Peru

Herbert Rodriguez abandoned his studies at the Art School at the Universidad Católica del Perú in 1981, just as turmoil dawned upon the country. Peru was caught in a spiral of violence, as subversive armed group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a Maoist–Pol Pot movement, declared war on the state. A bloodbath ensued through clashes between the Shining Path and the armed forces in the Andes and patches of the Amazon forest. Lima suffered under terrorist attacks. Rodríguez embraced a critical stance in his art, defending human rights and championing the anarchism of the subterráneos (underground scene created by young men and women) in Lima. In 1989, however, he directly confronted the Shining Path on symbolic ground with his Arte-Vida project at the Universidad de San Marcos: the campus became a cultural theatre of war. The exhibit comprises the remnants of his artwork of the period.