Vender lo andino: Arqueología, diseño y mercado en la obra de Elena Izcue

Abstract:This article explores the visual cultural production of the Peruvian artist Elena Izcue and its origins in archaeology's visions of Indigenous material culture. Izcue was trained in visual arts during the heyday of indigenismo in Peru and much of her practice emerges from indigenista visual representations as well as approaches to Indigenous cultures. In particular, this article considers how Izcue's work at a generative moment for archaeology in Latin America—the 1930s and 40s—sought to mobilize cultural manifestations of Andean Indigenous culture beyond nationalism and instead located them squarely in the realm of the market, thus transforming lo andino into a valuable cultural good. Izcue's production of goods, and later her oversight of training for workers who produced Indigenous-inspired merchandise in Peru, embodies a significant example of engaging art practices with both market demands as well as cultural policy. These activities on Izcue's part prefigure later, more massive commodification that characterizes the recent positioning of Andean cultures in global markets.