Hyperinflationary Art and Fictions of Maricosmopolitan Identity in José Rafael Perozo : Artículo de investigación

Abstract

This research paper introduces the concept of “hyperinflationary art” to describe the rise of recent works using the Venezuelan bolivar, one of the world’s most devalued currencies, as an artistic medium. It specifically studies José Rafael Perozo’s (Maracaibo, 1982) “maricosmopolitismo”, from the series (Re)Convertidos (2014) to Canto a Venezuela (2021-22). “Hyperinflationary art” is that which artistically intervenes the bolivar, underscoring and subverting the Bolivarian government’s own constant economic intervention of the bolivar. “Maricosmopolitismo” as a term, on the other hand, proposes a contemporary, anti-Chavista, and digital version of what has come to be called “cosmopolitanisms” or “dissident and queer cosmopolitical globalizations”. The paper concludes that Perozo’s work subverts national identity—appropriated and gatekept by the Chavista re-symbolization of Venezuelan independence— emptying and reclaiming it through sexual dissidence.