The author describes his visit to the group’s studio in Chaclacayo (Lima) where he expected to find a group of artists working in the bright light of day, but found instead that the studio’s windows were covered with dark curtains that “deliberately blotted out the sunshine and the views.” He discusses the alternative, interior light that “can be used to explore the mysteries of the soul and culture that would otherwise not emerge.” Noting that the work produced by the three members of the group is, in his opinion, “an exploration that is more ethical than psychoanalytical,” he explains that the group’s mentor, Helmut Psotta, “has channeled a pictorial approach inspired by the traumas of the Second World War.” The author mentions two of the young artists in the group, Sergio Zevallos and Raúl Avellaneda, who “explore aspects of Peruvian society” in works that posit an “ethical apocalypse” in their own time.

This review by Alfonso La Torre is the introductory essay in the catalogue for Perú… Un sueño: Fragmentos de un Proyecto de Indagación Visual, the Grupo Chaclacayo’s exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Lima (November–December 1984). The group’s mentor, the German artist Psotta, subsequently convinced the members to move to Germany.

The Grupo Chaclacayo included the German artist Helmut J. Psotta (1937–2012)—who was born in Bottrop, Ruhr region, and was engaged as a professor by the Programa de Arte de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú—and the students Sergio Zevallos and Raúl Avellaneda. The group was active from 1982 through 1988, and deliberately isolated itself from the local art scene by locating its studio on the outskirts of Lima. In 1984 the participating artists organized their most important (and only) exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Lima: Perú… Un sueño: Fragmentos de un Proyecto de Indagación Visual. This exhibition was regarded as one of the most controversial artistic events of the 1980s. In 1989 the group’s mentor encouraged the members to move to Germany, where they organized the itinerant exhibition Todesbilder. Peru oder Das Ende des europäischen Traums [Images of Death. Peru or the End of the European Dream], which they presented at the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Stuttgart), the Museum Bochum, the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (1989–90).

Alfonso La Torre (1927–2003) was a prominent cultural journalist who wrote about the theater, film, and the visual arts [see also the following article in the ICAA digital archive: “Un sueño peruano” by Wieland Schmied (doc. no. 1142901)].