This comprehensive monograph on Teresa Burga acknowledges the recent reassessment of the multidisciplinary artist's work as a pioneering voice in Peruvian contemporary art.
This comprehensive publication on the Peruvian artist Teresa Burga accompanies her retrospective exhibition at the Zurich Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (May 26–August 12, 2018) and provides an overview of her work from the 1960s to the present day—from her landmark installations Autorretrato. Estructura. Informe. 9.6.72 (“Self-Portrait. Structure. Report. 9.6.72,” 1972) and Perfil de la Mujer Peruana (“Profile of the Peruvian Woman,” 1980–1981) to her latest series of drawings.
Her many-faceted oeuvre encompasses paintings and environments in the vein of Pop art, as well as conceptual drawings and cybernetic installations. This broad range of media, formal means, and aesthetic idioms goes hand in hand with a resolute thematic focus: Burga's works are highly detailed protocols of the social realities of their time. With often playful precision, Burga highlights connections between causes and effects to draw attention to the individual's ability to influence social conditions. As a female exponent of Latin American art, Burga was often ahead of her time. Only in the past few years have the local as well as international art scenes begun to pay closer attention to her work—a trend this publication aims to reinforce. Intertwined with specially commissioned essays by art historians and curators, this volume reflects on Burga's artistic strategies and themes throughout her career as well as on the historical background of her artistic practice. The book includes essays by Dorota Biczel, Julieta González, Kalliopi Minioudaki, Cristiana Tejo and Jorge Villacorta, as well as an interview between Miguel A. López and Teresa Burga.
The work of Teresa Burga has recently attracted growing interest around the world, with exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2017), the Sculpture Center, New York (2017), Tate Modern, London (2015), MALBA, Buenos Aires (2015), the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2015), the Art Institute of Chicago (2015), the Venice Biennale (2015), the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City (2014), the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2014), the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2014), the Istanbul Biennale (2012), and the Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (2011).
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, from May 26 to August 12, 2018.
With her conceptualist pieces, Peruvian féminist artist Teresa Burga (1935-2021) was a pioneer of media art, technology-based art and installation art in Peru. In the 1960s, Burga was a member of the group Arte Nuevo. The group is widely credited with the introduction of the new avant-garde tendencies in the Peruvian context, such as Pop Art, Op art and happenings. The recent new reassessment of Burga's work is realized in the context of activities pursued by a broad network of Latin American art theorists and artists, who are presently embarking upon a rereading of the conceptualisms of the South (Southern Conceptualisms Network).
Edited by Heike Munder.
Texts by Dorota Biczel, Julieta González, Kalliopi Minioudaki, Heike Munder, Cristiana Tejo, Christina Végh, Jorge Villacorta, interview with Teresa Burga by Miguel A. López.
