MI PAÍS NO ES GRECIA
Curated by Alexis Fabry
Event: My Country Isn’t Greece – Juan Enrique Bedoya
Places: Fundación Larivière, Fotografía latinoamericana, Buenos Aires
Date: July 26 – October 19 2025
Exhibition and catalogue design: Olivier Andreotti (Toluca Studio)
https://www.fundacionlariviere.org/en/module/smartblog/details?id_post=49
« I first encountered the work of Juan Enrique Bedoya in 2008, during a journey to Lima with Jean-Louis Larivière. After several years of travel across the continent, it was our first time in the Peruvian capital. At the bookshop of the Lima Art Museum (MALI), we came across the catalogue of an earlier exhibition held at the Peruvian-North American Cultural Institute: The Generation of the Eighties, the Years of Violence. The publication documented the artistic responses of those under thirty in 1980, shaped by the internal conflict that had shaken the country. Among the contributions, Bedoya’s series stood out—ten portraits of marginalized individuals from Lima, each presented with the same frontal, centered composition. He would later tell us these were inspired by childhood drawings he had made at the age of eight.
With a quiet reserve, Bedoya gradually introduced me to other facets of his practice, notably his architectural photography. Bleached whites and diffuse blacks under the harsh desert light revealed a rigorous visual grammar. Each structure is photographed frontally, from a consistent distance, bearing witness to a vernacular built environment—what might be called an “architecture without architects.” These images speak of place and people, revealing a spontaneous order and understated beauty.
Shortly after, I discovered his work in color: walls across the Peruvian provinces painted with bold images announcing consumer goods, declaring political allegiances, or patriotic fervor. These anonymous murals, rendered with untrained hands and vivid intent, are recorded with the same clarity and respect as his other subjects.
As our dialogue deepened, Bedoya shared with me a more extensive selection of prints from past exhibitions, meticulously produced in his own studio. Among these, a 1989 series of nine nighttime portraits immediately drew me in. Against a uniform dark backdrop, the images portray a curious cast of characters—a policeman, a starlet—locked in a subtle exchange that hints at the tensions between authority and desire, bolero and black magic.
Over time, what continues to resonate is the material presence of Bedoya’s work, his profound connection to Peru’s popular culture, and his refusal to impose hierarchies on the world around him. He captures life as it is lived—in both its vast gestures and its smallest details » – Alexis Fabry.
Catalogue description:
Toluca Editions + Ediciones Larivière
Text : Jaime Bedoya, Juan Enrique Bedoya, Alexis Fabry, Oscar Malca y Rodrigo Quijano
Hardcover
304 pages – 22 x 29 cm
Bilingual edition : Spanish and English
ISBN : 978-2-490161-18-8
July 2025
Graphic design: Olivier Andreotti