Ety Fefer, the unclassifiable artist and puppeteer, director of the Peruvian company’s Grumildos, presents his work in New York. Bizarre, fun, perverted, naïve, grotesque, sordid and charming — the automated “Grumildos” occupy an unparalleled universe on view from September 25, 2014 to January 11, 2015 at Museum of Sex.
Synthesized from the imagination and reality of the shadowy red-light district of Lima, Peru, the plasticine-made Grumildos were created by renowned Peruvian artist Ety Fefer. Part kinetic theater, part art installation and part puppet performance, Fefer found the inspiration for her creations, which she calls “Grumildos,” in the dynamic but often forgotten and rejected characters that populate the margins of society. While the Grumildos could blend into the tapestry of any city’s red light district — San Paolo, Barcelona or Bangkok — here Fefer has created a world for them seemingly straight out of a dream where these creatures can feel at home.
Visitors are invited to the Lower Level Gallery at Museum of Sex to share in this intriquing voyeuristic experience brimming with these mythological half-animal, half-human beings which play in bands or dance to electronic beats. Within the boundaries of the installation, the Grumildos inhabit a world of creative expression free from moral judgments. Through exaggerated gestures and hyperrealistic details, Grumildos share with us their most intimate feelings. In this newfound zone of comfort, their reality is reinterpreted with humor and their humanity restored. Their narratives are left up the viewer’s imagination.
