Peru is a country with a great variety of cultures, traditions and languages. The confluence of different influences –Indigenous, European, African and Asian– over the centuries has shaped a multicultural landscape with a great wealth of festive, musical and artistic expressions in general. The strong Indigenous presence, mainly of the Quechua and Aymara groups, and the preservation and reproduction of cultural expressions have favored the permanence of Andean traditions and identities.

In pre-Columbian times, the dances developed in what is now Peruvian territory were mostly collective in nature. There was no distinction between dancers and spectators: the steps were simple, and everyone took part in the celebrations. During the conquest, the Andean Indigenous groups created other dances based on the new cultural influences, trying to imitate, in an exaggerated and mocking way, the bearing and movement of the Spaniard. Dance, with its dynamic and ritual character, constituted an element of group cohesion, as well as a discursive component through which different cultural values are transmitted, reproduced and modified.

Masks, material elements of many celebrations, continue to be an identity marker of various Peruvian festivities today, while forming a legacy that, with modifications, harks back to the traditions of the oldest Andean cultural groups.

Each dance –past or present– has its own masks. In them, different characters, groups of dancers and authorities can be distinguished. The mask hides a face, an individual identity and its everyday role in society, and implies a rupture and a revelation of new identities, subjects and roles of individuals within the group. In the Andean world there is a variety of symbolic representations and meanings. Many masks represent evil forces while at the same time providing protection through them; others recount events of the present or the past through historical and mythical characters; others have a sarcastic look and refer to protests, demands or denunciations.

The exhibition THE OTHER FACES OF PERU. Collection of Latin American masks by Claudio Rama is a unique window onto the geography and history of Peru, a new approach to its past and present cultural diversity.