Laying the cards on the table. In other words, bringing to light a purpose or opinion that was kept hidden; that is, making things clear. This is what the letters from these Peruvian architects do, as they express their feelings and expectations regarding the newly elected mayor’s office. After the silence of the previous mayor, we have not lost hope for a dialogue toward a beautiful Lima.
Proposals for Lima from the perspective of architecture.
LETTERS TO THE MAYOR
The exhibition, which opens on October 12, is part of the global initiative Letters to the Mayor, developed by the New York-based gallery Storefront for Art and Architecture. Letters to the Mayor: Lima has invited 100 architects and urban planners to write a letter to the future mayor of Lima.
The first edition of Letters to the Mayor took place in New York in 2014. The exhibition sparked a series of public debates among architects, citizens, and public officials regarding the future of the city. Its impact was such that the project became a traveling exhibition that has already visited cities such as Athens, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, Panama City, São Paulo, Toronto, Seoul, Prague, and Taipei, among others.
The format remains the same in every edition: one hundred architects and urban planners are invited to write a letter to the mayor with their reflections or proposals for the city. The messages are displayed to raise awareness about the relevance of certain issues inherent to urban dynamics. The initiative was conceived to reclaim the political dimension of the architectural profession.
As noted by Jorge Sánchez, part of the curatorial and production team—alongside Ernesto Apolaya and Claudio Cuneo—for Letters to the Mayor: Lima and director of the studio Nómena, “Throughout history, architects have always been involved, to a greater or lesser degree, in the political, cultural, and economic decisions of metropolises. However, over time and with globalization, the role of the architect in the city has been relegated to answering questions that others (who are less qualified) have already asked.” The goal of this exhibition is to bring the positions, ideas, and visions of architects closer to those who make metropolitan decisions, as well as to the general public.
“We hope that whoever our future mayor is, they will take advantage of this unprecedented body of ideas, analyses, proposals, and visions. They could at least question some of their plans and, if they do not have any, embrace certain ideas as a starting point,” concludes Sánchez.
The one hundred letters, which will be exhibited in the Nasca Hall at the Museum of the Nation from October 12 to November 5, will be sent in physical form to the mayor-elect. During the three weeks of the exhibition, which will also include an installation by artist Sandra Nakamura, panel discussions will be held, to which the future elected mayors—both metropolitan and district—will be invited.
