Mourning for St. Sebastian

An evening of casual reflection on the fire that last week destroyed part of the Church of San Sebastian in Cusco and the paintings of Diego Quispe Tito witch were kept in the temple. The conversation will flow between projections of the paintings led by Pedro Pablo Alayza, Juan Salas and Javier Vargas.

The series of paintings on the martyrdom of St. Sebastian and the life of St. Jhon were painted by Quispe Tito in the mid-seventeenth century and are now irreparably destroyed, were foundational works of the Cusco School. However they were difficult to access and had little circulation (even with the extensive media coverage of the fire). Their material disappearance may also involve their disappearance from the collective memory. On the other hand, some of the most shocking scenes and stories of the fire are those of neighbors trying to rescue certain objects and the deep emotional bond they had with the space as a temple and as a historical monument.