Terror in Motion: Assaults of the Impossible at the Peruvian House of Literature

Public Programming
October 27, 28, and 29

Thinking about the impossible allows us to rehearse strategies for imagining other worlds, organizations, and qualities that escape our understanding of reality or the common sense of things as we know them. In this sense, fear of "the unknown" tends to haunt the speculative processes we can practice when escaping the limits of our normative comprehension of the world.

This set of public activities is an invitation to reflect on how horror narratives—often linked to the fluid and disciplinary nature of fear—can become critical exercises that offer perspective on the ways we read and experience our passage through the world. Some of the activities reinterpret traditional acts of writing to explore new ways of tracing inscriptions on sensitive, spatial, experiential, and virtual surfaces; while others will present the challenges and memories of editorial work dedicated to science fiction and fantasy narratives.

In what ways can different forms of evoking fear—through horror—become a language capable of signifying and rethinking the relational movements through which we organize, value, and fictionalize our existences? This festival proposes an encounter between traditional and experimental practices around science fiction and fantasy literature, where written, visual, performative, and sonic languages will coexist.

Activity program

Friday 27

4:00 pm — “CaminoS”: Performance on the Monstrous by Yisela Marroquín and Liz Cruz — Auditorium
A collective performance by two young women narrating the challenges they face for being women.

5:00 pm — Poetry Reading by Raggs, Arture Dávila, Salo Tomoe, La Alda, Ana Lucía Romero. Moderator: BPM — Auditorium
Beyond the structural conditions that shape racialized and gender-dissident bodies, their creative power to challenge common senses of beauty, reality, and normativity is undeniable. The invited authors will present metapoetic reflections, figurations of transition, and echoes of fantastic and fictional imaginaries, where disobedience to certain conservative traditions gives meaning to their writing.

7:00 pm — Science Fiction in Peru and Latin America with Alexis Iparraguirre. Moderators: Oscar Sandoval and Kevin Zavaleta. Organized by Oscar Sandoval — Auditorium
This conversation offers an analysis of the characteristics, tendencies, and principal themes explored in science fiction written by Peruvian and Latin American authors.

7:15 pm — Performative Presentation of the Fanzine “Apelo” by Jaime Prada — Sala Oquendo de Amat
A performative presentation of Apelo, based on a brilliant, glitter-filled reinterpretation of the African guardian spirit Zangbeto. The performance unfolds in two parts: first, the artist seductively interacts with a monstrously sexual version of Zangbeto, followed by the reading of a fragment from the fanzine.
Apelo narrates an introspective journey exploring the complex relationship of an individual emotionally wounded by a sexual monster, and the curious forms of healing they develop to regenerate themselves.

Saturday 28
2:00 pm — Malignant Creatures Workshop by Chris Luza — Room 2
Drawing from a selection of fantastic Peruvian stories, participants are invited to collectively imagine a series of characters and atmospheres shaped by the eerie and the terrifying. Each participant will take home a video documenting their creation, along with bibliographic materials on Latin American horror and fantastic literature. This is a theoretical–practical collaborative workshop requiring no prior knowledge, inviting participants to give form to their fears, anxieties, and terrors.

4:00 pm — Public and Open Session of the Fantastic Literature Circle — Auditorium
This session’s thematic axis is Monstrous Governments.

4:30 pm — Screening of the VR Short Film Entre mundos by Cristina Portocarrero (Ehua) — Room 2
The artist from Iquitos, Cristina Portocarrero, will present the creation and postproduction process of her virtual reality project Entre mundos.

5:30 pm — Terror in Motion — Auditorium
A public sharing of everyday horror stories for Day of the Dead.

6:30 pm — “RIMAK”: Performance of the Poetry Collection (A)post-illa by Sandra Trakanonimx — Sala Oquendo de Amat
Performative and audiovisual presentation of the historical fiction poetry collection (A)post-illa.

Sunday 29

2:00 pm — Second Session of the Malignant Creatures Workshop by Chris Luza — Room 2

3:30 pm — Editorial Projects in Fantastic Literature with Tania Huerta, José Donayre, Carlos Echevarría, and Oscar Sandoval — Auditorium
A conversation on the experiences of Peruvian publishers in the dissemination of fantastic literature.

4:00 pm — Hyperliterature and Digital Writing Workshop by Roberto Valdivia (@hiperpoesia) — Room 2
A historical and aesthetic overview of technological intervention in new forms of digital writing.

6:00 pm — Disputing Visual Imaginaries: Fantastic Interventions in the Visual Work of @ultrafrantasias and @nietodelasbrujas — Sala Oquendo de Amat
In recent years, the visual inquiries of Andi García (aka @andigar_) and Shañu Leon Perez (aka @nietodelasbrujas) have documented how dissident experiences of the cis-heteronorm are increasingly common realities. Historically, imaginaries around bodies like theirs have been confined to the realm of the fantastic due to the regime of terror imposed by cis-heteronormative hegemony, which denies the vitality of sex-gender diversities by associating them with illness and misfortune.
This portfolio presentation examines how Shañu and Andi’s visual work challenges and reconfigures imaginaries of health and well-being for those who dissent from sex and gender norms.