TRASA's
Visual and Performance Art Program Rites of Democracy
March 17 – 21, 2007 (detailed schedule) TRASA urban arts collective and the Body Politic, in collaboration with the Student Association for Collaboration in the Arts (SACA), Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan (MEChA), and the Salt Lake City Film Center, are honored to present visionary artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his collaborators Roberto Sifuentes and Violeta Luna for a week of workshop, discussion, and performance, March 17 - 21, 2007. The first Chicano artist to be awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“Genius Award,” 1991), Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s powerful presence in the arts has helped clear new pathways for experimental performance. Through his performance art troupe La Pocha Nostra, Gómez-Peña is devoted to erasing the borders between art and politics, art practice and theory, artist and spectator.
Raised in Mexico City, Gómez-Peña’s pioneering work in performance, video, installation, poetry, journalism, cultural theory, and pedagogy explores globalization, cross-culturalism, immigration, and the politics of language. His work has been presented around the world, including recent exhibits at Tate Modern (London), the Guggenheim Museum (New York), LACMA (Los Angeles), the House of World Cultures (Berlin), MACBA (Barcelona), the Chopo Museum (Mexico City), the Encuentro Hemisferico (Lima, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte) and the Havana, Liverpool, and Mercosur Biennials. About the Artists
Among numerous fellowships and grants, Gómez-Peña was a recipient of the Prix de la Parole at the 1989 International Theatre of the Americas (Montreal), the 1989 New York Bessie Award, and the Los Angeles Music Center's 1993 Viva Los Artistes Award. In 1991, Gómez-Peña became the first Chicano/Mexicano artist to receive a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1991-1996). In 1995, he was included in The Utne Reader's "List of 100 Visionaries." In 1997, he received the American Book Award for his book New World Border. In 2000, he received the Cineaste Lifetime Achievement award from the Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival.
La Pocha Nostra is a multidisciplinary arts organization, based in San Francisco’s Mission District, which views performance as an effective catalyst for thought, debate, and public dialogue. Founded in 1993 by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes, and Nola Mariano, La Pocha Nostra specializes in performances about globalization and inter-cultural identity. www.pochanostra.com “If we learn to cross borders on stage, we may learn how to do so in larger social spheres. We hope others will be challenged to do the same. To us, the artist is above all, an active citizen immersed in the great debates of our times. Our place is in the world and not just the ‘Art World.’” (from La Pocha Nostra’s mission statement). About the Body Politic The Body Politic exists for collaborative investigation of the corporeal body as a political site. They address the body as both a reflection of social and political circumstances and as a source of empowerment and expressivity within our contemporary state of affairs. The Body Politic embraces multidisciplinary inquiry and activism, providing opportunities for shared learning using the body as physical, theoretical, and experiential grounds for collaborative exploration. |
For
25 years, Guillermo Gómez-Peña has
been exploring intercultural issues and border culture with the
use of mixed genres and experimental languages. Continually developing
multi-centric narratives and large-scale performance projects from
a border perspective, his performance, installation and video work
has been presented at over 700 venues across the U.S., Canada, Mexico,
Spain, Italy, the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Australia,
Russia, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, and
Argentina.
Roberto
Sifuentes is an interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles.
A graduate of Trinity College, he has toured with Guillermo Gómez-Peña
in performances, lectures, and installation projects throughout
the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Among their most recent collaborations
are: The Temple of Confessions, an interactive performance/installation
which opened at the Corcoran Gallery in October 1996; El Naftazteca:
Cyber-Aztec TV for 2000 AD, an interactive performance and art television
special broadcast to over 6 million homes; and The Dangerous Border
Game.
Performance
artist and actress Violeta Luna has collaborated
with La Pocha Nostra and Guillermo Gómez-Peña since
1998. Luna has participated with distinguished theatre directors
in different events in Mexico and in the United States. Her work
explores the relationship between theatre and performance. Born
in Mexico City, Luna studied at El Centro Universitario de Teatro,
UNAM and La Casa del Teatro.