabitants and thus doesn’t require upkeep. In this hotel, the state plays the manager role but fails to cover even the most basic needs of its guests.
Peruvian artist Arturo Kameya has transformed Marres into a hotel where the ghosts of the failed Peruvian state have taken up residence. The building’s facade will feature massive paintings showing contemporary Messianic imagery. Inside, visitors can find various scenes, such as a tiled bathhouse that functions as a restaurant, a multi-armed beer fountain, and a large upstairs room with mechanical fish. The hotel’s interior is an allegory of the Peruvian state, reflecting a world of appearances in which truth is less important than what is evoked out of sheer necessity.
The exhibition is made in collaboration with the artist Claudia Martínez Garay.
Exhibition overview
Arturo Kameya
Bringing together a range of visual cultural languages, the multidisciplinary works of Arturo Kameya (Peru, 1984) connect diverse stories, popular myths, historical events of his native land. He currently lives and works in Amsterdam (NL).
Kameya attended the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima (PE) and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (NL) from 2019 through 2021. His work was presented at Memory is an Editing Station, the 22nd Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil in São Paulo (BR) in 2023; We, on the Rising Wave, the Busan Biennale (SK) in 2022; and Soft Water Hard Stone, the fifth New Museum Triennial, New York (US) in 2021.
His solo exhibitons include, Los Ovnis, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); En esa pulga se mezcla nuestra sangre / In that flea, our blood mixes, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); Drylands, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht (NL); Grandma’s Cooking Recipes, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Depósito de Sombras, Alliance Française, Lima (PE); Allá en el Caserío, Acá en el Matorral (with Claudia Martínez Garay) Ginsberg Galeria, Lima (PE); Ghosts Don’t Care if You Believe in Them, Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn (NL); Ghost Stories, Alliance Française, Lima (PE); Ciencia Ficción, Wu Gallery, Lima (PE); and Land at the End of the Sea (with Claudia Martínez Garay), Galería del Centro Cultural Británico de San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima (PE).
His work is part of many collections including the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection (US), the ING Collection (NL), and the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (US), Museo de Arte de Lima, MALI (PE), and the Saastamoinen Foundation (FI).
Arturo Kameya is represented by GRIMM, Amsterdam | London | New York.
Claudia Martínez Garay
Claudia Martínez Garay’s (Peru, 1983) practice encompasses painting, video, and installation. Her work references Peruvian history and socio-political memory, understanding the diverse Andean cultures through their material and immaterial remains, such as documents, artifacts, music, and testimonies. She studied printmaking at the PUCP (PE) and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (NL) from 2016 to 2017. She works and lives in Amsterdam (NL).
Recent solo exhibitions by Martínez Garay include Ghost Kingdom, GRIMM, New York, NY (US, 2022) and Ten Thousand Things, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (CN, 2020). Her previous group exhibitions include Echoes of Our Stories, Quinta do Quetzal, Vidigueira (PT); Who Tells a Tale Adds a Tail: Latin America and Contemporary Art, Denver Art Museum, CO (US); No Linear Fucking Time, B.A.K., basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (NL); Plural Domains, Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL (US); 1 Million Roses for Angela Davis, Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden (DE); and The Faculty of Sensing: Anton Wilhelm Amo, Kunstverein, Braunschweig and SAVVY Contemporary (DE). Her work was shown at the 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo (BR); the 16th Istanbul Biennal, Istanbul (TR); the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Ekaterinburg (RU); the Aichi Triennial, Aichi (JP); the 12th Shanghai Biennial; and the New Museum Triennial, New York, NY (US).
Martínez Garay’s work can be found in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, CO (US); Museum Arnhem (NL); Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (CN); KADIST Collection, Paris (FR) and San Francisco, CA (US); Museo de Arte de Lima, MALI (PE); AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam (NL); AMC Art Collection, Amsterdam (NL); Fundación Studie e Richerche Benetton, Treviso (IT); Central Reserve Bank of Peru, Lima (PE); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL (US); THE EKARD COLLECTION; KPMG Art Collection, Amsterdam (NL); LAM museum, Lisse (NL); LOOP Collection, MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona (ES); Micromuseo al fondo hay sitio, Lima (PE); and Museu Olho Latino, Atibaia (BR) amongst others.
Claudia Martínez Garay is represented by GRIMM, Amsterdam | London | New York.
Photo: Rob van Hoorn
Podcast ‘Sensing Art, Training the Body’
In the run-up to a new exhibition at Marres, House for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht, director Valentijn Byvanck interviews participating artists, performers and curators.
For the exhibition ‘Opaque Spirits’ he sits down with Peruvian artists Arturo Kameya and Claudia Martínez Garay.
Kameya transformed Maastricht, House for Contemporary Culture, into a place where countless spirits haunt. Behind a curtain, a metal cabinet dances in red light; on a low coffee table, a tuna can pulled open circles around. ‘They come to collect the debts the Peruvian government has outstanding with its people,’ the artist says.
– De Volkskrant, door Marsha Bruinen
Press about Opaque Spirits
For the press
For press requests, visual materials and interviews, please contact communicatie@marres.org.
Partners / thanks to
Marres receives structural support from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Province of Limburg and the Municipality of Maastricht.
Thanks to GRIMM, Amsterdam | London | New York