Teresa Burga (1935–2021) was born in Iquitos, Peru. A pioneer of Conceptualism in Latin America, Burga’s practice encompassed drawing, painting, sculpture, and displays of analytical data and experimental research. She studied at the School of Visual Arts at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and contributed significantly to the local avant-garde beginning in the mid-1960s. In 1966, Burga formed part of the group Arte Nuevo (New Art), a collective of artists dedicated to advancing the genres of Pop, minimalism, Op Art, and happenings in Peru.

Burga’s figurative paintings and works on paper incorporate mass media iconography and commercial aesthetics into psychically charged compositions, often focused on women and accompanied by bold, colorful geometric patterns. Questioning traditional artistic authorship, in 1968 she devised a series of reconfigurable sculptures emblazoned with graphic signs and recognizable icons, which were meant to be produced by anyone following schematic diagrams and rearranged according to play and chance.

Traveling to the United States in 1968 on a Fulbright scholarship, Burga studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There, she began to incorporate data sets and photographic documentation into her work. In other projects, like Pictures With a Limited Time (1970) and Work That Disappears When the Spectator Tries to Approach It (1970), Burga proposed immersive situations in which spectators activate the environment through the use of their own bodies.

In 1971, Burga returned to an authoritarian Peru, under the military rule of Juan Velasco Alvarado. Facing a repressive regime which did not favor Conceptual art, she pursued a career in Peru’s General Customs Office, where she worked as an official for three decades, designing solutions to enhance administrative efficiency in digital information systems. Burga continued to make work that reflected the sociopolitical realities of the country: in particular, how standardized, regulated, and bureaucratic systems function as apparatuses for control and oppression––most saliently for women. Autorretrato. Estructura. Informe, 9.6.1972 (1972), for example, consists of a thorough portrait of Burga’s own body illustrated through medical reports, an audio simulation of her heartbeat, photographs, and various diagrams outlining biological data. Following a similar conceptual vein, in 1980 Burga developed Perfil de la muter Peruana (Profile of the Peruvian Woman) (1980–81), an ambitious large-scale research project and installation. For the project, in collaboration with sociologist Marie-France Cathelat, Burga interviewed 290 women in Lima and recorded statistical data about their height, weight, religious identities, and political affiliations, among other categories, and displayed the findings using conceptual visual representations like a mannequin, a jigsaw puzzle, and various drawings.