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80 YEARS

Essay and Chronology:

EMILIO TARAZONA

Essay and Chronology


EMILIO TARAZONA

DELFN 80 YEARS
Author-Publisher
Vctor Delfn Ramrez
Design and layout:
Carlos Gonzlez
Photography:
Jos Casals
Ana Mara Ortz
Baldomero Pestana
Casa Taller Delfn Archive
Print:
Forma e Imagen
Second edition, August 2008
Print Run:
2000 copies
ISBN: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Legally deposited with
Perus National Library
Translation:
Marita Thomsen

A World of Metal and Forges

Sketch and tour of Vctor Delfns work.


Emilio Tarazona

Several aspects of Vctor Delfns (1927) visual


oeuvre reveal that his creative path and life journey
seem defined by a tenacious combative streak. This
friction is generated by not always being compatible
with or accommodating towards the world. At times
the artist withdraws or maintains a cautious distance.
At other times his convictions drive him to make the
world and the society that makes it up material
to be molded by will and action, be it individual or
collective.
These movements withdrawal and action
are not contradictory in his work. They imply an
equivalent reaction against adversity, with its share
of struggles and tests of personal convictions. Perhaps it is reconciliation akin to that established by
his work early on, in tune with some of the global
trends of the 60s, between avant-garde art and the
recognizable influence of Peruvian popular art,

Ten centuries of slow incessant


artistic recreation stretch out between
the medieval retablos and Vctor Delfns
retablos
Carlos Rodrguez Saavedra

which at the time was still wrongly associated with


traditionalism of a substantially different character.
But also reconciliation between activities of great
social relevance that today appear difficult not to see
as complementary moving freely between esthetics
and politics, personal sphere and public space.
Currently his presence as an artist is still marked
by a measure of reticence, revealed by a personally
accepted distance from Limas most visible galleries,
which has lasted for a few decades now. During this
time, however, he has not ceased to produce. He
has created resonant monumental pieces installed
in plazas and parks and held major exhibitions in
cities abroad as well as in Perus provinces, including
Arequipa, Piura, Talara and Cuzco. Perhaps this is
a gesture of mutual indifference and the result of
a clash with the more refined taste of the capital
pervading the cultural scene that once welcomed
him. Nonetheless, this has not caused him to loose
interest in other issues inevitably linked to it, including
pressing current issues. Thus, his commitment to
creative liberty has lead him to tirelessly defend
democracy and human rights in the most difficult
and decisive moments of the crisis and collapse of
Perus most recent dictatorship.

10

This study aims to offer a brief overview of his


work in its widest sense, highlighting some preliminary thoughts that also enable us to understand the
different contexts and circumstances related to it.

Creativity as craft and passion


Delfn was the youngest in a poor family provided for by the fathers salary as a welder in Lobitos,
a fishing village turned oil enclave in the Province of
Paita, Department of Piura. As a boy Delfn would
watch his father, the blacksmith, who was in charge
of a workshop that repaired colossal ten-meter drill
bits used in the wells. () I would always watch
how they put them in the fire to repair them I was
obsessed, he commented in an interview granted
in 19921.The first home, that world of metal and
forges, which the artist remembers as a mesmerizing
visual stimulus, is recognizable as an early experience
shaping his artistic calling. Moreover, it is clear that
this environment has even molded his preference for
certain conditions of work and production. From the
late 60s through the 70s, especially, his own workshop operated like a factory with several workmen
and operators working hard by his side.
1

MASCARENHAS, Magali. Vctor Delfn. Artista. Soy un hombre feliz, pero eso
no me impide ver la tragedia de la vida. In: Cosas, n 18. Lima: December 21,
1992, pp. 12-13.

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This recollection also unveils the origin of


his penchant for monumental sculpture, metal and
fire. This points to a kind of restitution of matter
through art, breathing different life into it through
pieces, which have characterized him since the late
70s, created from industrial machinery bought as
scrap metal at La Parada or Tacora Motors. Those
were also the years when he made statements that
seem characteristic of the ideals expressed by the
most pragmatic and technocratic Futurism, ()
machines are inherently beautiful in their functionalism. Each contribution made by a machine has
a function, therefore they are breathtakingly beautiful. There is nothing fairer than, for example, seeing
a mechanical shovel in action or every component
of a tractor quivering in unison.2
Nevertheless, already from 1945 while he was
studying painting at the National School of Fine
Arts (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes - ENBA),
it became clear that he coupled this efficient per2

See: ORMEO, Lupe. Los monstruos de Delfn. De Tacora Motors a las galeras
de arte. In: Estampa (Expreso supplement). Lima: October 25, 1970. No wonder
then that, as reported by a journalist around that same time, some of his metal
pieces still carry visible marks identifying their origin (such as the John Deere tractor companys name on some of them). In another interview the artist adds, ()
they say machines are the enemy of man, but I suffer and feel bad if I dont hear
my drills working. See: MASSEY, Peggy Good morning / Buenos das. In: La
Prensa. Lima: October 29 1970. And, also: AGUIRRE NIETO, Marisa. Vctor
Delfn virtuoso del hierro. In: La Imagen (La Prensa suplement). Lima: November
1,1970, pp. 12-13.

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ception of the craft with sensing his calling as an


overwhelming spiritual yearning; a life-force capable
of overcoming and subduing any adversity threatening its full realization. Thus, after alternating his
hours of study with as many hours spent as a construction worker trying to support himself without
neglecting his scholarship Delfn decided, in his
third year of training, to interrupt his studies and
embark upon a journey to a place near a village idyllically named Delicias (Delights) in the Tingo Maria
jungle. This retreat, which is characteristic of bold
romanticism, leads him to give up school for a place
where making a living did not take up all the time
he yearned to dedicate to painting. A place where,
against the painters own enthusiastic expressions, a
journalist would in time say one was buried alive in
a green inferno.3
A few years later, Delfn returned to the ENBA
where he completed his studies in 1958. The
following year he was awarded the Ignacio Merino
Prize for Painting for a painting entitled: Homenaje
al Obrero de Construccin Civil (Homage to the
3

J. B. A. La extraa historia del pintor de la selva. In: Caretas, year III, n 47. Lima:
August 1953, p. 29. He traveled there with his young family, but also with fellow
artists from the schools, most of whom returned quite quickly. Only the sculptor Alberto Guzmn would stay for a while and, even then, in the town of Tingo Mara.

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Construction Worker). This was a self-vindicating


piece etching his own image intertwined with that
of a whole trade union, which, part-time, was as
much his own as the non-unionized community of
painters. Almost immediately, through a regular selection process few would attempt, he took up the
position available as Director of the Juliaca School
of Fine Arts in Puno. There he put his teaching
experience from schools in Lima to the test. He
also contributed to getting administrative procedures underway at the Ministry of Education that
enabled repairing and building class rooms, which
at the time were not fit for educating painters. But
he would also spend long periods immersed in the
visual creation of the provinces through formal
training, discovering in clear contrast with such
training the powerful creative courage of the regions folk artists and popular art. This immersion
accentuated the influence Alejandro Gonzlez Trujillo had on him during his training at the ENBA.
This teacher chose the well-known pseudonym
Apurimak as a tribute to his home region thus revealing in his life and work his proud Andean and
indigenous side4.
4

The period during which the artist is studying at the ENBA even with the absences is a crucial period in the history of Peruvian plastic arts. The second half
of the 40s to 1958 sees Delfn studying at the ENBA at the same time as abstract

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Vctor Delfn enriches our universe


with a flock of dream birds imagined by
a metal poet
Claude Couffon

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This was the starting point for the artists affinity


with Perus southern Andean region. He visited
and drew inspiration from every fair and regional
exhibition he came across. Shortly after, upon taking
up leadership of the regional ENBA in Ayacucho, a
similar bond was consolidated with this region.
Towards 1962 Delfn moved to Santiago in
Chile where he organized a Peruvian popular art
exhibition at the then recently opened Providencia Cultural Institute. He stayed on there for a time
teaching at the Providencia and Las Condes cultural
institutes. Distance did not, however, lessen his interest in his countrys art forms. During this period
he even visited folk artist fairs in Huancayo together
with Vctor Cravacho. The latter, a critic, commented
on a Delfn exhibition at the Libertad gallery after
this trip and in Delfns cubist influenced canvases
which insinuate affinities in form with some of his
painting is consolidated in Peru. This process is lead by the Agrupacin Espacio
and painters such as Enrique Kleiser and Fernando de Szyszlo. These are also the
years of Manuel A. Odras dictatorship (1948-1956). Delfns teachers included the
sculptor Joaqun Roca Rey and the painters Carlos Quizpez Asn and Alberto Dvila and even Ricardo Grau in the first years. None of them, however, left as much
of a mark on the artist as Apurimak, which Delfn himself recognizes in writing
in 1983, You, sir, belong to that special category of artists who appear from time
to time expressly to awaken other artist, to guide them, encourage them, confront
them () You, Apu-Rimak, I also see as a spokesperson for the past, as a guardian of that inextinguishable flame, which is Indigenous Americas fabulous legacy.
Reprinted in: [n/a]. Muri Apurimak artista y maestro. In El Comercio. Lima:
August 31, 1985, p. C8.

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teachers, such as A. Dvila and C. Quizpez Asn he


glimpsed motifs and referents that often draw upon
Perus vernacular themes5. This trend quickly grew
stronger. The school phase and even painting were
relegated giving way to more deeply motivated work
and this direction allowed him to take his work to
new heights in the ensuing years.

A style is consolidated
In 1965 Delfn returns to Lima after receiving an
employment offer in a new gallery opening in Perus
capital, which would later become known as Cultura
y Libertad. In spite of the differences in opinion that
quickly lead him to sever his ties with the gallery, he
decided to stay in Lima. In October the following
year his first solo exhibition took place at Art Center
in Miraflores. Delfn displayed his early development
and accomplishment gradually crystallizing into a
personal style marrying the academic and popular
world. Under the name Retablos the artist
showcased objects shaped as hinged doors from
molten lead, ceramics and wood. Carlos Rodrguez
Saavedra would later highlight that retablos are a
traditional European legacy, which Andean artists
5

CARVACHO, Vctor. El pintor Delfn en la sierra. In: La Nacin [Santiago de


Chile]: May 9, 1965.

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made their own in colonial times. Delfn dislocated


retablo themes, often reduced the prominence
of religious figures and motifs, he also included
abstract forms as well as a demand for contemporary
relevance. According to the critic subject matter of
Delfns retablos was, hence, the exact opposite of
that of folk retablos. As characteristic contemporary
pieces they aspire to disclose the artists inner vision,
not the appearance of things, to surprise the core of
being, not the worlds surface.6
The Art Center exhibition opened in the midst
of the preparations for a grand visual arts event, the
American Festival of Painting, organized by the Contemporary Art Institute (IAC) and Jueves Cultural
Association at the venue of the International Fair of
the Pacific. This contest promoted the prevalence of
the modernist ideals of Latin American plastic arts,
which still viewed the emerging international pop art
trends with suspicion. In that precise, heated moment Vctor Delfn came together with eight other
artists mostly younger artist. They felt the event
had a conservative slant and, moreover, that there
were certain irregularities in how it was organized.
6

RODRIGEZ SAAVEDRA, Carlos. Los retablos de Vctor Delfn In: Fanal, vol.
XXII, n 84. Lima: IPC, 1967, pp. 7-11.

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Delfn harvests the spoils of our incipient mechanization turning scrap into
amazing sculptures. Metal that has ceased
to contribute to physical life is reborn to
spiritual life, transfigured by art
Alfonso La Torre

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They reacted with an explosive manifesto against it


and staged a landmark parallel exhibition of their
own work, which to this day is considered a key moment of consolidation for Perus 70s avant-garde7.
Thus, the group Arte Nuevo was born. It organized an exhibition in what a few weeks earlier had
been nothing but a dilapidated house on Jr. Carabaya in Limas old city centre. They transformed,
remodeled and fashioned it into a gallery giving it
the evocative name El Ombligo de Adn (Adams
Navel)8. Delfn created an enormous PVC pipe mural
there installed directly onto the wall and on opening
7

This was a two-page document written as an open letter and distributed on the
streets by the Arte Nuevo group. It diagnosed internal irregularities and not only
did it question the legitimacy and transparency of the Festival, it exhorted all artists to boycott it. Furthermore it called for future festivals to be organized by a
different entity capable of showing artists and art more consideration, () IAC,
which acts as a promoter of avant-garde art, has generated a climate of mistrust
in the local art world, because of its lack of serious commitment towards young
local artists (), in our eyes it is therefore the antithesis of what an Institute of
Contemporary Art ought to be, (). These are the unyielding claims made in the
document, which points to the fact that Peruvian artists only received invitations
to the Festival a week before the deadline for presenting the documents required
to participate. Only one artist, Fernando de Szyszlo, was the exception to the
rule, but he, as a founding member, had close ties to the institution. See: ARTE
NUEVO. Con respecto al Festival Americano de Pintura y el Instituto de Arte
Contemporneo. Lima: Mimeo, 2 pp. (Manifiesto). For further information on
the Arte Nuevo group refer to the following study that is to be published shortly:
LPEZ Miguel and Emilio Tarazona Arte Nuevo y la vanguardia. A propsito
de una revuelta en las artes visuales de los aos Sesenta. Lima: 2006, ms (unpublished).

In addition to Vctor Delfn, the group was made up of: Luis Arias Vera, Teresa
Burga, Jaime Dvila, Gloria Gmez-Snchez, Emilio Hernndez Saavedra, Jos
Tang, Armando Varela and Luis Zevallos Hetzel.

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Delfns creations are an explosion


of metallic fire fanned by primitive air
flowing like a life-force between sculptural
volumes and planes
Oswaldo Guayasamn

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night an unusual happening was staged by the actor


and playwright Felipe Buenda9.
Later the exhibition was partially transferred to
the Lima Art Museum and both the groups successive
exhibitions would become a referent. They were later
pinpointed by the Peruvian critic Juan Acha as having
ushered in avant-garde in Peru as well as the, emergence of a new mentality in Peruvian plastic arts10.
From his workshop and home, then located in
the Bajada de los Baos in Barranco, Vctor Delfn
in those years embarked upon an ongoing parallel
exploration of new materials. He designed and
assembled pieces in polychrome acrylics, pipes and
aluminum angles generally used to produce light
displays clearly echoing the esthetics of the geometric and minimalist currents of the time. Yet he
did all this without interrupting his personal reworking of contemporary folk and popular art.
One of the main distinguishing features of
Delfns work is that in the context of experimen9

See: TARAZONA, Emilio. Accionismo en el Per. Rastros y fuentes para una primera cronologa. Lima: ICPNA, 2006. p. [16]-17.

10

See its annual assessment published as: Las artes visuales In: El Comercio. Lima:
January 1, 1967.

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talism, which at the time was mainly focused on art


styles, systems and institutions and would lead to
a crisis of representation and an ensuing widening
of the material possibilities of production in plastic
arts, Delfn also took it upon himself to ensure the
continuity of a creative current socially subordinated
to the current proclaimed as art by modernist idealism11. Both Peruvian folk and popular art were at
the time benefiting from significant dissemination
through government bodies, such as the Cultura y
Pueblo magazine promoted by Jos Mara Arguedas
as director of the Casa de la Cultura. Nevertheless,
even during the 60s and much of the 70s a tacit
disassociation persisted, which relegated the latter
almost exclusively to the scope of social sciences
especially Anthropology rather than concrete
esthetic approaches that were reserved for the dominant plastic arts.
Only towards the mid 70s did the issue come
to the fore on the cultural scene as an impasse. Some
artists and intellectuals associated with the Peruvian
Association of Plastic Artists (ASPAP) viewed it as
11

Mirko Lauer highlights a series of argumentative strategies that have established


supposedly universal criteria of value to assert its domination over the plastic arts
of contemporary pre-capitalism, usually known as popular art or folk art. See:
LAUER, Mirko. Crtica de la artesana. Lima: Desco, 1982.

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inappropriate to equate fine art and popular art.12


Vctor Delfns work is an integral part of the very
context in which this dispute arises. Already in 1967
the local art scene found it convenient to divide
his production into two different arbitrary and inconsequential categories13. The artist, however, has
insisted on not taking this distinction onboard and
trivializes the difference made by others, () folk
art, sculpture whatever you call it, its quality work
he said in 1970 I make artifacts and I dont care
12

The event that years later would spark a fierce debate about what definitely was
a singular problematic area was the award of the National Prize for Culture to
Joaqun Lpez Antay in late 1975. He received the award for his lifes work producing imaginative retablos. This lead to public controversy about the similarities
and differences between so-called popular art and so-called universal art. This
dominant segment of plastic arts has been labeled in many ways, including fine
art or academic art, which are as emblematic and imprecise as the ones used as
converse labels, namely, popular art or folk art. This implies the possibility of replacing the former labels with a new category: unpopular art. Such categorization
would not only highlight the stubborn insistence on differentiating this area of
production from its subordinate relatives, but also the plain and simple difference
in the level of interest they generate from a strictly statistical, or demographic,
perspective.

13

This even leads to his work being simultaneously exhibited at two major galleries La Artstica and Art Center. Only a single printed document links these two
exhibitions, in a manner that speaks volumes of how the art scene, at the time,
mechanically disassociated part of his production. It found it, () convenient to
exhibit [his work] separately () because it is one artists two different ways of
expressing himself: One belonging to a folk art type recreation related to popular
art and, the other, to seeking the avant-garde. In: Delfn. Lima: Galera La Artstica
Art Center, November 1967. (Exhibition catalogue). However this dichotomy
is erased by a review of the pieces showcased at each gallery where retablos or
reliefs and even applied arts or utilitarian objects, are included without distinction.
Symptomatically, this exhibition was held only a month before the artist was awarded First Prize in the category of Contemporary Folk Art at the Folk Art Biennial,
organized by the Folk Artists Association and held at the Lima Art Museum. The
award for Traditional Folk Art went to Lpez Antay at the same Biennial. See: [n/a]
Bienal de artesana. V. Delfn, verdadero maestro de la artesana contempornea.
In: La Prensa. Lima: August 30, 1967, p. 18.

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whether people class them as folk art, sculpture or


avant-garde pieces.14 He underlined it again in 1971,
I dont understand the difference between art and
folk art. () I believe it to be of no consequence, I
dont care whether I am categorized as a folk artist,
as a sculptor, as a painter.15
That very year he consolidated his presence on
the local scene with exhibitions such as Bestiary,
at the IAC, and Signs of the Zodiac, at the Lima
Art Museum in July and December 1968, respectively. His work, considered by the local art world
as polar, earns him recognition from all sides, nonetheless, albeit in different contexts. The same issue
of the magazine Informe, from September 1971,
reports on Delfns outstanding parallel participation
at the III Folk Art Biennial, held at the Lima Art Museum, and the XI Sao Paulo Biennial, where he was
invited to participate and in a solo room presented
fourteen large-scale sculptures with bird motifs in
polychrome metal.16
14

See: AGUIRRE NIETO, Marisa. Vctor Delfn virtuoso del hierro. In: La Imagen (La Prensa supplement). Lima: November 1, 1970, pp. [1], 12-13.

15

MLAGA, Oscar. Vctor Delfn en la Bienal de Sao Paulo. In: Informe, year 4,
n 57. Lima: September 30, 1971, p. 64. (Interview).

16

See: La cultura en la quincena. Bienal de artesana. In: Informe, ao 4, n 57.


Lima: September 30, 1971, pp. [62]-63. It should be mentioned that the piece presented by Delfn at the III Folk Art Biennial was a chess set, once again indicating

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Thus, Delfn was at the heart of a debate before


it even arose. With his personal approach he nipped
a potential chasm between these two forms of plastic arts production in the bud. Following Lauers later
argument, these distinctions do not seem to emphasize material aspects of the objects, the process of
creating them or the catalog of subject matters and
how these are approached, thereby relegating the discussion about the domain in which these differences
come into sharp focus; the conditions in which these
pieces circulate and their forms of social existence.17

The continental flight


Vctor Delfns view on production, balking at
the canonic image of artists as secluded from the
workings of society, is the driving force behind
his notable expansive and monumental spirit. This
perspective of the workshop as a business and
the artist as a worker unveils the foundations of
decade-long work discipline. Ever since his initial
his utilitarian bias. Furthermore, he does not consider the pieces sent to the IX Sao
Paulo Biennial merely contemplative. In an interview with Oscar Mlaga he mentions that he intends to relate these pieces to urban space in some public park,()
I want sculptures to work, I want them to participate one way or the other, especially in the world of children. It moves me to see a child climb one of my sculptures.
MLAGA, Oscar. Vctor Delfn en la Bienal de Sao Paulo. MLAGA, Oscar.
Vctor Delfn en la Bienal de Sao Paulo. In: Informe, year 4, n 57 (Op. Cit.). The
highlight in bold type is not part of the original.
17

LAUER, Mirko. Crtica de la artesana. Op. Cit. p. 25.

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breakthrough as an artist, this discipline has enabled


him to direct large exhibitions with the support of
both international bodies and institutions, such as
Adela Investment, and private business.
Labor and added value constitute an inexhaustible
resource with which he takes it upon himself to
transform raw materials that have fallen into disuse in
the distinctly sculptural style he has developed since
the late 60s. His collections Bestiary, Signs of the
Zodiac, Cabezas clavas (Stone heads), but also his
stoves, lamps, railings, furniture and buckles which
also make him a pioneer in artist design in applied arts
in Peru are lasting objects created from what was
thought to be perishable. He clearly aims to save metal
from scrap and transform it into new objects, ()
wrested from rust and mould to become symbols of
the constant rebirth of the ages, in Lauers words.18
This transformation gradually displaced constructing
and assembling pieces in acrylics and aluminum, as
demand for them in publicity makes them expensive.
People were amazed at how efficiently he restituted
discarded objects to art and esthetics, even if it was
an esthetic of a different nature, Vctor Delfn works
18

LAUER, Mirko. Los signos del zodiaco. In: Oiga n 303. Lima: December 13,
1968, p. 35.

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with crude elements, with loose pieces of iron for


mechanical use dumped in illegal markets. They seem
to be of an endless variety and without deforming them
he welds them and gives them unexpected meaning
in his sculptures, because that is what we must call
them, a reporter would write while highlighting the
artists commitment to restoring something that has
lost its function to a different function.19
In this same spirit of restoring what has been
abandoned, in 1970 he undertakes the reconstruction
of an old and ruined turn-of-the-century Tudor style
house threatened with demolition. He imagined
that, once he had restored and fitted it out, it would
become a space that is always open to culture. In
October the artists Casa-Taller (Home-Workshop)
was inaugurated and became meeting point, gallery
and lodgings for other artists. With this Vctor Delfn
assumed, without respite, the task of promoting art
in all its forms20.
19

C.L. Crtica de arte. El zodiaco de Delfn. In: El Comercio. Lima: December, 18


1968.

20

The purchase and restoration he undertook received significant support from some
companies that joined the artist during the months of hard personal work and sacrifice.
Regarding the proposal of an open dynamic space announced by Delfn, a journalist
commented at the time, Precisely because bending iron, which he usually does, takes
knowing how to bend selfishness. Delfns house in Barranco is living testimony to his
openness to others and to the old ideals instilled when hard times, poverty and troubles
ate into the flesh and soul. See: [n/a] Hospedaje Taller y Galera para artistas ofrece
nueva casa de Delfn en Barranco In: La Prensa. Lima: October 16, 1970.

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From then on this would be a place not only


for exhibitions and recitals, but also conferences
and cultural encounters, there were even projects to
delegate the creation of a library, having concerts,
administrating a small-scale film club and a designated
area for theater. Even though many of these initiatives
faded in time, Delfn himself would be the backbone
of organizing events there. In December 1970, two
months after its opening, he organized a Contemporary
Folk Art Fair together with the Barranco local council.
He received the artists in his home and offered them
a workshop where they could produce the pieces they
would present in the district plaza.21
Around this time Delfns work went on a series of
exhibitions abroad. An expansive period commenced
with two virtually simultaneous exhibitions in the
Arte de Ayer y Hoy gallery in Caracas and the Miami
Museum of Modern Art for which he received
great critical acclaim. He showcased a considerable
number of medium and large-scale sculptures in
pieces of metal newly assembled from scrap and
remains of metallurgical pieces during 197022. With
21

See: Feria artesanal hay en Barranco. In: Ojo. Lima: December 9, 1970.

22

Fifteen sculptures in Caracas and seventeen in Miami even if other sources state
that they were twenty-two were the starting point for a much larger series of works,
which Delfn would exhibit in the following years in different Latin American cities.

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them Delfn consolidated his interest in representing


winged bipeds in a series he would later call Aves de
Amrica (Birds of Amrica), succinctly linking the
work, its origin and destiny
One of Delfns great qualities is that he aims to
make what others presume to be improbable possible
and even feasible. Fitting but incredible circumstances
even lead the artist to tour vast expanses of Latin
America by air with this specific series solid, massive
pieces together weighing several tons. Birds that
seemed condemned to wings clipped by weight took
off in aircraft, including ones belonging to Braniff
International, which flew them to Quito, Guayaquil,
Bogota, Panama City, San Jose in Costa Rica, Santo
Domingo, Barranquilla, Caracas and Havana. Several of
them were left behind in the countries visited so the artist
had to produce new ones to fill subsequent scheduled
exhibitions. Observers, such as Bernard Davis, of the
Miami Museum of Modern Art, commented that the
Delfn must have had detailed knowledge of zoology,
because his pieces were so full of vitality.23 The series
seems to focus on a repertoire of specific species of
birds common to the Amerindian peoples. Furthermore,
23

In: Vctor Delfn. Miami Museum of Modern Art. Miami: December 1970 January 1971 (Presentation of the catalogue).

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I make artifacts
and I dont care whether
people class them as folk
art, sculpture or avantgarde pieces
Vctor Delfn

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they transmit certain coat-of-arms-like characteristics,


which have perhaps grown rare in humankind.
The artist displays a broader repertoire then the
already enormous variety of birds on the continent,
in Claude Couffrons lyrical words, he shows us, ()
imaginary birds, the ones that fly in his head and that
his hands model, the ones we will only find in his
oeuvre; unnamed birds with sharp claws for new
mythologies, aggressive or peaceful winged forms,
unusual plumage for the eyes dream journey24. Even
though one may glimpse the presence of a quetzal, a
humming bird or a hoatzin, a cardinal, a burrowing
owl or a turkey buzzard.
Back in Lima after this Latin American tour,
towards the late 70s, Delfn put up more exhibitions
abroad than in Perus capital. Towards the 80s he
returned to sculpture creating pieces in cement, including the work known as Dove of Peace placed in
front of the Apostolic Nunciature on Av. Salaverry
in 1985. He also resumed his thus far relegated vocation as a painter and displayed some paintings in June
1986 at the Editorial Concepts gallery in Miami.
24

COUFFON, Claude. Sobre las aves de Vctor Delfn In: Aves de Amrica. Lima:
Casa Taller Delfn, December 19, 1975 January 5, 1976 (Catalogue).

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In 1992 he designed the public monument today


widely known as The Kiss. The sculpture originally
entitled Los amantes en el acantilado (Lovers by the
cliff) takes center stage, as of 1993, in the so-called
Love Park, on the Miralfores districts seafront. With
the sea as its backdrop and forever on the edge of the
abyss, like love, the park was conceived as a place of
freedom for lovers no longer willing to wander dark
desolate streets, out of shyness or modesty. It was
conceived as a celebration of love, a place encouraging
encounters, affection and the expressions of men and
women oblivious to restraint. There will be flowers
from Ayacucho so it has a real aire cholo. Let
everything come together poetry, sculpture, nature
and landscape! Bring lovers out of hiding! Let them
no longer be persecuted as criminals by the police
asking to see their IDs! It is absurd, it is denying a
force of nature! enthused the artist about his project,
months before it was put up25.
Already between July and September 1970,
with the intention of criticizing this persecution or
censorship by public authorities, the artist Rafael
Hastings had undertaken to distribute flyers and
25

MASCARENHAS, Magali. Vctor Delfn. Artista. Soy un hombre feliz, pero eso
no me impide ver la tragedia de la vida. In: Cosas, n 18. Lima: December 21,
1992, pp. 12-13.

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leave messages to lovers he met by chance near the


Parque Neptuno, Parque de la Exposicin, Parque de
la Reserva and Campo de Marte openly supporting
their acts. Under the title Todo el amor, this anarchic
stageless staging involved the couples themselves
as elements of a fleeting work of art in which they
were both the main characters and () the silent
representatives of a political, economic and social
situation, (), according to the artists own statements.26
In its fifteen years of existence Delfns sculpture
has brought together people from different social
backgrounds. It is the backdrop for courtship and
mass weddings, a must-visit for lovers on a stroll
posing for pictures or a video, which they will keep in
their family albums after the wedding. It also draws
throngs of lovers from all areas of Lima celebrating
Valentines Day each February 14. It has become
a popular landmark for tourists and limeos, even
though it is not so well-loved by many of the people in
the district and its surroundings. Like a strange island
these characteristics have made it one of the least
miraflorino spaces of all of high-brow Miraflores.
26

HASTINGS, Rafael. Todo el amor In: Oiga. Lima: (around June-July), 1970, p.
31-32.

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It is an ostentatious urban enclave, an antidote


countering discrimination and fostering encounters,
tolerance and diversity in a district where these have
not always characterized some of the establishments
and night clubs.27

Art hand in hand with freedom


The proximities and frictions generated by
monuments such as Los amantes en el acantilado are
accentuated when the artist becomes involved with
more visible domains of decision-making and social
control or at least domains that are not as obscure as
public administration of areas assigned for intimacy. In
early 1995 Vctor Delfn began regularly and tenaciously
criticizing and protesting against tensions caused by
the government as well as violations committed by it.
In March that year he organized a Caucus for Peace
bringing together Peruvian and Ecuadorian artists
and writers. It was held on the border between both
countries, before the Cenepa War broke out. Months
27

Encounters, tolerance and diversity in the widest of senses. The Love Park is one
of the most visited places each Valentines day and over the last years the Peruvian TLGB Network (transvestites, lesbians, gays and bisexuals) stages an act there
called Love doesnt discriminate, which consists in several of its members going
there with their partners to put up placards and kiss in public next to the heterosexual couples there. On several occasions they have received warnings from
council officials for this action. Furthermore, a recent example of discrimination, in this case racial, by some establishments in Miraflores involved the discos
Phuket and Mama Batata, which were fined by Indecopi due to this charge in June
2007.

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later, in June that year, he wholeheartedly joined the


outcry and protests of citizens rejecting the so-called
amnesty law, which amounted to an impunity law. It
freed from any responsibility and punishment tried
and jailed members of the paramilitary command and
death squad denominated the Colina Group, which
had murdered innocent people in the Barrios Altos
and La Cantuta cases.
It was not until 1997 that there was a clear
break between Perus citizens and its government,
manifested in protests and marches against the removal of the Constitutional Court magistrates, who
were blocking the application of a law that enabled
the then president to run for a third consecutive
term in office. From then on Delfns Casa-Taller
becomes a hub for coordination and strategic meetings between groups of university students as well as
human rights organizations. It was where they drew
up many initiatives against Alberto Fujimoris authoritarian government. It was also where the group
La Resistencia was formed. Delfn was part of this
group, which opposed the regime peacefully, but
constantly and vigorously, with symbolic acts as well
as by convening the voice of civil protest and taking
it the streets.

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Peru faced social and political upheaval in the


late 90s and the first years of the new millennium. In
March 2000 Delfn addressed an open letter to the
young Peruvians who also rejected the government
in marches, he encouraged them, but also warned
them of a looming struggle against the dictator retaking power. In the letter the artist looks back at the
violence afflicting Peru over the previous decades,
These have been terrible times for all Peruvians:
armed strikes, car bombs, blackouts, Fujimoris selfcoup, detentions, disappearances, universities seized
by the forces in uniform. In this context you, the
youth of today, grew up, exposed, in a country
governed by the law of the jungle. 28
Considering that the artist in his earliest years
of training penetrated the Peruvian jungle like a
settler in inhospitable lands, this last phrase is surprising. For Delfn, nature, even when ferocious or
wild which he exalted, for example, with the animals in his Bestiary from 1968 is a cordial world, a
model of admirable strength and integrity. Whereas
past governments had, in contrast, turned, before
his very eyes, into a grotesque ridiculous fauna of
28

DELFN, Vctor. Carta abierta a la juventud peruana. El fin del fujimontecinismo. In: La Repblica. Lima: March 23, 2000, p. 5.

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beings who, supposedly, were at the helm of their


country. A fauna made up of, () bare-faced social
climbers, tricksters, adventurers, criminals, torturers, murderers, pettifogging lawyers, crafty devils
and petty thieves ().29 This catalogue of corruption of puppets and circus swine would inhabit
a new series of graphic prints and paintings, which
he from an entirely opposite standpoint and value
judgment called Political Bestiary and circulated
on posters and flyers in manifestations against the
regime.30
The corollary to this national saga was, what
Gustavo Buntinx would call, the cultural overthrow
of the dictatorship, highlighting an act carried out by

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29

DELFIN, Vctor Carta abierta a la juventud peruana. El fin del fujimontecinismo


(idem).

30

In the political Bestiary Vctor Delfn uses members of the then fujimorista government, who could have learnt a great deal from animals, as referents. In contrast
with his opinion regarding wild mammals, which for him stand out because of their
nobility, libido and energy, or birds in which he recognizes qualities virtually lost in
humans. Following this train of thought, it is interesting to highlight the images he
uses in the open letter to describe exceptional cases of people who, in those difficult times, demonstrated extraordinary qualities; such as the, () fatally wounded
bird Leonor La Rosa (Ibidem). Leonor La Rosa, former Army Intelligence Service
agent, was kidnapped and tortured in 1997 by other officers of the same, by then
discredited, institution dedicated to harassing the opposition. She was suspected of
having filtered information about human rights violations perpetrated by the Colina
Group to the press. The series also borrowed visual referents from Nueva cornica
y buen gobierno (1915-16) by Guamn Poma de Ayala. A chronicle testament to
the atrocities and excesses of the Spanish conquest and the yoke imposed on the
indigenous population. See: La corte del chino. Toda la fauna oficialista, al estilo
de Guamn Poma pero con el lpiz de Vctor Delfn. In: Caretas, year XLIX, n
1617. Lima: May 4, 2000, p. 47.

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the Civil Society Collective.31 A quick glance at this decisive year, 2000, left people incredulous: Fujimori was
re-elected, the most impressive and large-scale mobilization in Perus republican history was unleashed, the
mechanism used by his government to dismantle democracy in Perus powers of state was disclosed and
he fled Peru and resign as president from a shameless
exile in Japan. After this, a lengthy extradition process
began. Its success seemed imminent, but still underway, while these lines were written. The artist himself
was, along with other citizens, wounded by the impact
of a tear bomb during a milestone demonstration on
Perus National Day, July 28, the Marcha de los Cuatro
Suyos (Four Corners March).32
An emblematic canvas painted by Delfn during
those terrible and ominous years captures the spirit of
31

Toppling a dictator is usually not the result of a single masterstroke, but rather the
slow but determined construction of democratic consensus in each sector of civil
society. () A disruption of public awareness, which is also the awakening of the
most intimate individual conscience. BUNTINX, Gustavo. Lava la bandera: El
Colectivo Sociedad Civil y el derrocamiento cultural de la dictadura de Fujimori y
Montesinos In: Quehacer n 158. Lima: Desco, March 2006.

32

This demonstration was planned as a peaceful march. It was, however, rudely oppressed by the dictatorship, which even went so far as to detonate several public
buildings in an attempt to accuse those participating in the demonstration of terrorism. The blasts left six murdered National Bank security guards. The site where
the bank used to be located was left in ruins up until a few years ago, and then a
stele with a piece by Delfn was put up in memory of the victims of that painful day.
That day a tear bomb was launched directly at Delfns face, it hit his right ear and
caused serious injuries. See: DELFN, Vctor. EL criminal apunt a mi cabeza
vi que la cpsula vena hacia mi rostro. In: Liberacin. Lima: August 1, 2000, pp.
14-15. (Testimony).

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struggle felt in the streets. In that painting a group of


people represent civil society wielding sticks against
dark soldiers of the Assault Unit. The artist has painted
himself into the crowd, like Delacroix, who in the
seminal painting that signaled a removal from past
referents and the pressing irruption of the present
in the history of modern art includes himself next
to an emancipating female archetype making her way
through the fallen. In unrelenting irony the artist
places, in the background of the painting, a poster
from 1997 that reads, Lima Plaza Mayor de la Cultura
Iberoamericana (Lima Main Square of Iberoamerican
Culture), which in the midst of the commotion
seems like an ironic celebration of a barbaric state,
but also seeks to generate friction with a structure of
cultural events taking place on the margin of urgent
initiatives to denounce this barbaric state.33
This was a milestone in Vctor Delfns comprehensive approach to his oeuvre, which he has
never subedited to the visual aspect. For Delfn, art
33

The poster features a painting by a renowned local painter, Fernando de Szyszlo,


and it was used to promote the Festivals in Lima in 1997, prior to the announcement of the Biennials held in Lima that same year and in 2002. To the other side,
as in silent dialogue, the artist has placed a sequence of self-adhesives made by the
artist Eduardo Villanes, which was put up around the city and featured the image of
a Colina Group member with obliterated eyes and an ID number, reminiscent of
a mug shot. These are two complex contexts of contemporary visual and cultural
production in the midst of a reality that always exceeds them.

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has always been part of a greater social and political machinery made up of operators and workers in
different areas. Only together with everyone else can
they fire the engines that should procure knowledge,
culture and education as indispensable sources of
action and freedom.
Lima, June, 2007

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Everything is useful:
Stones, shreds of glass,
machine parts
Vctor Delfn

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The pieces of metal used by Vctor


Delfn live beyond the form in which they
are arranged, which is mere coincidence,
what matters is Vctor Delfns work, pure
artisan creation, more engaged in life than
in dreams
Mirko Lauer

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What a triumph it is to breed


a whole fauna and flora full
of contrasts, but monumental in the formless entrails
of such despised particles!
In matter, what spirit!
Jorge Basadre

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FOTO ALEJANDRA

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Chronology
1927
Vctor Delfn was born on December 20 in Lobitos,
Piura.
1943
Moves to Lima.
1945
Accepted by the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA)
in Lima.
1953
Interrupts his studies at the ENBA and settles in Tingo
Maria.
(around) 1956
Resumes studies at the ENBA.
1958
Graduates from the ENBA with a degree in painting.
1959
Awarded the Ignacio Merino National Prize for Painting
for a painting entitled: Homenaje al Obrero de Construccin Civil (Homage to the Construction Worker)
Appointed director of the Puno School of Fine Arts.
1961
Directs the Ayacucho School of Fine Arts.
During these years he visits many folk art fairs in different provinces of Peru.
1964
Moves to Santiago in Chile, where he teaches art at the
Providencia and Las Condes cultural institutes.
1965
Returns to Lima.
Sets up his workshop in the Bajada de los Baos, in
Barranco.
1966
Exhibits a first series of his Retablos at the Art Center
gallery.
Around October he founds the group Arte Nuevo
with Lus Arias Vera, Teresa Burga, Jaime Dvila, Glo-

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ria Gmez-Snchez, Emilio Hernndez Saavedra, Jos


Tang, Armando Varela and Luis Zevallos Hetzel, with
whom he opens an inaugural exhibition at El Ombligo
de Adn gallery and, subsequently, at the Lima Art Museum.
1967
In August he is awarded First Prize in the category of
Contemporary Folk Art at the Folk Art Biennial held at
the Lima Art Museum and organized by the Peruvian
Folk Artists Association, chaired by Carlos Bernasconi.
The First Prize for Traditional Folk Art goes to Joaqun
Lpez Antay from Ayacucho.
Creates pieces in plexiglas (acrylic) and aluminum. Five
of these pieces were bought by the Pasadena Museum,
California, during a visit by members of the international board of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
in New York.
1968
Participates in the 3000 years of Peruvian painting
exhibition organized by the Jueves Cultural Association.
Creates a retablo for the Mara Reyna Church in San
Isidro and an acrylic mural for the Pilsen Callao brewery.
In July he inaugurates his Bestiary exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art (IAC).
In December he inaugurates his exhibition entitled The
Signs of the Zodiac, at the Lima Art Museum.
1969
In February he opens his Cabezas Clavas (Stone
Heads) exhibition at the Ancn Festival.
In October the Tambo de Oro restaurant and folk art
fair was opened and he sculpted a piece for it entitled
Allegory of Popular Art.
1970
Exhibits applied art pieces at the Lima Art Museum with
the sponsorship of ADELA Investment Company S.A.
In October he opens his Casa-Taller (Home-Workshop)
in Barranco, restoring a Tudor style house threatened
with demolition.

99

In December he organizes a Folk Art Fair in Barranco


and opens his home and workshop for the participating
artists.
Late in the same year he exhibits almost simultaneously
at the Arte de Ayer y Hoy gallery in Caracas and the
Miami Museum of Modern Art.
1971
In September he participates in the XI Sao Paulo Biennial by invitation from the director of the event, Oscar
Ladman. He sends 18 metal sculptures enameled in
bright polychromatic lacquer.
That same month he is a special guest at the III Folk
Art Biennial.
1972
In May he opens his first individual exhibition in Brazil
at the Chelsea gallery in Sao Paulo.
Together with the Swiss-Peruvian artist Francisco Mariotti he produces a triptych sculpture entitled El Sol la
luna y el arco del cielo (The Sun the moon and the arc in
the sky), which they shortly after exhibit at the Coltejer
Biennial.
In September he opens his exhibition entitled Stoves
and chimneys at his Casa-Taller in Barranco.
Around November he creates a mural sculpture at the
new RTT (satellite station) facilities in Lesive, near Amberes in Belgium.
1973
In March he inaugurates the Sheraton Hotel in Lima,
the pinnacle of modernity in Peru at the time. He installs a set of luminous lamp metal sculptures there.
Commences his first series of Birds of America. A
collection of 12 is exhibited in Lima at the IV meeting of the Consultative Commission of the ILO
Inter-American Conference held at the Sheraton in
Lima. They were subsequently sent to the VI Painting
and Sculpture Biennial in Zaragoza, Spain and 8 were
bought by the Zaragoza council for installation in a
public park.
In December he inaugurates two allegorical murals for
the entry to the Peruvian Military Academy in Chorrillos.

1974
In April he designs a set for the play The Can Opener
by Vctor Lanoux, which was staged in Lima by the Los
Cuatro theater company from Santiago in Chile.
In May he is awarded the Peruvian Cross of Military
Merit in the Grade of Knight.
A special 500-copy edition of the book Delfin 10 years
64 74 was published in Guayaquil under the auspice
of Humberto Mor.
A documentary about Delfn produced by Procine and directed by Carlos Ferrand and Pedro Neira is completed.
In August he opens an exhibition of reliefs, second series of Birds of America, at the Lima Art Museum.
The pieces were later exhibited at Oswaldo Guayasamns
Inticori gallery, located in his house in Quito.
1975
In January he inaugurates an exhibition of his third series
of Birds of America at Colombias National Museum.
This is the starting-point for an extended Latin American tour with this exhibition, alternated with returns to
Lima. In Costa Rica he exhibits at the National Librarys
Julin Marchena Gallery and in the Dominican Republic
at the Santo Domingo Museo del Hombre.
In December he showcases a series of small-scale pieces
in ceramics, wood, aluminum and silver at his CasaTaller.
1976
In May a retrospective of his work opens in Arequipa at
the La Compaa Cloisters sponsored by the Arequipa
office of the National Institute for Culture.
In September he opens an exhibition of sculptures and
drawings at La Galerie in Bogota.
1977
Creates 21 life-size animal sculptures in brass sheets and
exhibits them in October and November at the Bacardi
Art Gallery in Miami and New York.
1978
In April he exhibits a collection of his works at the Lima
Sheraton celebrating its fifth anniversary.
Shortly after he also exhibits tapestry designed by him
and produced by the Clisa carpet company.

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1979
In January he inaugurates the exhibition Iron and
bronze at La Galera in Quito.
1980
Around May he exhibits at the Art and Culture Center
in Florida.
In September the new headquarters of the Industrial
Construction Bank (BIC) is inaugurated and it opens
with an in-door exhibition of a monumental sculptural
relief by Delfn.
In December he exhibits a collection of folk art pieces
and jewelry in iron, bronze, gold and silver.
1981
Participates in the 3000 years of sculptures in Peru exhibition at the Lima Art Museum.
1982
Signs a two-year exclusive representation contract with
the LElan Vitale INC gallery in New York.
By invitation from the Mayor of Piura, Francisco Hilbck,
he commences a monumental sculpture entitled Peace
Dove for the Piura city Civic Center. After some criticism the piece was left unfinished until 1995 when the
Cultural Pictorial Passage was inaugurated.
The German critic Selden Rodman publishes his study:
Artists in tune with Their World. Masters of popular Art
in the Americas and their relation to the Folk Tradition.
In December he exhibits at the Architect Associations
Art Gallery in Pichincha, Ecuador.

1985
In January he installs a white dove as a tribute to the
visit by Pope John Paul II. It is a public sculpture on
the Av. Salaverry in front of the Apostolic Nunciature.
1986
In June he exhibits a collection of pictorial pieces at the
Editorial Concepts gallery in Miami. In December he
installs a monumental piece in the Plaza of Technical
Cooperation within the headquarters of the National
Service of Occupational Training in Industry (SENATI) on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.
Over the following years he alternates living in Lima
with regular visits and short stays in New York City.
1990
In March he is awarded the Artistic Palms by the Ministry of Education for his contribution to popular art.
1992
In October the installation of his monumental sculpture The Kiss and remodeling the so-called Love Park
in Miraflores begin.

1983
In October he participates in the I Trujillo Biennial as a
guest artist.

1993
In February he inaugurates his sculpture in the Love Park.
In July he begins the long process of decorating the interiors of the Three Crosses Temple located next to the
Mercedes Basilica in Paita.
Around December he inaugurates a retrospective exhibition at the Luis Antonio Eguiguren Cultural Complex
in Piura with 40 pieces brought up from Lima.
Designs a sculpture on the mother-child theme for the
Childrens Park ine esa ciudad.

1984
In June he presents a sketch of a mosaic for the Daniel
Alcidez Carrin Socio-Cultural Circle (CESCDAC) at
the Trujillo National University. In September his work
is included in the exhibition The Avant-garde of the 60s
curated by Gustavo Buntinx for the Miraflores Town
Hall Gallery.
That same month one of his pieces is included in the
permanent exhibition of the legendary Chelsea Hotel in
New York.

1995
On March 1 he travels to the border to participate
in the Caucus for Peace bringing together Peruvian
and Ecuadorian artists and intellectuals rejecting the
threat of conflict between these two countries. Oswaldo Guayasamn, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Jorge Pedro
Vega and Carlos Caldern Chico participated from
Ecuador; Vctor Delfn, Arturo Corcuera, Leslie Lee,
Enrique Polanco and Edmundo Pantoja participated
from Peru.

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Participates actively in the protest marches against the


Amnesty Law.
Founds and chairs the Civic Movement against Impunity
with Francisco Soberon, general Rodolfo Robles (ret),
Washington Delgado and father Gustavo Gutierrez.
In September the Cultural Pictorial Passage in the Piura
city Civic Center was inaugurated with his pieces.
Around December he commences a monumental piece,
an allegory of fisheries and maritime resources, in
Chimbota at the junction of the Pan-American Highway
roundabout and Av. Industrial.
1996
In February he produces a series of graphic pieces based
on Huamn Pomas drawings, including a chronicle of
the Fujimori regime denouncing its corruption and authoritarianism with great irony.
1997
Participates in the protests against Alberto Fujimoris
dictatorial government.
Around September he organizes painting a mural on the
facade of Channel 2, Frecuencia Latina, defending freedom of expression.
Takes the first steps to establishing the La Resistencia
collective with which he starts a series of symbolic demonstrations rejecting the governments authoritarianism.

Participates in the Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos (Four


Corners March) and is injured by a tear gas bomb
launched directly at him by the police.
Publication in Ecuador of the book Delfn. Pictorial
and sculptural oeuvre.
Exhibition of a collection of sculptures and paintings
at the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatorianas Guayasamn gallery.
2001
Exhibits at the Modern Art Museum in Cuenca, Ecuador.
In April he creates a monumental piece as a tribute to
Tupac Amaru II for the Capilla del Hombre in Quito,
Ecuador.
In July he organizes a day of protest in front of the
Japanese Embassy in Lima demanding Fujimoris extradition.
Decorated as Commander of the Order of the Sun by
the Peruvian Government.
Becomes chair of the Peruvian Association of Visual
Artists (Aspay).
In September he is appointed President of the National
Commission for Culture.

1998
Creates a monument for the Los Cndores roundabout
in La Molina.
Receives an invitation to participate in celebrating the
50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Palacio Chaillot, Paris.

2002
Awarded the Bernardo OHiggins Medal by the Chilean
Government.
Produces a sculpture on Plaza Peru in Santiago in
Chile.
In December he inaugurates the exhibition In black and
white, with pieces by Leslie Lee, Roxana Cuba, Vctor
Delfn and Ana Mara Ortiz, all members of the group
La Resistencia, at the Petro-Peru Gallery.

2000
In February he is decorated Officer of the National Order of Merit by the Ecuadorian government.
One of his pieces is featured on a poster for an event
organized by several citizens associations at Campo de
Marte.

2003
One of his pieces is included in the Generation of
68 exhibition Between agony and the celebration of
modernity, third in the series Generational Tensions
curated by Alfonso Castrilln at ICPNA in Miraflores

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