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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
December 20, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| October 29, 2005 |
Art = Life, Life = Politics, Politics = Ethics. Artist Provocateur – Jorge Miyagui |
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| Artist Jorge Miyagui |
Jorge Miyagui is a 27 year old Peruvian artist residing in Lima. He was a guest on Peace Boat to teach about the social, cultural and political aspects of Peru through the visual arts. |
site design imagesparkle.com |
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| Jorge presents a lecture about his art works |
His work fuses the personal and the political, and has been widely acclaimed in various parts of Latin America. Since graduating from the Pontificia Catholic University of Peru in 2000, he has participated in mural campaigns, art festivals and collective exhibitions in Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil and Spain. He has held three individual exhibitions entitled “Art = Life, Life = Politics, Politics = Ethics”, which explains the philosophy of much of his work. |
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| A Peace Boat participant explains the meaning behind a collage she made in one of Jorge’s workshops |
Throughout his evolution as an artist, he has come to realize that life and politics are inseparable. This is reflected in the juxtaposition of political slogans and popular culture characteristic of his work. “I decided to do my work because I have an ethical (social) compromise with life and society.”
Working in various media, including paintings, murals, digital design and installation, Jorge strives to represent a dialogue between the socio-political and the popular imagination of the people, as well as portray the reality of our cultural diversity. In exploring the process of personal and political transformation, Jorge believes that, “To change your life you need to change the world but to change the world you need to change your life”. |
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| Jorge and workshop participants |
His work serves as a commentary of Peru’s social problems, such as political injustice, poverty, racism, exploitation and his hope for change. For instance, people with white skin, especially women, are preferred in mass media advertising. Such women, however, do not represent the features of many Peruvians. This leads to discrimination, which is enforced in people’s minds by these ever-present images. Jorge subverts this by re-contextualizing these images of women in his art to make a bold political statement.
By using elements of popular culture in his works, art becomes accessible to everyone so that it can no longer be a privilege of the upper classes, he says. This has meant taking art out of the galleries and into the streets and other public spaces. While murals make these spaces beautiful, they also stake a claim for human rights in an artistic way, said Jorge.
One project he worked on as a collective was creating a mural in Villa El Salvador, Lima’s largest slum area, which has prospered into a thriving and vibrant community. With the help of his students, he painted houses on the hill of the slum area. This not only improved the aesthetic appeal of the area, it also showed people that it was possible to build a better world. One of his workshops while on Peace Boat focused on creating a mobile mural for Villa El Salvador, which was given as a gift to local residents when Peace Boat visited Peru. Thirty passengers worked with Jorge to create the ten meter-long mural, which represented the theme of peace and the countries visited thus far on the 51st voyage. |
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| Jorge and a participant of one of his popular workshops |
As it is difficult to make a living from the kind of art that Jorge creates, he supplements his income by teaching art to children and to prisoners at a maximum-security prison in Lima. This teaching experience was very valuable on Peace Boat, and he found his practical workshops particularly rewarding. “Workshops have always been a rich experience for me. When you teach, the most important thing is to learn from your students,” he said.
In one workshop, groups of students were asked to imagine an ideal world and represent it through art. This was an exercise in expression and agreement, and the process was reflective of democratic society as a whole and reconciling different points of view while celebrating diversity. “The idea is to build bridges between cultures and give more value to diversity”, he said.
Through various activities, workshop participants were encouraged to use art as a way to think about the society that we live in. According to Jorge, “art has the strength to transform us within ourselves, and I want to show that to other people.” |
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| An example of Jorge’s work |
While Jorge’s art serves to raise consciousness about the complexities and discontents of Peruvian society, he believes the solution to Peru’s social problems lies in the solidarity of the people. “The solution isn’t in a book or in one leader. We have to find a solution between all of us. We don't have one map with a road – the road is made while we are walking. This road needs to be built not through authority but through working together.” |
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