Name: Eliana Otta
Nationality: PE
Place of Birth: Lima
Date of Birth: 1981
Areas of Work: drawing, Video, socially engaged art
Website: -

Eliana Otta (Lima, May 19, 1981) is a multidisciplinary artist. She studied Fine Arts at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima, with a specialization in painting and has a Master’s Degree in Cultural Studies, an interdisciplinary postgraduate program focused on the way in which culture expresses, recreates but also transforms power relations in our societies. Her thesis “Cartographies of illegitimacy, evidences of inequality: simple displacements and complex questions from contemporary art to current Peru” shows how Peruvian contemporary art is capable of defying current but long-lasting unfair and colonial practices.

Some of her major individual exhibitions are: Lima 100pre (Museo La Energía, Buenos Aires, 2015), Capital Intervención (Sala Luis Miró Quesada Garland, Lima, 2015), Del cuidado de la vida común (Galería 80m2 – Livia Benavides, Lima, 2014), Tierra de nadie (Galería 80m2 – Livia Benavides, Lima, 2011), Cambio de Casa (Lugaradudas, Cali, 2010).

A selection of major collective exhibitions includes: Sights and Sounds. Global film and video (highlighted works) (Jewish Museum, New York, 2016); Area de juego. Ephemeral interventions for the Nouveau Festival (Centro Pompidou, Paris, 2015); GETAFE IN Film Festival (Madrid, 2015); Reclaiming the useful – from modernism to self-builds in Latin America (Kontshall C, Stockholm, 2014); ¡Ejemplos a seguir! Expediciones en estética y sostenibilidad (Museo Metropolitano de Lima, 2014); HAWAPI (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima, 2014); Reopening the black box of technology (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima, 2013); Urban Perspectives (FotoWeek DC, Washington, 2013); Insurgencia en movimiento – Antología de los márgenes audiovisuales peruanos (Museo de Arte de Lima, MALI, 2013); Festival de Cine Peruano Cinesuyu (ICPNA’s Library, Cusco, 2013); Fragmentos, alteración de espacio (Centro Fundación Telefónica, Lima, 2012); ¿Y qué si la democracia ocurre? (Galería 80m2 – Livia Benavides, Lima, 2012); El placer es más importante que la victoria (Tasneem Gallery, Barcelona, 2011); Numina Femenina/Latin women in the arts (Galería del Consulado General de México, San Francisco, 2011); En algún lugar de esta otra ciudad (Galería La Central, Bogotá, 2011); Festival Internacional de Video Arte Almirante Brown (Buenos Aires, 2011); Taller Juanchaco, Ladrilleros y La Barra (Buenaventura, 2010); Música Posible (Centro Fundación Telefónica, Lima, 2011); Piratería Sentimental II (La Residencia, Bogotá, 2010); Coser + dibujar + colorear (Convento de Santo Domingo, Cusco, 2010); Popular Pop (vanguardia, conflicto y modernidad visual) (Museo de Arte de Lima - MALI, 2007).

Otta was part of artist-run spaces such as La Culpable and La Casa Rosa, and she co-founded Bisagra in 2014 (www.bisagra.org). She was also part of the editorial committees from the art magazines Prótesis (2003-2005), Juanacha (2007-2008) and Bisagra (2014 – 2016), as well as member of social collectives that stand for feminism, environmentalism, human rights and memory in this post-conflict country (Mujeres Dignidad, Artistas AntiKeiko, Nadienospaga).

From 2014 to 2015 she was the coordinator for the curatorial team that made the permanent exhibition for Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social, a space dedicated to inform about the violence suffered in Peru during the 1980s – 2000s. As a coordinator, she was responsible for all the processes regarding the development of curatorial texts, archive investigations, design and photo editing, but especially she was part of the team that conducted the interviews and edited most of the video pieces made with the victims of the period that gave testimony for the exhibition.

Otta has also curated some exhibitions in Lima as well as the Lima Pavilion for the Mediamatic Travel Bienal, Amsterdam (2009). She has received various awards, such as the Prize of the Cinematographic Press Association (Festival de Cine Lima Independiente, 2014), is the winner of the National Competition of Experimental Short Films (Ministry of Culture of Peru, 2013) and of the National Competition of Short Films  CONACINE (Ministry of Culture of Peru, 2012). She teaches at the Art Faculty of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, at Escuela de Arte Corriente Alterna and has previously taught at Escuela Nacional Superior de Bellas Artes.

From 2004 to 2012 she was the founder and owner of the first shop exclusively dedicated to young fashion designers in Lima, Pulga.