{"id":57587,"date":"2007-03-02T12:49:53","date_gmt":"2007-03-02T18:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=57587"},"modified":"2023-11-04T14:32:42","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T20:32:42","slug":"rites-of-democracy-the-pickle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/rites-of-democracy-the-pickle\/","title":{"rendered":"Rites of Democracy\u00a0@ the Pickle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Later this month, Salt Lake City’s The Pickle Company\u00a0will host a week of events with internationally known Latino artists.\u00a0Rites of Democracy<\/i>, held March 17th through the 21st, will feature the U.S.\/Mexican Performance Art Troupe La Pocha Nostra, which includes Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a, Roberto Sifuentes, and Violeta Luna.<\/p>\n

Raised in Mexico City, G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a, the first Chicano artist to be awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“Genius Award,” 1991), has blazed new paths for experimental performance. His 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.<\/p>\n

In 1993, G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a helped found La Pocha Nostra, a multidisciplinary arts organization, based in San Francisco\u2019s Mission District, which views performance as an effective catalyst for thought, debate, and public dialogue. La Pocha Nostra specializes in performances about globalization and inter-cultural identity, believing that crossing borders on the stage may be the first step to crossing them in larger social spheres. “To us,” La Pocha Nostra’s mission statement reads, “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 \u2018Art World.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

La Pocha Nostra will bring this philosophy of art as activism to Salt Lake. G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and La Pocha Nostra core members Roberto Sifuentes, an interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles who graduated from Trinity College, and actress and performance artist, Violeta Luna, will conduct a three-day, hands-on workshop at the Pickle Company, exploring performance art as a form of radical democracy.<\/p>\n

The workshop begins with a performance of the groups riveting ,\u00a0Mapa\/Corpo: Oppositional Rites for a Borderless Society<\/i>, on Saturday, March 17th at 8pm. An interactive performance installation developed in response to the post-9\/11 “era of terror,”\u00a0Mapa\/Corpo<\/i>\u00a0is a living diorama that explores the current occupation of Iraq through a symbolic mapping of the human figure. This poetic, multimedia work examines the body as occupied territory, inviting the audience to participate in a ritualistic process of decolonization. La Pocha Nostra began workshopping\u00a0Mapa\/Corpo<\/i>\u00a0in 2003, immediately after the invasion of Iraq. This particular version, perhaps the most complex to date, was developed in Dublin and London. Featuring G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a, Roberto Sifuentes, and Violeta Luna in collaboration with local artists and audience members, Mapa\/Corpo is constantly alive and evolving. (to view a previous performance\u00a0click here<\/a>; warning: this video contains nudity)<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a: Sophisticated Seduction<\/i>, Carol Becker has written that “Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a\u2019s work navigates the contested terrain known as the US\/Mexican border. By telling a story of realities, he acts as a warrior in transnational identity and immigration issues. As El Mexorcist G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a assaults the construction of the US\/Mexican border that is lined with Minute Men, rising nativism, three ply fences, globalization, and transnational identities.”<\/p>\n

Rites of Democracy<\/i>\u00a0will continue to explore issues of borders and multi-culturalism Sunday the 18th at 2pm with\u00a0An Afternoon of Video Graffiti and Spoken Word Roulette with Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a\u00a0<\/i>at the SLC Film Center. G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a will be presenting selections from\u00a0Ethno-techno: Los videograffitis.\u00a0<\/i>In this project, the artist\u00a0<\/i>invited film and videomaker colleagues from around the world to re-envision his own performance works through a collaborative editing process. \u201cEthno-techno\u2026\u201d is a conceptual DVD comprising over 40 performances created specifically for video. The videos were originally created to be shown as a media installation in the shape of a \u201cvideo Juke-box\u201d, and the user can retrieve them by author, title or subject matter. It\u2019s a complex multi-media piece involving 9 filmmakers and over 30 performance artists from around the world.<\/p>\n

La Pocha Nosta’s stay in Salt Lake will end with\u00a0Conceptual Lab of Hybrid Art and Critical Culture,<\/i>\u00a0a three-day community workshop on performance art as radical democracy, Monday, March 19 to Wednesday, March 21, 12 to 8 pm. Since 1993, G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and La Pocha Nostra have conducted innovative workshops that bridge cultures, generations, and disciplines to create \u201cephemeral communities of rebel artists.\u201d Drawing from multiple traditions, including experimental theatre and dance, ritual performance, and shamanism, this workshop will help participants develop a hybrid persona and a performance piece based on their own complex identities, personal aesthetics, and political tribulations.<\/p>\n

Designed to build bridges between marginalized cultures, this workshop will bring together a diverse group of community members and students in a deeply personal engagement with art and politics. No prior performance experience is required, but a great deal of willingness to experiment is fundamental. To register for the workshop, or for more information, please contact\u00a0info@thepicklecompany.org<\/a>\u00a0or call 801.450.8977.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Later this month, Salt Lake City’s The Pickle Company\u00a0will host a week of events with internationally known Latino artists.\u00a0Rites of Democracy, held March 17th through the 21st, will feature the U.S.\/Mexican Performance Art Troupe La Pocha Nostra, which includes Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a, Roberto Sifuentes, and Violeta Luna. Raised in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[3919],"class_list":["post-57587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-the-pickle-company"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Guillermo-Gomez-Pena.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 13:57:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70130,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57587\/revisions\/70130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}