LAMAS SIN FRONTERAS / Lamas without Borders - Event review:

To pick up from the last post, and although we’re back in the UK still trying to digest our Peruvian adventure, we will tell you how the Lamas Sin Fronteras event was received on 6^th November.  Firstly, this type of event, mixing art forms - traditional with modern, including participatory activities, was unprecedented in the San Martin region. We organised the event in partnership with Sachaqa Centro De Arte and Proyecto Cultural/Lamas Council (http://www.turismolamas.com/ and http://www.lamastrespisos.com/ ).

The event aimed to celebrate the culture of Lamas and the San Martin Region and bring the idea of different culture and crafts to the forefront of people’s minds. We presented a mix of traditional and modern art practices from the local area as well as from Lima, the UK and Switzerland in order to showcase the differences and similarities. Demonstrations from local artisans sat alongside workshops and exhibitions by students and local and international artists as well as music and traditional dancing from local young people. We also included a presentation of traditional crafts from around the world (by Sam Taylor as part of the en-compass project - www.en-compass.ac.uk) and a demonstration of Yoga which was something brand new to this audience.

100’s of people gathered over the course of the day in Lamas’ main plaza and looked, questioned, learned, relaxed and took part.

Later in the day, after people had time to take everything in and (hopefully) feel inspired, we arranged a Factory Night. This concept involves bringing creative people together in an interesting space, venue or site and allowing them to talk and exchange ideas. It works very well in the UK but we were nervous of how it would be received as people told us that Peruvians are very shy. We needn’t have worried though as after we announced to the crowd the concept of Factory Nights they really got involved. They loved the art materials and spread out all over the plaza and drew, sketched, took photos, it was like a big art making session! It made a great end to the day. Lamas Council was so happy that they want the event to run every year and are set to make it an annual get together of any creative people to exchange ideas and experience art on the street

 
See more images on flickrTRANSPORTERproject

Day 4

Day 4

After two days of travelling and overnights stops in Lima and Tarapoto we are now in San Roque de Cumbaza where we will stay for the next 5 weeks and is home to Sachaqa Arts Centre.

Attached images are of the community we are staying in  - further pictures can be seen at our flickr account ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/67813410@N05/

Today we met Tomas (http://www.turismolamas.com/) who organises events and arts project in Lamas (a near by town). Thomas is really interested in the Transporter project and the work of rednile and our individual artwork and has agreed to help organise a Factory Night (FN) event. Many communities/towns were discussed but it was felt that Lamas was the most suitable place due to its already burgeoning cultural offer and a place that would attract more local people to this sort of event. Lamas is also famous for its folklore and preservation of Amazonian traditional culture. The concept of Factory nights is a new way of working for artists in Peru so we had to choose an area that would attract the most interest. We discussed many ideas in our pigeon Spanish, and with the help of many translators have narrowed down a variety of ways that FN may work –

·         an event where each person can create artwork as part of a large scale temporary installation or each person creates something new as an individual,

·         FN at a modern day stone castle built by a local businessman,

·         hand out disposable cameras to participants where they capture what makes their environment special – discussions lead from this,

·         day or night event where a variety of artists are invited to Sachaqa Arts Centre who have not been before to give artists talk about their work – introduces new artists to SAC and the eco village and creates networking opportunities. 

We are really aware of the slower pace of life here and realise that we also have to slow down and understand that there may be limitations to what we can achieve while we are here. (Its as far from Newcastle as you can get!!) Internet for example, is accessed through a dongle and is shared with other families and often do not work due to the torrential rain!! so if we don’t post for a while this will be why!

The people have all been so friendly so far and many are very creative, we met a sculptor the other day who was in the middle of making a didgeridoo and a local woman has offered to show us how to make the ceramic pots she was trying to sell us. We are due to visit Lamas on Wednesday to ascertain the right site and environment for Factory Nights so will look to update our blog again after that. Tomas has also asked us to be part of a local project in Lamas where they are trying to get 200 different wall designs painted by different artists so we are working on ideas for this.!!

Hasta luego!!

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