Emerging from the poorer neighbourhoods of Peru, Chicha music has

developed its own culture which includes a unique visual language, as

demonstrated on the cover of this month's issue. Jules Bay explains

A music.A culture.
A visual language

C
hicha is a term that first
appeared in Peru in the
late 70s to describe the
fusion of Colombian
Cunibia music and rock
with more traditional
Peruvian styles such
as Huayno. Originally,
this new musical genre was referred to as
'Peruvian Cumbia' but the 1965 song La
Chichera by La Aurora Andina, who at the
time were big stars of the Peruvian Folklore
scene, included phrases such as 'let that
chicha loose', "give me that chicha sound'
and 'play me some ofthat chicha'; and thus
the term 'chicha' came to be associated with
the style. However it wasn't until the end of
the 70s that the term was used in a broader
sense, thus defining not just the music, but
the entire culture that surrounded it.
There is nothing that represents Chicha
culture better than the visually arresting
screenprinted posters that advertise the
concerts and festivals of this uniquely
Peruvian movement. Loud,fluorescentand
ubiquitous, they have become an integral
and defining part of Peru's urban identity.
In the late 70s, the Chicha scene
exploded in the popular neighbourhoods of
Lima. Its rise in popularity was so abrupt
that there were not enough venues to meet
demand and car parks became improvised
concert halls. This surge of activity and
commercialisation led to extreme
competition between bands who fought
for the attention of audiences. Their chief
weapon was the poster, whose signature
style of hand-drawn type and day-gio
BßLOW: Chichasinger AbenciaMeza at a concert in Lima.
Peru. Hie bright colours of her stage outflt are echoed in
the screen printed posters advertising Chicha concerts in
the city. Photograph by Ren/o Glraldo
colours soon evolved into a visual language
in its own right.
In some instances, the typography used
to represent particular bands was so stylised
that it functioned as a form of branding and
was often adopted as a logo for the band. As
the popularity of the movement grew, the
posters were not only used as a means to
promote the bands themselves, but also the
music producers, venues and even the
designers and print shops who produced
them. This rapid growth led to a large
printing and publicity industry and there
are now a number of families running their
own printing businesses for Chicha posters.
Most Chicha posters conform to a
common structure: in the upper left corner
are the date and time of the gig, followed by
the venue and below this the band or v

4 0 I CREATIVE REVIEW \ JANUARY ÎOIO


Chicha culture: from
the street to the gallery
The Chicha visual culture was the
- bject of an exhibition recently at
e Spanish Cultural Center in
'—. Curator Jules Bay (who
lOte our Chicha feature and
organised the cover production)
invited the Spanish art collective
Equipo Plástico to come to the city
and respond to everything that
they saw there.
The result was La Cuadrada -
'a kaleidoscope view of the city of
" 'ma'. "It was a show about Lima
t from a stranger's point of
view," explains EP's Nano48]4- "It
was a synthesis of our one-month
experience in the city."
Nano and the three other
members of Equipo Plástico -
Eltono, Sixe and Nuria Mora -
documented everything that they
found interesting about the city,
from the lettering on cabs to the
graphics on buses and local
textiles. These photographs were
exhibited alongside sculptural
pieces created by Equipo Plástico
which incorporated vernacular
styles. This included a Chicha
banner and posters.
The Chicha style "was one of
the first things we saw when we
stepped out of the airport," Nano
says. "Their use of colour and
typography is incredible and we
knew we had to use them in our
project straightaway. What is
more amazing is the way they are
produced - a really direct and
effective way of screenprinting
with a paper stencil as a screen
blocker and everything drawn by
hand at the speed of light." (For
more on this, see next page)
Equipo Plástico produced two
Chicha-style projects - five
traditional screenprinted posters
and a large banner which is
created on a plotter on a nylon
sheet that has hand cut letters
glued onto it. "The prasters are
about four topics that attracted
our attention in Lima: The food.
the weather, the 'submerged'
economy and the filthy traffic as
well as one poster that was purely
se If-promotional," Nano says.
Etoth the posters and the
banner were exhibited on Lima's
streets (see above) as well as in
the gallery (right). "The most
interesting thing about Lima was
how a heavily polluted city with
really grey weather most days of
the year, has a form of graphic
communication and even
traditional costumes made with
super vivid and fluorescent
colours all the time. We found
them really hypnotic," Nano says.
equipop1astico.com
CREATIVE REVIEW | JANUARY 3 0 1 0 I 41

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This month's cover:
how it was made
This month's cover of cB was
designed and produced by the
Urcuhuaranga brothers at
Publicidad Viusa. their print shop Instead, we sent Jules the text to
just outside Lima in Peru. We first appear on the cover which Ehot
came to hear of the Chicha style
from designer and author Tristan
Manco. Readers will remember
that Manco helped us with our
January 20O9 cover which was
produced in the style of Lambe
Lambe posters in Sao Paulo.
Brazil. Manco had come to hearof
this indigenous Peruvian graphic
style from the Spanish art
4 1 1 CHBATIVB
collective Equipo Plástico who
had seen the work on a recent
curator Jules Bay wno an-..^--
for the production of our cover.
Unfortunately, no one from CR got thanks go to Jules Bay. the
to go out to Peru to oversee things
Urcuhuaranga then drew up on
paper by hand in the distinctive
Chicha style, using a pencil and a
ruler as his sole design tools. Each
typographic element was then cut
out and fixed directly on to the
, , ^ e n to make a stencil. A black
version ofthe cover was then
printed, copies of which were
':^
' •?
f 1
then cut to make additional
stemils in order to run the four
iluoro colours used for various
elements on the final p<isttT.Jul.
poster to be scanned and sent us
thefilefor us to print from. Our
Urcuhuaranga brothers and
everyone at Publicidad Viusa and
to Tristan Manco for their help in
making our cover this month. A
documentary film with a full
explanation of the whole, highly
intricate pr« ess can be seen at
creativert:view.co.uk B
 < bands that will be playing. This structure
is essential in order for the posters to be
easily and quickly interpreted in public
spaces. People are not able to stop and
observe them carefully, they are always seen
in passing and so only the most essential
information is presented.
The poster featured on the cover of this
issue of CR was designed and produced by
the Urcuhuaranga brothers in their
printshop. Publicidad Viusa, just outside
Lima. The brothers claim that their father
invented the intricate technique that is now
commonly used to produce Chicha posters
all over the city. The posters are designed by
hand, actual size, on plain white paper. The
only design tools used are a pencil and ruler.
Each typographic element is then cut out to
be used as a stencil and fixed directly to the
ABOVE, CLOCKWISE KBOM LEFT; Designer Ena Andrade
has begun to Incorporate Chicha styles in her clothing
which appears under the Peru Moderno labei; Andrade
chats with printer Deli Flores at his workshop <note the
hand-drawn designs being cut oat on the bench); Chicha
singer Dina Paucar in concert. Photo: Mandruca
screen. As the poster is being printed, these
stencils quickly become destroyed, making
long runs of each design impossible.
There is a suggestion that the fluorescent
colours that are typical of Chicha posters
were influenced by those used in handicrafts
from the central Andes. However, a more
mundane explanation is more likely - in the
early 80s, fluoresecent inks were widely
available and cheap, offering a lot of bang for
your buck. Over time the colours have
varied slightly with the introduction of new
fluorescent hues such as blue and purple
and in some cases even matt colours.
This popular style, long looked down
upon by Peru's upper and middle classes
has, in recent years, begun to achieve
legitimacy as Peruvians look to celebrate
their own indigenous culture. Mainstream
designers and art directors who once
dismissed Chicha as an underground
culture have now begun to recognise its
importance as a national aesthetic and even,
as with designer Ena Andrade, incorporate
the Chicha style in their work. Ultimately
though. Chicha posters have a simple and
vital role that they share with the more
professionally produced ads that compete
for attention on Lima's streets: to stand out
in a world of visual competition, a
Jules Bay is a curator based in Lima, Peru.
Interviews: Santiago A/faro ana Ena Andrade.
Additional editing and translation: Maxim
Holland and Susie Quillinan. With thanks to
Tristan Manco. To see a documentaryfilmon
the making of this month's cover, visit our
•website at creativereview.co.uk
CREATIVE REVIEW | JANUAHY 2 0 1 0 I 4 3
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