The documentary “Salaryman”, by the Costa Rican artist Allegra Pacheco, is exhibited at renowned international festivals in cities such as Ohio, New York and Tokyo. Among them are the Harlem International Film Festival, the Latino International Film Festival and the Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival.
The production explores the lives of office workers and arises after the artist’s first visit to Tokyo, where she was disturbed by seeing the dark side of the legendary work ethic in that country.
Documentation, interviews and animation are part of the film, which begins as a street art project and evolves into a deeper exploration of Japanese work culture, the role of women in this dynamic, and the effect on the families of wage earners.
Pacheco combines performing arts and a punk documentary ethic to raise awareness of the emotional cost of overwork, revealing ways that wage earners, across cultures, can find escape and healing.
Multidisciplinary Costa Rican artist
Pacheco is a multidisciplinary Costa Rican artist known primarily for her works in painting and photography, and also, but less frequently, sculpture and installation. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the Wimbledon Faculty of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York and her work is present at the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Massaveu Foundation (Madrid) and the Takeo Obayashi collection (Tokyo ).
This year Pacheco was chosen for the special “DVF Woman in Charge” by Diane von Fürstenberg, the prominent Belgian-American fashion designer known for her famous crossover dresses.
In 2012, Pacheco had her first installation exhibition “Boobs”, a series of soft sculptures in the shape of women’s breasts made in collaboration with marginalized women from La Carpio. The exhibition space was set up with the innocence of a playground, but at the same time it served as a platform for feminist and sexuality questions in the midst of an impartial museography. This same year she won second place in Valoarte, a Costa Rican contest of great national relevance.
In 2013, Pacheco participated in the AIT art residency in Tokyo where she exhibited her work in a solo show at Gallery MoMo and a group show at Yamamoto Gendai, two prominent galleries on the contemporary art scene in Japan. In 2014, Allegra’s first photography book, titled “88 Days in Japan”, was published by Editorial Germinal, debuting at the Salon du Livre.
Also in Japan, she has exhibited in the leading galleries Tomio Koyama Gallery, Shugo Arts and Take Ishi Gallery; in London at the London Newcastle and Lamb Arts galleries; as well as ARTMAD in Spain and the New York Photo Festival and SCOPE Art Fair in the United States. Simultaneously, Allegra has been a photography retoucher for major companies such as Gloss in New York, Dtouch in Paris.
