The Series

TRAILER

How do you object with affection, and complain with humor?

We want to express the illogical affection we feel towards the chaos of Lima, a city imbedded with a rich informal charisma.

In 2005, a group of artists met to discuss the problems Lima is facing as Peru’s burgeoning capital city. The artists were all interested in finding different ways of expressing the transformation Lima was/is going through, and to define their own personal relationship with this city in motion. Among the artists present were Evelyn Merino-Reyna, Vania Masias, Alex Ureña, Ignacio Benavides, Alfonso Casabonne, Susana Holes and Mariana Tschudi. At one of their meetings it occurred to Alfonso Casabonne that they should call themselves" El Síndrome de esto es el colmo ". (“This is an outrage Syndrome”, in Spanish, a word play on ‘Stockholm Syndrome’).

The Stockholm syndrome is the psychological condition in which the hostage shows signs of fondness towards the hostage-taker. With the pun of “Sindrome de-esto-es-el-colmo”, we suggest that although we sometimes object to the chaos and informality of Lima, we just can’t live without it. We complain about the taxi-driver who cuts through four lanes with the hand on his horn and then stops wherever he sees a potential customer… but then how comfortable to be able to stop a taxi from door of your house. We complain about the suicidal minibuses, they cut you off and will not hesitate to run you over, they discharge something that makes your lungs go black and the city go grey… but then how nice to be able to go anywhere in the city with just 1 Solsito in your pocket. We complain about the informality, the constant price haggling, deals being made under the table… but how satisfying to be able to go to Wilson Ave. and buy the new Microsoft Windows operating system at a fraction of its store prices, or to get DVD’s of still unreleased movies. In short, it is an outrage… but we love it. By creating “SINDROME DE-ESTO-ES-EL-COLMO”, the web-series, Mariana Tschudi, Franziska Agrawal and Katja Kulenkampff have given the “Sindrome-de-esto-es-el-colmo”, the group, its first creative outlet.

As a series intended to be viewed on the web, our objective is to create something that is accessible to a worldwide audience, something that is exclusively developed and controlled by its creators. We want to tell you the story of Lima, it’s people and superstitions as it is: outrageously chaotic.