The Civilization of Llhuros: The First Multimedia Exhibition in the Genre of Archaeological Fiction

The Civilization of Llhuros is a work of fiction presented as a ‘real’ ancient culture for archaeological, anthropological and aesthetic study with an invitation to the viewer to share with the artist common appraisals of some human experiences. The work goes beyond the boundaries of a conventional exhibition of painting and sculpture in various ways. The artist parodies the analytical methods of anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and art historians. He presents work patinated to suggest antiquity and emphasizes deception, obscurities and satire, strategies aimed at stimulating audience involvement. In contrast to the convention of exhibiting painting and sculpture in passive environments, contrived to eliminate interferences and to foster atmospheres of contemplative acquiescence, the exhibition environment described here was designed to heighten ambiguity and dubiety by alternately strengthening and weakening the credibility of the invented civilization. The disruptive effect of planned interference is mollified by the cohesive use of sound and music, compiled and composed to function as an element unifying the whole experience.