"El Mexorcist" possesses DIA

Performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena discussed identity and disparities in status quo U.S. culture in his solo narrative performance "El Mexorcist" Friday evening at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Gomez-Pena, a MacArthur Grant fellow and contributor to NPR, asked questions of identity to a responsive audience.

"Who has hired a migrant worker?" Gomez-Pena asked.

 "How many of you ever fantasized about being of another race?"

One audience member fantasized of being a Native American because her mother was part Native American; another mused of being Latina because she "grew up in a Muslim family and wanted to wear a short skirt."

The dialogue also included Gomez-Pena ruminating about a Cinco de Mayo performance in Virginia where he performed between a mariachi band and a salsa band - "a border sandwich," Gomez-Pena said.

 "The most impactful work happens in conservative areas," Gomez-Pena said. "We can really test the efficacy of our own practice."

Gomez-Pena also brought troupe La Pocha Nostra including artists Roberto Sifuentes, Rene Garcia and Violeta Luna to perform the piece "Mapa Corpo" Saturday and Sunday evening.

Sifuentes said "Mapa Corpo" is about colonization of the body.

Gomez-Pena, Sifuentes, Garcia, and Luna create a poetic interactive ritual that explores neo-colonization and de-colonization through music and spoken-word. The act takes place behind acupuncture back lit with video-projection.

Gomez-Pena does incredible live imaging with five cameras, Sifuentes said, and  the technology is layered and incorporated.

"It gives [the audience] opportunity to be close and watch the acupuncturist or be further away," Sifuentes said.

The piece has been performed all over the globe including Latin America, Europe, and Canada.

"We've performed it above the Arctic Circle in Norway," Sifuentes said.

"Our audiences are extremely tender and caring and identify with the ritualistic aspect of the piece."

"For some, it is a cathartic experience," Garcia said.

"We've done highly scripted and very text-based formal work," Sifuentes said.

But pieces that are multilingual interactivity have been a more useful tool, Sifuentes said.

"Xenophobia and nationalism expands and contracts and are intricately tied together,” Garcia said.

"It's always existed and will for a long time.

“The art that La Pocha Nostra produces attempts to address it in a way that is more open dialogue."

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Verify you are human:

Enter the characters in the image above: