DOS CUERPOS <BETWEEN CYBORG AND SPIRIT>
Curated by Daniel Arturo Almeida
May 11 - June 8, 2024
Laundromat Art Space
185 NE 59 street, Miami FL 33137
Opening Reception:
May 11
Performance activation with special guests
May 30, 7-10PM
Closing Reception
June 8, 7-9PM
Roxana Barba’s solo exhibition derives from two bodies of work, encoding Andean cosmology and cyborgian desire, resulting in body-responsive installations, video-performance, and photo collage. For Barba, this desire is “a yearning to become a hybrid being capable of mending imbalances between species to build networks of equilibrium.”
Informed by eight years of experience choreographing and directing multimedia stage performances, ‘Dos Cuerpos’ draws from her latest pieces: ‘Apuntes Americanos-Kanay’ (2022-2023), awarded a 2019 Knight Arts Challenge, and ‘In my center a Cyborg Seed’ (to be premiered in 2024), awarded a 2022 Knight New Work and a NALAC Fund for the Arts grant.
In the exhibition, bodies covered in mud, germinating rituals, and illustrations of the ancestreal Pallar Moche legume are composed into grids referencing Paracas’ burial textiles depicting interspecies iconography. A modular spider platform nests Barba’s body, serpentining to the rhythm of a weaving loom. Gleaming chakanas project the plundering of sacred Huacas to resurface a world of ancestral wisdom, delinked from its place of origin.
Special thanks to Laundromat Art Space, Lili(ana), Rodrigo Arcaya, Lorenzo Bordonaro, David Correa, Marco Herrera, Freddy Jouyayed, Andrés Ibarra, Claudio Marcotulli, Pablo Matute, Rafael Nuñez, Julia Zurilla, James L. Knight Foundation, National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC), US Latinx Art Forum and Correlación Contemporaea.
<PERFORMANCE ACTIVATION WITH SPECIAL GUESTS>
May 30, 7-10PM
Laundromat Art Space
185 NE 59 street, Miami FL 33137
Photo by Peterley Dorcius
This one-time activation with special guests will transform the gallery and parking lot with dance and video, mobilizing performance excerpts and explorations from the stage to the gallery. This evening places the spotlight on Barba’s dance collaborators, who play a key role in the creative process behind the two performance works referenced in ‘Dos Cuerpos.’
Thursday, May 30:
7:30, 8:15, 9:00 and 9:30pm.
<PROGRAM>
Apuntes Americanos-Kanay, 2023 (excerpt)
Briana Mendez & Enrique Villacreces
Tela de araña, 2024 (body-responsive installation)
Roxana Barba
Exploration towards In my center, a cyborg seed, 2024
Lize Lotte-Pitlo & Britney Tokumoto
Parking lot finale
Lize-Lotte Pitlo, Briana Mendez, Britney Tokumoto, Enrique Villacreces and Roxana Barba
*Wall-cast videos: Esperando la lluvia, 2024
Lize-Lotte Pitlo is a contemporary dance artist based in Miami. She has performed with Jonah Boker, Roxana Barba, Pioneer Winter, Jenny Larsson, Sung Young Kim, Lazaro Godoy, among others. Her choreography has been commissioned by Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film, PAXy and Broward College Dance. Lotte will be performing in In my center, a cyborg seed at Mad Arts in the fall of 2024.
Briana Mendez is a local Miami based mover. She is excited to continue this exploration with Roxana, Lotte, Enrique and Britney. Briana has performed in Apuntes Americanos in Lima, Peru (2022), Wilmington, North Carolina and Miami, Florida (2023).
Britney Tokumoto is a dancer from Honolulu, Hawaii. She performs with Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre in Miami, FL. Britney is part of the cast of In my center, a cyborg seed, to be presented at Mad Arts in the fall of 2024.
Enrique Villacreses is a Miami-based dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. His works have been supported by Inter-American Choreographic Institute, Dance Canvas, Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, Miami Light Project, and Pérez Art Museum Miami. Enrique performed in Apuntes Americanos-Kanay (2023) at the Koubek Center in Miami, Florida.