The embodied gaze: Situated approaches to visual works by women artists on the civil war in Peru

Abstract

This article explores various methodologies for developing artistic research from a feminist, situated, and embodied perspective, focusing on the reverberations of violence from the Civil War in Peru in the practices of contemporary women artists. Through an approach that intertwines image studies, fieldwork, and artistic creation, the article proposes thinking with images as a form of knowledge. The feminist critical epistemology of Donna Haraway, Djamila Ribeiro’s concept of the place of enunciation, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui’s sociology of the image, and W. J. T. Mitchell’s idea of the desire of images together form a theoretical framework that allows for an understanding of images as living, affective, and political entities. From this perspective, the article examines how artists —Sandra Gamarra, Rosalía Tineo, Alejandra Ballón, the Alfombra Roja collective, and photographers Liz Tasa and Tadeo Bourbón— translate, reinterpret, or evoke testimonies about gender-based violence during and after the Civil War. The article also reflects on how artistic research —anchored in the body, imagination, and intuition— can constitute a critical and sensitive path for reconstructing memory through an ethics of listening and care.