Representaciones visuales de una ciudad amazónica contemporánea: reflexiones sobre el ‘espacio fluvial’ iquiteno

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the nature and usefulness of the concept of “fluvial space.” To do so, it examinescertain contemporary visual representations of the Peruvian Amazonian city of Iquitos. The text argues thatthis concept is particularly appropriate for understanding Amazonian cities by connecting global processesthat structure materialities and spatial practices —alluded to by Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the social productionof space— with particular ecosystems and subjective forms of appropriating space through memory and sensoriality, as implied by the concept of place developed by Tim Creswell. In this endeavor, the article takesas examples two of the most prominent artists of the contemporary Peruvian Amazonian cultural scene —thephotographer Augusto Falconi and the painter Christian Bendayán— and two of their works: “Chauchero cargando hielo” (Chauchero carrying ice, circa 1980), and “Fuerza animal” (Animal Force, 2019). To account forthe complexity of the processes involved in this visual production, the analysis includes three interrelatedcomponents: the researcher’s own interpretation and reaction, the narrative that the artists elaborate on theircompositions, and the cultural and social context of the city in which the artistic representation is imbedded.