Perrahabl@

On a cold morning of early August 1999, the city of Lima in Peru woke to find its streets covered by a new provocative poster. Unlike many others, this poster did not promote a music concert or a product; instead, it confronted the public with a profanity commonly used on the streets and in everyday speech against women, promoting sexism that a largely conservative society refused to acknowledge. The word in question was perra, or “bitch” in English.

This brand new ESCALA exhibition tells the story behind the poster Perrahabl@ (1999) by art collective, La Perrera, formed by Peruvian artist Natalia Iguiñiz and Peruvian Sociologist Sandro Venturo.

This exhibition maps the development of the poster, its responses, and its legacy within the broader history of activism in the arts, particularly in dictatorial contexts emerging from Latin America. The exhibition features other gems from our Collection, as well as a filmed interview with Natalia Iguiñiz, recorded in 2024 in Lima, Peru.

Perrahabl@ was purchased through the University of Essex postgraduate module AR915: Collecting Art from Latin America in 2024.

Curated by Gisselle Giron Casas.

Image © La Perrera © Essex Collection of Art from Latin America