Relief

Performance
Living Architecture
6018|North and Art Design Chicago
Chicago, United States. 2018




 
In this performance, I sought to establish intimate contact with the audience to sensibilize towards the crisis in Venezuela originated by the Chavista dictatorship, and the leading cause of massive migration movements out of the country in recent years. I took my shirt off and used an emergency blanket to create a bowl in my abdomen. Placing Venezuelan corn meal in it, I asked the participants to make an arepa dough by mixing it with water I poured over myself. Then, we made arepas and grilled them on a portable stove. The arepas were shared among all those who attended.

This project was commissioned for the show Living Architecture, in which immigrant artists started a dialogue with the local Chicago Architecture, a significant part of the legacy of many immigrant workers. In Relief, I responded to architect and sculptor Richard Bock’s reliefs built in the Tree Studios building. I wanted to express what it means to a Venezuelan immigrant artist to be in the United States today, after the UN Refugee Agency recommended to consider the Venezuelan diaspora as refugees.
More info: https://design.newcity.com/2018/08/30/living-architecture-breathes-new-life-into-the-immigrant-histories-of-chicago/