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.
In the spring of 2024, the Peruvian artist Arturo Kameya will transform 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 floating 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.
BIO
Bringing together a range of visual cultural languages, the multidisciplinary works of Arturo Kameya (Peru, 1984) connect diverse stories, popular myths, historical events, and popular culture to represent the simultaneities and contradictions of his native land.
Arturo Kameya – 3D renders for Marres