Lecture: Unsettled Histories with Gabriela Germana

The lecture will examine the aesthetic and social transformations of two well-known typologies in the field of Peruvian folk art: the narrative wooden boxes known as Retablos Ayacuchanos and the painted boards known as Tablas de Sarhua.

Both typologies were originally produced for ritual and social purposes in rural communities in the highlands of Ayacucho during the nineteenth-century. Since then Retablos and Tablas have circulated between the folk art system and the tourist market. However until recent times, they been barely considered by the fine arts system.

Germana will thus challenge and negotiate the concepts of folk art, tourist souvenirs, and contemporary art in Peru with emphasis on the makers and their production of Retablos and Tablas.

FREE

About Gabriela Germana

Gabriela Germana (Lima, Peru) is an independent curator and Visiting Instructor in Contemporary Art at the School of Art and Art History at University of South Florida. She is also a PhD candidate in art history at Florida State University. Her research focuses on contemporary Andean art with emphasis on the relationship between indigenous aesthetics and the contemporary global art contect. She has taught art history courses for the Art History Department at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru. Likewise Germana has worked in research, registrar, and curatorial positions in museums in Lima, and has developed different independent curatorial projects in both Peru and the United States.