Sissi O. Hamann Turkowsky

In recent years, campaigns such as Marca Perú and Made in Peru have encouraged the celebration of what is Peruvian, managing to improve the perception of what is Peruvian among certain audiences in the domestic and foreign market. However, the “Peruvian” is still foreign to many, and despite the fact that today we celebrate the Peruvian, we are no closer to understanding what “Peruvian” is, or how we understand ourselves as Peruvians, than a few years ago. The issue of national identity has been studied by sociologists, anthropologists and social psychologists through a wide range of theoretical approaches, often centered on the political, religious and economic forces that shape group identities and influence formation processes. of individual identity and national identity. The Des project | sewing: New imaginary for the country brand, allows us to broaden the analysis of identity formation processes to observe the ways in which art and popular culture become spaces for the negotiation of identities and what is ” Peruvian ”, inviting us to think critically about what Peru is outside the brand, and about what is“ Peruvian ”more as a project under construction than as a defined solid.

The processes of individual and group identity construction can be observed —among other spaces— in popular culture, being both influenced by it and shaping it during the same process. Taking Judith Butler’s concept of performative production of identities, we could study the Andean carnivals as fuses that allow the performative incorporation of those aspects of being that are normally repressed in the daily exercise of identity. In this context, it is precisely those aspects that are normally invisible that constitute, in Butler’s eyes, interesting spaces of “slippage” and reappropriation, and for this reason, when trying to define the “Peruvian”, it is necessary to reflect on those elements that remain. outside, they become invisible in the definition of a Peru Brand. Des | sewing invites us to take a look at them and consider that perhaps the Peruvian does not have a unique and defined essence but is rather of a changing and rhizomatic nature, to put it in Deleuzian terms. Carolina Estrada’s artistic project is much more than a space of representation, also constituting a space for dialectical negotiation, transformation and reflection on the discourse of the “Peruvian” and individual identities. ales and collectives that can be generated from it. In this sense, far from constituting a simple frontal criticism of an advertising campaign about Peru, the exhibition seeks to motivate a conversation about what Marca Peru tells us about the “Peruvian”, and stimulate a critical discussion about the ideas that They are behind the brand. Des | Sewing presents the “Peruvian” not as a product but as an organic process whose character can hardly be defined from a brand, inviting us to look in the gaps of Marca Peru and ask ourselves what what we do not see tells us about the “Peruvian” .