“The Eye Thinks” Meeting with Milena Carranza Valcárcel and Odette Casamayor-Cisneros

Monday, September 28, 2026 – 19:00 – Maison de l’Amérique latine, 217 Bd Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris

On the occasion of the group exhibition Afroandinxs, presented in the recently inaugurated gallery of the Embassy of Peru in Paris from September 15 to October 15, 2026, IESA arts&culture and the Maison de l’Amérique latine invite the public to a new meeting in the The Eye Thinks series, this time devoted to Afro-Andean Peru.

An Exhibition, 500 Years of Resistance

Long obscured in the visual arts and relegated, in the collective imagination, to the musical sphere alone, the Afro-Andean dimension is nonetheless an essential component of Afro-Peruvian identity. The exhibition Afroandinxs highlights how Afro-Peruvian artists — questioning their place in a country that long marginalized them — incorporate Andean references, imaginaries and symbols into their work, even without direct Andean ancestry.

Bringing together works by Amador “Chebo” Ballumbrosio, Angie Cienfuegos, William Cordova, Joan Jiménez Suero “Entes,” Herbert Rodríguez, César-Octavio Santa Cruz and Vera Castro, the exhibition extends a curatorial inquiry already begun with Pérou Noir (Little Africa Paris Village, 2025), devoted to the many expressions of contemporary Afro-Peruvian art.

Two Exceptional Speakers

Milena Carranza Valcárcel, a Peruvian photographer, exhibition curator and anti-racist activist based in France, devotes her interdisciplinary work to Afro-Peruvian identities and cultural and spiritual expressions as well as those of the African diasporas. She is the founder, in Paris, of the project Perú Decolonial.

Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, professor-researcher, writer and art critic, develops her practice at the crossroads of literature, visual arts and Afro-Latin American and Caribbean studies. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Center for Africana Studies, she holds a doctorate from EHESS and is the recipient, among other distinctions, of the Juan Rulfo Prize (Radio France Internationale) and the José Juan Arrom Prize for literary essay.

This meeting is supported by the Embassy of Peru in France.

“Thought sees, the gaze touches, the eye thinks.” — Octavio Paz

Practical Information

Monday, September 28, 2026 — 19:00

Maison de l’Amérique latine, 217 Bd Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris

The Eye Thinks meetings are offered by the Maison de l’Amérique latine and IESA arts&culture. They shed light on current developments in the Latin American art scene in France and showcase its key figures.