Katatay (To Tremble)Alfredo Chavez Marquez · 2003

Katatay is the Quechua word for the act of trembling and, by extension, an earthquake. In recent Peruvian culture it is recognized as the title of a famous poem by Quechua-language writer José María Arguedas (1911-1969), which critically discusses the Eurocentric idea of the subordinate role of Andean culture in the development of Peru. Artist Alfredo Márquez uses one of the verses of the poem to enunciate the perturbing phrase “Dicen que somos el atraso” [They say we are backwardness] written on the image of two people who disappeared in the violence of Peru’s internal conflict in the period 1980-1990. The images have undergone dramatic color treatments and are accompanied by statements of relatives and survivors of this period (excerpted from the report published in August 2003 by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation). Although this work was originally conceived for display in advertising spaces at bus stops as a means of raising civic awareness, in this exhibition it appears in the refined spaces of high culture but with the same aim of causing the viewer to momentarily pause in his/her everyday routine, to rethink crucial social issues. (TC)