Performance
CANCELED: Naomi Rincón Gallardo, The Formaldehyde Trip
Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Axolotl Healing Capsule from The Formaldehyde Trip, 2017.
Photo: Fabiola Torres Alzaga, courtesy of the artist.
‘The Formalydehyde Trip’ makes a mess of, celebrates, and toys with the predictable humanist construction of the animal as a contaminating threat to humanity.
—Xandra Ibarra, performance artist and curator
Quoted in ArtNews
What alternate futures can we imagine? What do they look and sound like? How does that dreaming shape how we deal with loss and violence in the past and the present, and our desire for change?
In a lush environment created through songs, video, and costumes, murdered Mixtec activist Alberta “Bety” Cariño goes on an imagined, psychedelic journey, where indigenous rights and speculative fictions wind together through the underworld.
This performance is presented mostly in Spanish, with some moments in English and German. English supertitles will be provided throughout the performance.
This performance was organized by Tara Aisha Willis, Associate Curator of Performance Programs.
Cuales alternativas nos podremos imaginar? Como aparecen y como los soñamos? Y este sueño, como da forma a la manera en que soportamos la perdida y la violencia del pasado y del presente? Cuales son nuestros deseos para cambiarlos?
En un ambiente deslumbrante creado con canciones, video, y vestuarios, esta producción nos presenta una narrativa psicodélica de la activista Mixteca Alberta “Bety” Carino quien fue asesinada. En esta trayectoria la imaginación nos guía en una aventura en que los derechos indígenas y la ficción especulativa se enredan juntos dentro de un inframundo.
Esta presentación se presenta principalmente en español, con algunos momentos en inglés y alemán. Se proporcionarán supertítulos en inglés durante la presentación.
Explore Further
-
In this psychedelic speculative fiction, Mexico City–based artist Naomi Rincón Gallardo has written and directed a cycle of songs and videos dedicated to murdered activist Alberta “Bety” Cariño, who defended indigenous territorial rights. The work is performed live with idiosyncratic and ornate props and costumes that echo Mexican B-side Sci-Fi films of the 1960s and 1970s, weaving together Mesoamerican cosmologies, decolonial feminist and queer perspectives, and lyrics addressing Indigenous women’s struggles against the background of the dispossession of their bodies, cultures, and territories.
On an imagined journey through the underworld, Cariño encounters women warriors, witches, and widows, the dual-gendered goddess of death, and animals preparing her rebirth party. An axolotl, or Mexican salamander, in formaldehyde is the storyteller, agitating between fact, fiction, and friction as sounds and voices from the past lurk into the future.
Vocals are performed by Danishta Rivero, David Katz, and San Cha; music composed and produced by Federico Schmucler with vocal effect processing and sound co-arrangements by David Molina.
En esta ficción especulativa y psicodélica, la artista Naomi Rincón Gallardo, desde la Ciudad de México, ha escribido y dirigido un ciclo de canciones y videos dedicados a la activista asesinada Alberta “Bety” Cariño, quien defendida los derechos territoriales indígenas. La obra es realizada en vivo con utilerías idiosincrásicas y ornamentadas, referencias al cine mexicano de ciencia ficción de los 60s y 70s, enrollando juntos cosmologías mesoamericanas, perspectivas feministas y queer descolonizadas, y letras que abordan a las luchas de mujeres indígenas sobre el fondo del desposeimiento de sus cuerpos, culturas, y territorios.
Por un trayecto imaginada a través del inframundo, Cariño se encuentra a guerreras, brujas, y viudas, la deidad de la muerte de ambos sexos, y animales preparando su fiesta de retorno. Un axolotl preservado en formol juega el papel de narrador, agitando entre hechos, ficciones y fricciones durante que sonidos y voces del pasado cantan hacia el futuro.
Carousel: Gallery - Full Size Images
Notes
-
This performance contains strobe lighting and sexually suggestive costumes, gestures, and language.
Esta produccion contiene luces estroboscópicas y disfraces, gestos y lenguaje sexualmente sugerentes.
About the Artist
Naomi Rincón Gallardo is a Mexico City–based artist, currently residing in Vienna. Understanding research as an artful and transdisciplinary fabrication, Rincón Gallardo’s work addresses initiatives related to the creation of counterworlds in neocolonial settings. She uses masquerade lenses and absurdity to create a place between radical utopian experiences, fantasy, and crises of beliefs. Rincón Gallardo integrates her interest in music, theater games, DIY aesthetics, speculative fiction, intersectional feminisms, queer theory, and critical pedagogy into her work. Alongside her artistic work, she has been involved in both teaching and coordinating. She has been a member of the cuir-feminist colective, Invasorix, since 2013.
