Carmen Reategui

Visual Artist

Immense sadness, but of an unusual hope

Federico Camino Macedo
Principal Professor of Philosophy at PUCP
Personal letter addressed to Carmen Reategui after visiting the Offering exhibition, held at the Pancho Fierro Gallery of the Municipality of Metropolitan Lima, between April 4 and May 6, 2018)

Dear Carmen, I am still under the magic and strength of your Offering that has impressed me a lot and I thank you for what you have given me.

Today I was amazed for a long time and as if possessed by your Offering. There were many people, which made me happy because you could also sense that they were affected by what they experienced when observing your withered roses or the white and gold corn with the reference to the classic paintings of Courbet and Mantegna and what the Eros and the Thanatos.

Carmen, I saw several times the video of the itinerant tree and its projection in the sphere of the sacred as a symbol of life and testimony of death as I understand it. It left me with a feeling of immense sadness, but of an unusual hope.

There would be much to say and much more that is impossible to express because it touches the ineffable, what does not fit into words but we know is there, I do not know if it is in the heart or in the mind.

I’ve left you a few lines but I could write just enough because of the darkness of the place and because the pen ran out of ink. The young guard lent me his, which didn’t write well either.

It has been a memorable Saturday.

A strong, excited and grateful hug,

Federico