Paccarik Orue
El Muqui
March 2—April 3, 2016
Named after a trickster in local folklore that is simultaneously revered and feared by the inhabitants of the Peruvian city Cerro de Pasco, El Muqui is a celebration of the culture of this community of 70,000 people that is slowly being encroached upon by the large, profitable mine it surrounds. Artist Paccarik Orue commemorates Cerro de Pasco with his dynamic, vibrant color portraits of the town’s inhabitants and surrounding landscape, which he has supplemented with historical, vernacular, and geological ephemera especially for this exhibition.
“This is an important project for me because after living in the US for half of my life, I felt that it was essential to find myself and reconnect with my Peruvian roots and heritage. El Muqui also gives me the opportunity to continue making work of social relevance and to give people, like the inhabitants of Cerro de Pasco, a voice that they do not have. As the mining activity increases, the Peruvian government is planning to relocate the city, so this project documents a city that will cease to exist as it is today.”
Paccarik Orue was born and raised in Lima, Peru and resides in San Francisco, California where he earned a BFA from the Academy of Art University. His work has been shown at SF Camerawork, Book & Job Gallery, Carte Blanche, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, and it has been published in Juxtapoz, The New York Times, Nueva Luz, Fototazo, Lenscratch, and Feature Shoot, among others. Orue was awarded En Foco’s New Works Photography Fellowship Award for 2013-2014, and his first monograph, There Is Nothing Beautiful Around Here, was published by Owl & Tiger Books in 2012. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition of El Muqui.