
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Media Contacts: Laurie Mellas, 277-5915, lmellas@unm.edu
Sari Krosinsky, 277-1593, michal@unm.edu
September 20, 2007
UNM Presidential Inauguration Symposium to Explore Social Activism in Art
As part of a series of symposia leading up to the installation of David Schmidly as the University of New Mexico’s 20th president, the College of Fine Arts, College of Arts and Sciences and University Libraries present “Connecting the Arts, Humanities and Social Conscience” at 2 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 1, in Rodey Theatre, UNM Center for the Arts.
The symposium features a keynote address by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, director and founder of La Pocha Nostra, an international nonprofit organization which fosters collaboration in socially-transformative, experimental performance art.
UNM faculty panelists include Holly Barnet-Sanchez, associate professor, Department of Art and Art History, Teresa Eckmann, postdoctoral fellow, Center for Regional Studies in the Center for Southwest Research, Miguel Gandert, professor, Department of Communications and Journalism, Brian Herrera, assistant professor, Department of Theatre and Dance, and Gabriel Melendez, professor, Department of American Studies.
Based in San Francisco, La Pocha has associates across the U.S., Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia and many other countries. Collaborating across national borders and artistic disciplines, La Pocha artists produce projects ranging from solos to large-scale performance installations using video, photography, audio and cyber-art. The projects challenge audiences to rethink the boundaries between cultures, ethnicities, genders and languages, as well as those between art and politics, artist and spectator.
One of La Pocha’s ongoing projects is a living museum where performers exhibit themselves as human artifacts – such as an ethnographic diorama or freak show – using the culturally marginalizing context to challenge stereotypes and social fears. Audience members move through the interactive, simultaneously performed installations, creating a unique experience for each participant, with some audience members becoming the diorama at the end of the show.
Gómez-Peña’s work in performance, video, installation, poetry, journalism, cultural theory and radical pedagogy explores cross-cultural issues, immigration, the politics of language and new technologies. His work has been presented at more than 700 venues in almost 20 nations. A MacArthur Fellow and American Book Award winner, he has been a visiting artist and lecturer at Universidad de Tucuman in Argentina, UCLA, Dartmouth, MIT and other colleges and performance centers throughout the world.
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