List of artworks on this page (From above)
- First media: Video collage 1 of different moments that will be expanded through the exposition.
- Second media: Video collage made for the exhibition Myten om oberoende/laws and lies/mitos y mitas: The myth of In-[dependenc-y] / Independenc-yat Centrifug, 2023.
- Third media: La Dekoloniala! podcast, commissioned by Statens Konstråd, 2021
(image: Princess Jimenez Beltre and Rossana Mercado-Rojas)
In this exhibition, I expand the notions and practices of collective body-action intervention (dance, performance, happenings, etc.) as a method to strengthen embodied knowledge, an instigation to engage in restorative encounters, and an invitation to intervene and disrupt political biases of (public) spaces. These methodologies propose alternatives for knowledge exchange/production beyond hegemonic, Eurocentric education.
In parallel, I reflect on my own practice and the anti-patriarchal and decolonial feminist political basis of the collectives of which I am part. We[1] work with strategies and methodologies inspired by feminisms from the Global South, such as taking care of others as a practice that puts aside the patriarchal capitalist model of life that mainly separates, individualizes, prioritizes, and promotes competition and exploitation. We promote exchange, cooperation, and interdependence. I reflect on how these encounters summon the festive memory of our territories and the resilience of our* wounds.
Emotions of the bodies and the resistances will trigger our rituals in Abya Yala,[2] the flows and drifts will make this poetic-affective encounter, as will the skin itself.
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[1] We: Here I refer to collectivity in a broad sense in each case: We as the collectives of which I am part, we as women (cis, trans, nonbinary), we as immigrants, we as BIPOC, etc.
[2]Abya Yala: Self-determined name for the territories in the Global South, called ‘America’ as a result of the colonizing process
My recent practice has focused on sifting through the past to understand or ease the present, to sketch a possible future. This theme runs through my work, and can also be regarded as a personal, insightful journey through my colonial wound where I research and archive family memories, oral traditions, stories, photographs, clothes, objects, remains, and words to construct a contemporary, decolonized self. This process has expanded after moving to Europe and going through the process of migrating from a former colony.
As an artist working with(in) my body and voice, I critically think about being the subject and not the object for the artistic situation. Or embrace being both, considering my own broken history as a woman with indigenous Andean roots born in a former colony and having received a western education.
I dance because my body is forbidden to embody joy, to feel pleasure instead/in spite of trauma.
I dance because my body is forbidden to be loud
I dance because I live a liminal moment, where I can explode into different pieces, where I can feel community and togetherness instead/in spite of segregation.
I dance because when I do, I am not otherness anymore.
I dance to resist and occupy
I dance to disturb the snyggt och tryggt
I dance because I feel.
I dance because I am here.
I dance because I am forbidden to be
I dance because I conquer and demand reparations
I dance because I am not supposed to
I dance because when I do I can destroy correctness and creatively speak English, svenska y español.
I dance because my bones and muscles carry the stories that need to be told, but can not be told
