El Porvenir brings together a series of sculptural works based on urban artefacts and popular imagery commonly found in marginal regions of Peru. These objects are presented here as allegories for the social and political realities of the country and are used to explore different ideas related to consumerism and what is essential in human nature. The use of art as a model to examine these socio-political subjects shifts its purpose away from a trajectory of utopian grand-narrative to the more functional language of the every day, carrying with it an articulation of what this may entail and its consequences.

El Porvenir translates into ‘the future’ or ‘the world becoming’ and in Latin America is often used as a word to denote a place, especially amongst deprived areas. It speaks of an expectation or aspiration of a future to come, and carries with it a conjunction of speculations. In the context of a developing country, there seems to be a greater fixation on and longing for the future, as a place where a better quality of living can be achieved.

The exhibition imposes a sense that one is entering a room containing archaeological artefacts which can be seen as the remains of a civilization, urban ruins that describe a particular culture and a desire for new potential – a visual chronicle of Peru’s current state. The works in El Porvenir point to the future rather than the past, and even though they hint at melancholy or mourning, they are in fact a platform, proposing a liberated place awash with new and unexpected blossomings.