PERU ANA, ANA PERU

When I walked around downtown last winter, I started to notice tags that looked like this going up everywhere:"Ah," I thought to myself, "no style is the new style". The film/cinema thing interested me though, since it has more of an overt agenda than lots of other art. Then I started to see Peru Ana branching out into new kinds of installations.

I managed to pin down the responsible artists and ask a few questions recently. First, a little explanation was in order. What's this 'cinema' business all about?

"We feel that film has become cheapened by an era of ultra conservativism that panders to the concerns and needs of nasty business men (who, in the end, only want to make money). This has created a market of films and filmmakers that seek to produce only a type of work that is known to please consumers, and in turn, make money. It is quite disgusting." Fair enough. But how does that relate to art in the streets?


"What we call for, perhaps, is an experimentalism that seems very much to be absent from the current model of the filmmaking process, wherein it has already been decided (seemingly by the nasty business-types) what a film is, and how one should make them." It's like the Peru Ana campaign is a big ad campaign for all the experimental, low-budget filmmakers who don't get their props anywhere else. As far as experimentalism goes, you can see these artists put their non-money where their digital mouths are on their youtube page.



"As for the people of NYC, we have received a host of comments from many people, most of which merely intrigued as to what Peru Ana Ana Peru is, and why it is that it is all over the city. As for other writers and artists, we've been received quite well, forming minor relationships with a handfull of people, which is nice. As for the cops, well, our relationship with them consists simply of not running in to them (any more)."

Peru Ana are making an impact on the visual landscape of our city, that's for sure. And if you think that money's ruining the world, street art's a pretty good way to resist. Although these days it often seems like ad agencies are just as likely to be painting the walls as anyone else, but that's another issue. Check out their myspace if you're interested.