In Ayacucho, on a small indian market high in the central Peruvian Andes, I finally found what I had been looking for. And a lot more than that. Out of fear of numerous faces staring down from the wall the maid of my Lima hotel refused to clean my room.
Edwin Pizarro's Masks are powerful, too much so for some!

The masks are molded out of a single piece of goat hide which is partly shaven to suggest skin and eyes. The leather hides are carefully selected and then positioned to mold serene faces of men animals, each with a unique and powerful appearance.

"One of the biggest problems is finding high quality hides. The fur structure and color have to be right and misscuts or holes instantly make the material useless. ," says Edwin while critically examening a rare skin of half-sheep half-goat breed. "These are very seldomly in good condition."

Ayacucho famous for it's 33 historic churches and huge Eastern celebrations is the traditional center of arts and crafts in Peru. Today, however, Peruvians mainly remember the region for being the birthground of the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla movement. Ayacucho became the most feared and isolated part of Peru but also the champion in preserving regional traditions. Even though then president Fujimori largely halted the guerrilla after a long and bloody campaign wounds are still fresh and deep.

Not surprisingly in Lima some Peruvian friends tried to discourage me from visiting Ayacucho claiming it could be dangerous. At my arrival however I found the people, far from being dangerous, very respectful and friendly and after meeting Edwin I decided to stay for a couple of weeks. Daily I visited his house and walked up to higher mountain ranges in search for fresh grass with the family's sheep herd.

"I prefer working in the open air overlooking the valley and mountains to sitting in my dark workshop", says Edwin while instinctively garding the animals. "I couldn't make my art work without the inspiration of the surrounding nature."

Edwin is the second youngest of five artistic brothers one of who was dragged out of his bed by the military without explanation over ten years ago to never return.

"I remember wandering through the mountains with my mother searching for my older brother. The poverty I witnessed in the mountain communities during this time I can never forget. On the streets and squares in town we saw almost daily corpses of men killed by guerrilla or military. " he says visably moved.The new road built by Fujimori has taken Ayacucho partly out of its isolation but poverty and food shortage is still a huge problem in the region."

Naturally these harsh conditions have strongly influenced Edwin's art. He was one of the first to very recently revive the traditional craft of making Shaman Masks from goat leather. The government who feared the use of masks by terrorists, completely banned the use and making of masks, in the process almost destroying a century old spiritual tradition.

"These days masks are mostly used for carnaval but a few decades ago they were more used for Shaman rituals. In these rituals the masks served to catch the Apu, the spirits of the Andes."

In the ancient Andes as in most ancient cultures, the Shaman, linked the celestial to the terrestrial and the gods to man. This tradition has survived in many parts of the world and even in the most notable of modern religions, in Christianity with the Pope and in Tibetan Buddhism with the Dalai Lama.
Parallels can be drawn between the Shaman and the artist in the XXth century who, as a visionary becomes a revealer of what lies beyond what the eye perceives and the mind can conceive.