Associação Cultural Videobrasil

"Clean" Cinema: an approach to the work of Diego Lama

Because of the high cost of film production in Latin America, many artists have been working with digital video, producing original, alternative works. However, some video artists are making use of cinematic language to represent reality.

Diego Lama began to work as a video artist in 1999, when he was a student at 'Corriente Alterna' School of Arts. By analysing Diego Lama's work, a chronological evolution becomes evident: his work has become more complex over the past six years, as a result of technical and conceptual development.

Diego Lama is part of what we can call the “second generation” of young Peruvian artists who have been developing a complex work in the field of electronic art since 1998, when the Festival Internacional de Video/Arte/Electrónica (VAE - www.vae8.net) began. Thus, this second generation has been exploring different codes in relation to the former one. The most evident characteristic of his visual language is its relation with cinematic imagery and thought, which have influenced strongly his production and artistic formation. His language consists not only in the appropriation of scenes taken from films and in the eloquence of his video pieces, but also in a “cleanness” typical of commercial films, which has lately been absorbed by visual arts.

Lama's work is clearly determined by two lines of action which are not visually independent of each other: on the one hand, his interest in the globalization process within the field of mainstream art, and his confrontation with the realities of the countries and regions which are not well represented (Latin America, for instance); on the other hand, his undeniable and persistent taste for the creation of ambiguous spaces through the representation of intimate tragedies, which are related to limitrophe, almost absurd situations (sometimes making use of black humour). In both cases, we find the use of a “clean” cinematic language accompanied by popular melodies (from Frank Sinatra to Carmen Miranda) and contemporary compositions (Philip Glass).

Lama produces high budget videos (in comparison with most of Peruvian video productions), but it does not contradict itself, for, by doing it, Lama tries to give visibility to the technical level of the “cultural periphery's” productions, revealing the fact that apart from the preoccupation with the final aesthetic results, there is also a preoccupation with concept in Latin American videos.

His last works (Family, La Muerte de Eros, Chimaera) build direct connections between situations which go beyond conventional and abstract contexts, always trying to produce reflective representations. Thus, he aims at building a complex relationship with the viewer, in which the “clean” spaces reveal nothing of the local context, transforming the representation into a universal one.

According to Lama, it can help the viewer to reflect upon basic, instinctive human feelings, to the point of removing individual conscience, transforming the viewer into an accomplice of history. However, the will to contribute critical reflections to the field of art and to be incorporated into a universality also arouse interest in originality. Diego Lama offers us the formal framings of cinema combined with video's freedom, as well as an integration with other forms of art, like theatre, forming a rich, complex production in terms of “cinematic imagery”. 

Since last year, when he received sponsorship from HIVOS fund (Holland) for the production of a project which has been presented at the World Wide Video Festival and at the international festival ATA (Peru), his efforts to produce quality works in Latin America have been recognized at home and abroad. His works have been awarded many national and international prizes, what may keep him in Europe for a long time. Currently, he is in residency at the Site Gallery, England.