46. Juan Javier Salazar (Peruvian, 1955–2016). Lembrança dos bandeirantes peruanos, 2011. Ceramic and glaze, H. 5 ⼀椀 in. (13 cm). Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru; Gift of the artist (2011.13.1) Such assertions of outsider status, whether real or raiding party; in contemporary parlance, it can also mean imagined, create space for exploration and for a critique fortune hunters. Salazar likened artists to curanderos—the of dominant power structures. Peruvian artist Juan Javier traditional healers—in the belief that the objects they cre- 46 Salazar, after studying in Portugal and Lima, positioned ate can transfer energy and meaning. In a performance himself as apart from the established institutions of the work in Lima in 2002, the artist distributed plush toys modern nation-state to launch visual commentaries on in the shape of Peru to riders of the city’s buses, with the global economies, climate change, and national identities. idea of giving people the chance to metaphorically claim Salazar’s artistic practice drew on elements of Peruvian ownership of their country. Both historical and geograph- history to address contemporary themes and issues such ical in context, Lembrança dos bandeirantes peruanos and as economic inequality and resource overexploitation. His the plush toys subtly critique the history of exploitation of small, feline-shaped double-spout-and-bridge “bottle,” Peru’s natural resources but also the art market, contrib- Lembrança dos bandeirantes peruanos (2011), complete uting to a broader strand of the artist’s oeuvre in which with tiny paws sketched on the underside, can be seen he seeks a formal means of giving back to Peruvians the 47 from above mimicking the shape of the modern coun- possibility of holding their country in their own hands. try of Peru (昀椀g. 46). The title, translated as “Souvenir of Peruvian Bandeirantes,” references the Portuguese word for 昀氀ag and, by extension, a detached military unit or 46