This 2024 Peruvian artist Jorge Eduardo Eielson would turn 100 years old.
To celebrate his life and artistic work several institutions have gathered around the world. To begin with, this February Timothy Taylor Gallery in London will open the show Jorge Eielson. Room in Rome, curated by Ross Thomas, to highlight the connections that the young artist developed in Europe with other modern artists such as Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani, Antoni Tapiès, and Alberto Burri.
EIELSON quipucamayoc this coming March is Travesía Cuatro Gallery’s show in Madrid to commemorate the centennial. Curated by Patrick Charpenel, the show reflects on the artist’s creative process to compose his Quipus series, bringing to modern life an ancient Peruvian cultures’ technique. Travesia’s show will include the presentation of the Poema sonoro as well as the important installation Tensione, 2004 rebuilt in Fundación Fernando de Castro, second location of the exhibition. A conference with a presentation of a new poetry edition from Eielson, a poetic reading, and a performance, will be hosted with Martha Canfield and other important experts in Eielson’s research.
In Lima, the Pontificia Universidad Católica (PUCP) is launching the festival Eielson 100 , a celebratory week that goes from April 7th to the artist’s birth date on April 13th. Events include two shows, curated by Carlos Castro Sajami and Mariana Rodríguez Barreno: “Canto abierto. Homage to Jorge Eduardo Eielson” congregates eleven Peruvian artists in which Eielson has turned out to be an influential figure to show the transgenerational knot of his artwork. A conversation with artists will also be conducted. The second one, entitled Habitación en Roma, presents the inedited typescript of the same title, generously donated by Matteo Lorenzelli to the university, to reflect on Eielson’s literary process in Italy in the fifties. A facsimile publication will be printed for the occasion.
Documentaries Vivir es una obra maestra (To live is a masterpiece) by Gaby Yepes and Eielson des/nudo (Eielson nu-de) (2014) by Patricia Pereyra will be screened at the university, and a workshop on Eielson’s quipus will take place, too, along with a conference with Profs. Martha Canfield (Centro Studi Jorge Eielson, Florence), William Rowe (Birkbeck, University of London) and Luis Rebaza-Soraluz (King’s college, London). To finalize, a seminar by Prof. Luciano Boi (EHESS, Paris) will also be hosted to discuss Eielson’s art and its relation to science.
Furthermore, two concerts will accompany the festival: The Urbi et Orbi concert, organized and directed by Luis Rebaza-Soraluz, Carla Guardiola, and Mark Contreras, in which Peruvian musicians and composers will play commissioned pieces based on Eielson’s works simultaneously in two locations. The second one, directed by Bertrand Valenzuela, is the Song and Death of Rolando concert, a poem of the same name composed by Eielson in his youth and musicalized by Peruvian composer and intimate friend Enrique Iturriaga.
Británico Theater in Lima will release Maquillage in April, an early play by the artist, never seen again after its premiere in 1950 in the city. Later on, the ICPNA (Peruvian- North American Cultural Institute) will open a show in September on Eielson and Michele Mulas’ graphic artwork at the Museo del Grabado, curated by Israel Tolentino and Rodrigo Vera.
An international conference on Eielson's life and works will be organized by Centro Studi Jorge Eielson in autumn at the University of Florence.
In preparation for the centennial, last year there were also three important shows: “Jorge Eduardo Eielson. El Nudo Vertical”, curated by Imma Prieto, by Es Baluard Museum in Spain with the cooperation of Museum TEA-Tenerife directed by Gilberto González; the show “100thousand stars, Maria Lai and Jorge Eielson” at MAN’s Museum in Nuoro, Italy, curated by Elisabetta Masala following an idea by Marina Affanni and Chiara Gatti, and “Jorge Eielson. Testamento en Milán” at Consulado General del Perú in Milan.
Centro Studi Jorge Eielson and Archivio Eielson are working on a documentary on Eielson's life and announce the use of a common email to satisfy all types of requests and information: segreteria@jorgeeielson.org
All public is welcome to join us in the celebration of the life and work of Jorge Eduardo Eielson. See calendar below for references of dates and places.
A fully detailed program will be up to date in the following months with more details on the new website under construction www.jorgeeielson.org
