Arturo Kameya at Marres

Artist: Arturo Kameya (with Claudia Martínez Garay)

Exhibition title: Opaque Spirits

Venue: Marres, House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Date: March 7 – May 26, 2024

Photography: all images courtesy of the artists and Marres, House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht / Photos: Gert Jan van Rooij

Note: Exhibition booklet is available here

The Venezuelan playwright Cabrujas once compared the nation to a hotel, a temporary place that doesn’t belong to its inhabitants and thus doesn’t require upkeep. In this hotel, the state plays the manager role but fails to cover even the most basic needs of its guests.

Peruvian artist Arturo Kameya has transformed Marres into a hotel where the ghosts of the failed Peruvian state have taken up residence. The building’s facade will feature massive paintings showing contemporary Messianic imagery. Inside, visitors can find various scenes, such as a tiled bathhouse that functions as a restaurant, a multi-armed beer fountain, and a large upstairs room with mechanical fish. The hotel’s interior is an allegory of the Peruvian state, reflecting a world of appearances in which truth is less important than what is evoked out of sheer necessity.

The exhibition is made in collaboration with the artist Claudia Martínez Garay.