Uncovering information systems in the work of Teresa Burga

Abstract

Teresa Burga (Iquitos, 1935) has developed, since the sixties, a pioneering work in information-based arts. However, her work has only in the last decade been studied in depth from a perspective that has revalued her contribution to conceptual art and, to a lesser extent, her experiments in art and technology. This paper describes some of her most relevant artistic projects and examines the connections between Burga's conceptual and technological-based art and her former day-to-day work at the Customs office, in the context of the Peruvian state's computerization process. In most of the research about Teresa Burga’s art practice, her work at the Customs office is overlooked and only mentioned to justify her retirement from the Peruvian art scene since the early eighties. We argue that the work performed by Burga in the government, and in particular at the Customs office, serves as a fundamental source for understanding the strong but surreptitious link of her work with systems and technology, more specifically her interest on computing, organizations and society.