Thu November 6, 2014
Performance by Guillermo Gomez-Pena
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at UCSC Digital Arts Research Center
(see times)
Guillermo Gomez-Pena is a performance artist, writer, activist, radical pedagogue and director of the performance troupe La Pocha Nostra. Born in 1955 and raised in Mexico City, Gomez-Pena came to the US in 1978. His work, which includes performance art, video, audio, installations, poetry, journalism, and cultural theory, explores cross-cultural issues, immigration, the politics of language, "extreme culture" and new technologies in the era of globalization. His artwork has been presented at over eight hundred venues across the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Russia, South Africa and Australia. A MacArthur Fellow, Bessie and American Book Award winner, he is a regular contributor for newspapers and magazines in the US, Mexico, and Europe and a contributing editor to The Drama Review (NYU-MIT).
Imaginary Activism: The role of the artist beyond the art world
In recent years, Gomez-Pena has explored two distinct territories in his solo work: The ongoing re-writing and re-enactment of some of his classic performances (he calls this his "living archive"Â), and writing and testing brand new material dealing with radical citizenship and what he terms "imaginary activism." In both cases, the artist's unique format for revealing to an audience the process of creating, languaging and performing material becomes the actual project.
Gomez-Pena has spent many years developing his unique solo style, "a combination of embodied poetry, performance activism and theatricalizations of postcolonial theory." In his ten books, as in his live performances (with his troupe La Pocha Nostra), digital art, videos and photo-performances, he pushes the boundaries still further, exploring what's left for artists to do in a repressive global culture of censorship, paranoid nationalism and what he terms "the mainstream bizarre." Gomez-Pena examines where this leaves the critical practice of artists who aim to make tactical, performative interventions into our notions of culture, race and sexuality.
show less
Imaginary Activism: The role of the artist beyond the art world
In recent years, Gomez-Pena has explored two distinct territories in his solo work: The ongoing re-writing and re-enactment of some of his classic performances (he calls this his "living archive"Â), and writing and testing brand new material dealing with radical citizenship and what he terms "imaginary activism." In both cases, the artist's unique format for revealing to an audience the process of creating, languaging and performing material becomes the actual project.
Gomez-Pena has spent many years developing his unique solo style, "a combination of embodied poetry, performance activism and theatricalizations of postcolonial theory." In his ten books, as in his live performances (with his troupe La Pocha Nostra), digital art, videos and photo-performances, he pushes the boundaries still further, exploring what's left for artists to do in a repressive global culture of censorship, paranoid nationalism and what he terms "the mainstream bizarre." Gomez-Pena examines where this leaves the critical practice of artists who aim to make tactical, performative interventions into our notions of culture, race and sexuality.
Guillermo Gomez-Pena is a performance artist, writer, activist, radical pedagogue and director of the performance troupe La Pocha Nostra. Born in 1955 and raised in Mexico City, Gomez-Pena came to the US in 1978. His work, which includes performance art, video, audio, installations, poetry, journalism, and cultural theory, explores cross-cultural issues, immigration, the politics of language, "extreme culture" and new technologies in the era of globalization. His artwork has been presented at over eight hundred venues across the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Russia, South Africa and Australia. A MacArthur Fellow, Bessie and American Book Award winner, he is a regular contributor for newspapers and magazines in the US, Mexico, and Europe and a contributing editor to The Drama Review (NYU-MIT).
Imaginary Activism: The role of the artist beyond the art world
In recent years, Gomez-Pena has explored two distinct territories in his solo work: The ongoing re-writing and re-enactment of some of his classic performances (he calls this his "living archive"Â), and writing and testing brand new material dealing with radical citizenship and what he terms "imaginary activism." In both cases, the artist's unique format for revealing to an audience the process of creating, languaging and performing material becomes the actual project.
Gomez-Pena has spent many years developing his unique solo style, "a combination of embodied poetry, performance activism and theatricalizations of postcolonial theory." In his ten books, as in his live performances (with his troupe La Pocha Nostra), digital art, videos and photo-performances, he pushes the boundaries still further, exploring what's left for artists to do in a repressive global culture of censorship, paranoid nationalism and what he terms "the mainstream bizarre." Gomez-Pena examines where this leaves the critical practice of artists who aim to make tactical, performative interventions into our notions of culture, race and sexuality.
read more
Imaginary Activism: The role of the artist beyond the art world
In recent years, Gomez-Pena has explored two distinct territories in his solo work: The ongoing re-writing and re-enactment of some of his classic performances (he calls this his "living archive"Â), and writing and testing brand new material dealing with radical citizenship and what he terms "imaginary activism." In both cases, the artist's unique format for revealing to an audience the process of creating, languaging and performing material becomes the actual project.
Gomez-Pena has spent many years developing his unique solo style, "a combination of embodied poetry, performance activism and theatricalizations of postcolonial theory." In his ten books, as in his live performances (with his troupe La Pocha Nostra), digital art, videos and photo-performances, he pushes the boundaries still further, exploring what's left for artists to do in a repressive global culture of censorship, paranoid nationalism and what he terms "the mainstream bizarre." Gomez-Pena examines where this leaves the critical practice of artists who aim to make tactical, performative interventions into our notions of culture, race and sexuality.
show less
Date/Times:
UCSC Digital Arts Research Center
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
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