Visual Representations of a Contemporary Amazonian City: Reflections on the ‘Fluvial Space’ of Iquitos

Guzmán G.C. · Letras (Peru) (2025) · DOI: 10.30920/letras.96.143.9

Resumen

This article aims to reflect on the nature and usefulness of the concept of “fluvial space.” To do so, it examines certain contemporary visual representations of the Peruvian Amazonian city of Iquitos. The text argues that this concept is particularly appropriate for understanding Amazonian cities by connecting global processes that structure materialities and spatial practices —alluded to by Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the social production of 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 takes as examples two of the most prominent artists of the contemporary Peruvian Amazonian cultural scene —the photographer 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 for the complexity of the processes involved in this visual production, the analysis includes three interrelated components: the researcher’s own interpretation and reaction, the narrative that the artists elaborate on their compositions, and the cultural and social context of the city in which the artistic representation is imbedded.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú