Political Bodies: Performance, art and activism
// Photos allowed // Step-free access
EVENT
The film: 100 Ways To Cross The Border
A daring, self-reflexive performative documentary on the extraordinary Mexican/Chicanx performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña's 40-year career of radical artistic practice alongside his international troupe La Pocha Nostra. At a time when the mainstream media is filled with demonizing stories about the US-Mexico border, the film presents the philosophical frameworks of an artist with a sustained dedication to highly impactful, innovative artistic interventions on that border, and presents a unique portrait of his beloved troupe La Pocha Nostra on the road for three years. Featuring exclusive footage from his personal archive, Gómez-Peña enacts his artistic interventions by reclaiming and "queering the border" as a laboratory for utopian ideas and artistic experimentation.
The panel:
While the line between activism and art have always been blurry, that overlap is even more explicit in performance art. They both often utilize the body as a powerful tool and seek to disrupt the status quo.
Besides, both forms of expression have the potential to create spaces for collective empowerment and community engagement, often by highlighting the actors’ lived experiences and advocating for social justice.
Inspired by the documentary, we would like to have a conversation about the ways that art can be used as part of the activism practice, talking to performance artists about how they view their practice in the context of activism.
Panelists:
Suziethecockroach - a Brazilian transdisciplinary artist based in Copenhagen. They work within the mediums of performance art, writing, and music. The core of their work revolves around transiting between hyper-visibility and secrecy, and they are largely interested in exploring intimacy and trust as they dance around the eternal question of what it takes for something to be real.
Evita Kedavra - the drag queen brain child of Sako Dersahagian. Sako is a fashion designer with an MA from the Royal Danish Academy. And Evita is the winner of MX Draghouse 2021 and Pride hostess 2022. Their collective work spans around identity, camp and the immigrant experience.
Klara Lopéz - a Copenhagen based multidisciplinary contemporary performance artist, currently studying at the Royal academy of fine arts. Her practice explores boundaries of the body, radical vulnerability, and new media, through Performance, sculpture, sound and installation.
Moderator:
Haena Laura Na - a journalist, visual anthropologist and educator who works at the intersection of media and grassroots activism. Her work is informed by a commitment to turning the tide on a range of contemporary social injustices. She has worked behind the camera, in the radio studio, and as a communication advisor for social justice groups in and outside Denmark. Her work has been featured in Danish Broadcasting Company, 24syv, VICE and she has taught at Universities and art schools in Denmark and abroad.
// The panel will be held inside the cinema after the screening of ‘100 Ways To Cross The Border’