Decolonizing Projects
movidas of the zero point
with Mujer Artista Collective, Winnipeg
In late 2014, Cecilia Araneda (filmmaker, curator) and Praba Pilar (interdisciplinary artist), informally met with Monica Martinez (visual artist) in Winnipeg to talk about our experiences as Latin women artists working in the Prairies of Canada. Over time, Araneda and Pilar emerged as the minders of the process. The group expanded to involve more artists, including dancers Alexandra Garrido, Camila Schujman and Ilse Torres; visual artists Carolina Araneda and Francesca Carella; and artist Mariana Muñoz. We also connected with other Latin women artists who did not formally enter the collective, but provided us with a heightened awareness that the community of Latin women art practitioners exists much more deeply in the Prairies than we were initially led to believe.
For our collective exhibition at Ace Gallery, I created Movidas of the Zero Point (video installation, 2017). This work reflects on Colombian writer Santiago Castro-Gómez’s concept of the ‘hubris of the zero point’ through sharing hemisphere-wide Indigenous resistance to ecocide, particularly the protection of water, as a common objective that transcends differences of locality and language.
Mapping Identity: A Decolonizing Arts Practices Project
Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Arts Gallery and Ndinawe Youth Resource Center. Curated by: Becca Taylor, Canada Council Aboriginal Curator in Residence. Additional funding provided by Thomas Sill Foundation and Ndinawe Youth Resource Center.
Youth participants: Tanis, Creelyn, Marcus, Michelle, Veronica, Ivania, Darian, Royce. Additional engagement and support from Transitional School Teacher Sandra Costa.
Mapping Identity: A Decolonizing Arts Practices Project was a youth art workshop designed and led by interdisciplinary artist Praba Pilar, with help and participation from Becca Taylor, Sandra Costa, and other staff at the Transitional School of the Ndinawe Youth Resource Center.
The project provided a space for urban Aboriginal youth in Winnipeg to reflect on who and where they are so as to imagine more creatively where they can go, to rupture stereotypical ideas about them, and to be understood on their own terms.
We explored artistic concepts of mapping of identity, working through mind maps, land maps, conceptual maps, collage and digital media to construct maps of their histories, their current lives, their family and friends, their community and their migration. Ultimately, we built knowledge of community constructed strategies to develop agency, resilience and strength by creating artworks that opened up a richer expression and a fuller understanding.
Though over a dozen youth participated in the workshop over the months of the project, we collectively developed an exhibition from works made by youth that had been most involved. Praba Pilar made two videos - one explaining the process and the other including works by all of the other youth that were not in the exhibition. Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery's preparator Theo Pelmus worked with the youth over multiple days to install the exhibition themselves. After completing an overall design, selecting placement, designing the lighting, the youth added words, footprints and lines made out of vinyl to map the gallery itself. We hosted a private opening with family, friends and community before opening the show to the public.
MY ANACONDACOLOMBIA DON'T: A NOTECARD CONFESSIONAL
"my anacondacolombia don't: a notecard confessional" is a live 'notecard confessional' that I performed at Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada on January 22, 2016. I uploaded documentation to Youtube, where 'notecard confessionals' proliferate.
This piece reflects on diaspora and on migration from Colombia, which has had the world's longest continuous internal war. This war has caused the displacement of over 5 million people.
dirty cochinas of the americas
Working with Luna.
performed at Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada on January 22, 2016
This piece reflects on our experience as Mestizas - she from Chile, the desert, the Southern Cone - and I from Colombia, the Caribbean coasts, the Andes mountains.
Under Construction.