In June of 1972, informed by her growing interest in data, cybernetics, and biopolitics, Burga created the multidisciplinary self-portrait work Autorretrato. Estructura. Informe. 9.6.72 (Self Portrait. Structure. Report. 9.6.72), in which she collected her own medical record, ID cards, photographs, and other bureaucratic documents and presented the information via conceptual installations. In line with other concurrent threads of conceptualism at the time questioning authorship and subjectivity, Burga’s Autorretrato served as an illustration of the socio-political realities of the country: in particular, how standardized, regulated, and bureaucratic systems function as apparatuses for control and oppression––most saliently for women. In her installation, her heart rate is visualized via sound and a blinking red light on a horizontal beam and the proportions of her face are mapped out on a grid with precision, like a topographical map. By denouncing processes of standardization and measurement during the military regime of General Alvarado in Peru, Burga’s self-portrait work punctuates a critical moment in Latin American art history.
