Project Space: Giuseppe Campuzano’s Transvestite Machine
Since 1990s, philosopher, queer activist and drag queen Giuseppe Campuzano has been exploring the origins of transgender practices in Peru. His work involved historical research, fiction writing, video, experimental archival practices, public performances and the production of art objects. In 2003-2004 he created the ephemeral project called Museo Travesti del Perú (Transvestite Museum of Peru), which was an attempt to present a queer counter-reading: a promiscuous, intersectional thinking of history that collected objects, images, documents, press clippings, and appropriated artworks that fracture the normative models of production of bodies.
The materials displayed in the Project Space include the first English publication of Giuseppe´s writings, most of which address issues related to the rich cultural tradition of transgender bodies since pre-Hispanic times and the possibilities of a queer museology. It also includes a selection of photos and videos made by Campuzano, both individually and collectively, between 2003 and 2013.
This project is a continuation of the conversations with Miguel A. Lopez, after his presentation "Museum, Musex, Mutext, Mutant: Giuseppe Campuzano’s Transvestite Machine" at Nottingham Contemporary in June 2016.