Cecilia Paredes

In this proposal, her works coexist with the objects in the institution’s collection under a new critical perspective.

Paredes thus formulates a rewriting of the historical discourse featured in the Museum via the strategy of bringing face to face the “testimonial” pieces associated to the conquest and evangelization of Peru and its Vice-regal period, and the new works derived from the appropriation and rereading of certain religious themes and events included in the same historical period. Paredes looks to the past and intervenes in the space of admiration and veneration par excellence of that past – the museum. Thus she questions the way in which we construct that great official discourse of history, proposing the emergence of parallel narratives to recover discourses not represented before, discourses that generate questionings which can be associated even with the country’s current context.

Prohibitions, religious precepts, not being allowed to look, not being allowed to say, punishing curiosity, are elements which are present throughout the exhibition. The rebellion against these prohibitions is projected towards the viewer. “Wounded by a thousand arrow shots” thus permits a rupture of the official discourse and makes way for a viewer who, as witness, questions his/her own perspective of the Conquest and that of its current context, in order to address the complexity of the representations and subjectivities related to violence. Cecilia Paredes looks to the past; she intervenes in it; she rewrites it, and proposes the path of curiosity trodden by Lot’s wife, who also looked back; the spectators, too, are invited to see, for an instant and in the distance, the representation of barbarianism.