Arte al Paso Series - Sorpresas te da la vida

Arte al Paso series was conceived as part of an exhibition at Galería Forum, in May 1980, and was later offered for sale at the intersection of Jirón Lampa with Avenue Nicolás de Piérola, in downtown Lima, a corner known at that time for selling the latest posters and prints through an informal market. In the brochuremanifesto that accompanied the exhibition, Mirko Lauer coined the phrase that expresses the meaning of the group’s action: “Only the popular is truly modern in Peru today.” With this spirit, the silkscreens that compose this series seek to approximate what the artists perceived as the possibility of a “popular aesthetics,” which would establish a bridge linking the bourgeoisie that visited the commercial art galleries with the urban public. The name E.P.S. Huayco refers to the Empresas de Propriedade Social [Social Property Companies] of the system of cooperatives implemented by the Velasco regime [Juan Francisco Velasco, the military officer who governed Peru from 1968 to 1975], though its letters also propose a number of different wordplays, including “Es Para Soñar” [it’s for dreaming] “Entra Pero Sale” [it gets in and out], “Entusiasta Patria Socialista” [enthusiastic socialist country] “Estética de Programación Social” [social programming aesthetics], “Es Palo Santo” [it’s holy wood], “Es Para Sustos” [it’s frightening]. This artist’s collective was aimed at formulating an artistic model that could incorporate transgression and provide a critical perspective on the place of art place in Peruvian society. The prints of the series Arte al paso are conceived as popular signs or posters, reflecting this search by way of their strident colors, their intentionally rough technique and the incorporation of texts that make use of slang and popular expressions. (TC & RQ)