This essay reviews the origins (in 1997) of the work of Fernando Bryce who, unable to devote himself to painting, decided to explore the archives at the Ibero-Amerikanische Institut in Berlin and research the various reports there on the history of the exploitation of guano in Peru in the nineteenth century. In addition to German photographs (from the early twentieth century) of guano-producing islands, he also found examples of official illustrated propaganda produced by the Peruvian governments of Oscar R. Benavides and Manuel Prado from the 1930s through the 1950s. According to the author, Bryce thus discovered that such materials “were not so much traces of an incomplete history of the Republic as the genealogy of a personal history of his country and its colorful collective self-image.” Bryce began his “mimetic analysis” by systematically copying those documents with a paintbrush and India ink, and producing the series called The Progress of Peru. His strategy of appropriating images, and the discrepancy between the original and the copy, allowed him “to separate them from their original context” and “create a new symbolic order.” Bryce’s mimetic approach sought to reinstate “a different sense of what is considered Peruvian” that disputes “the formulation of a ‘Peruvian-ness’ based on the exclusion of all external traits from the evolution of the local creole identity;” in other words, “a syntax that contradicts the linear narrative of official Peruvian history.”  

In this essay Rodrigo Quijano reviews Museo Hawai (1998), the installation by Fernando Bryce. 

Fernando Bryce (b. 1965) is one of the best known and most highly regarded contemporary Peruvian artists in the international arena. After a brief stint at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Peru he continued his studies in Paris, and currently lives and works in Berlin. His work, which he describes as a “mimetic analysis,” involves collecting existing printed material (such as advertisements and newspaper articles) and producing black and white copies using a paintbrush.

Rodrigo Quijano (b. 1965) is a curator and art critic. He was a founding member of the Lima group La Culpable and director of the Espacio Ex La Culpable, an independent art gallery. He has contributed to Peruvian publications and others farther afield. He has written books of poetry, and was a member of the editorial board of the important Peruvian magazine Hueso Húmero, where this essay appeared.

[As complementary reading on this group, see the following articles by Rodrigo Quijano in the ICAA digital archive: “La ciudad: el camello por el ojo de la aguja” (doc. no. 1293706); “¿De qué puntos cardinales hablan?: Anotaciones sobre la última década en las artes visuales peruanas” (doc. no. 1146549); and “Historia, modernidad y ruina peruana: notas sobre identidad y espacio en la obra de Carlos Runcie Tanaka” (doc. no. 1293738)].