Oslo (Norway)
I’m an independent visual artist, libertarian socialist, creative laborer, cultural mediator, radical community arts organizer, and a public dance enthusiast with Peruvian-Palestinian roots. My work explores the intersections of community networks, performativity theories, community intelligence, and life practices of multidirectional care in public space.
Among other projects, I’m currently working on developing the Machaqmara’s Civic Art House as what might become the first social housing project for artists in Latin America, located in Lima, Peru. This is a Peruvian-Norwegian cultural cooperation to secure better living and working spaces for artists, to facilitate civic engagement with other groups in society, and to life-affirming connectedness.
A few weeks ago, I co-initiated the national grassroots initiative Non-European Artists Based in Norway Support Group. This organization addresses the precarious conditions of artists whose citizenship leads them to slip under the state´s support net for artists in Norway, and in so doing seeks to take care of the multiplicity of artistic narrations and the plurality of societies today.
Short after earning a BFA with a major in Sculpture from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, I founded the indigenous-contemporary art initiative Machaqmara Center for the Arts in the Peruvian jungle. Years later, and many adventures in between, I moved to Oslo where I have held positions in arts management and art production at OSLO PILOT, Ekebergparken, Oslo Biennial, and UKS (Young Artists' Society). As well as receiving an MFA Art and Public Space from Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo.
Nowadays, I’m the current Director of Community Relations & Outreach of The Union, a newly created artist-led mediation platform aiming to explore new socio-political realities through digital activism and creative-citizen movements.
I believe in self-organized utopias!
Posts by Rodrigo Ghattas Pérez -
