Personal Proposal

Permeable BoundariesARTIST STATEMENT
This integrative performance piece connects to my past installation where i questioned how clothing affects the way people perceive each other.
In "Permeable Boundaries" I stepped in the middle of the room and asked the group to take a deep breath and relax. I took a moment before I asked everyone to participate, whoever wanted could join me in a circle and take off our clothes, and whoever did not feel comfortable with this could make a circle outside us. Everything that happens after that will arise spontaneously and organically from the interaction with each other and without my preconcieved direction. My intention is to involve everyone who is present in an interaction that goes beyond the boundaries of clothing, to be able to look at each other without the costume we put on everyday, and to allow others to see ourselves in this state. Whoever does not feel comfortable taking their clothes off does not have to, but they are still welcome to form a part of the experience and question the idea of seeing others without being seen, and think about the barriers we put up and why.

REQUIREMENTS
For this performance the only thing I need is an audience ranging from 10 to 50 people, and a comfortable space where it is easy to focus one's attention.

Curriculum Vitae
Mariana Villaseñor
778 228 58 28
marianita_grumpy@yahoo.com

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1986
Currently studying a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts
at Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Vancouver, Canada


EDUCATION

2005
Graduated from The American School Foundation of Guadalajara

2006-2007
Foundation Studies for Psychology
ITESO
Guadalajara, Mexico

2007-2009
Fine Arts Studies
Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Vancouver, Canada

A dancer of West African Dance, Arabic and Egiptian Belly Dance, and Ecstatic Dance.
Minor percussionist in d'jambe and darbouka.
Backup singer.

dislocation, diaspora, displacement and the creation of a new village

Dislocation, Diaspora, Displacement and the Creation of the New Village was the theme for the in-class performance festival that took place on April 8. Although everyone was addressing the same topic, the presentations were very diverse in form and content.
Lindsay Page's performance piece was interesting and playful. She stood in the room and invited people to draw on her body with permanent markers for a few seconds while she stripped off her clothes. Once she was completely naked she started asking people around her to lend her a piece of their clothing. The group had been open to participate drawing on her, but when she started asking for clothing people were reluctant to comply at first. Most people lend her an item of clothing they were not using or was not crucial to their dress.
After her performance, she told me she was hoping to create a tension between dressed and undressed, having people stripping off their clothes and leaving them in the nude to clothe her, and I told her she should have asked and people would have probably done it, this dynamic gave me my idea for my own performance.
Jennifer Norquist's performance had a very intimate feeling. There were small mounds of twiggs, stones, banana peels (left from Francis' performance) and other organic materials and she carefully gathered a few materials from each of the mounds and placed them in a middle pile, reminiscent of a small bonfire.
Ana White, Genevieve Cloutier and Grant Hash collaborated in a piece they titled Show and Tell Vancouver, where they addressed the issues of homelessness and integration into our surroundings. They presented a video of them built a shelter from found materials on a street in Vancouver east side, and then they took it down. They also made a series of cards with suggestive actions one could do around the city to experience the surroundings in a new way, and a blog where people could post their experiences on these actions.
Heather Ohlin brought in a mirror with an ornamental wooden frame and asked for help from the group to move it. When the volunteers helped her put it down against the wall, they all looked into the mirror and smiled, as if they were trying to compose a portrait.
Franciso Granados stood holding a white rose while he plucked it petal by petal repeating the words "os ama, no os ama", which means "he loves me, he loves me not". He later explained this had been a play on words as Osama had been the name of a man he had been in love with. The words also brought reference to war, relating the word Osama with Osama Bin Laden, and the white rose was a strong yuxtaposition of this concept.
Yota Konishi performed a durational piece through the length of the class where he used parts of old computers to help him exercise. This was a very humorous piece as he came up with very clever and unexpected ways to use the computer to do all kinds of excercises. And he did all this very quietly, in a corner of the room, so every now and again one would forget he was there, and then look back to be surprised by his new move.

installation and traces

On March 18 and 25 our Performance and Video class had to present an installation piece to the rest of the group. The pieces were all very different in content, but could be divided into two main forms: participative and observational.
Anna White presented a piece titled "Practice!" where she installed a bulletin board and a varied array of props to practice whatever activity one would be interested in: from meditation to boxing to playing with a yo-yo. Her aim was to have all kinds of people come in and use this space. Her piece was similar to mine in that they both asked for the participation and involvement of the audience to make the installations effective. For my own piece I brought in a mirror which I placed in the middle of two very different outfits: a business suit and the clothes of a homeless man. I spoke to the audience about the owners of the clothing and invited them to try the clothes on to raise the question of how the clothing we wear changes how we act towards others and how others act towards ourselves. Lindsay Page's piece also required the participation of the audience, as she made a webpage of a woman who was looking for her lost girlfriend and there was a live stream chat where she was talking about the search for her partner. What made her installation alive was the interaction between the audience and this fictional character.
Other people like Francis, Genevieve and Patrick presented pieces that were meant to be observed without intervention. Francis' piece was one I particularly enjoyed: an empty podium on a spotlight with a voice that hesitated and doubted as if it were going to start a speech but never articulated anything.
Genevieve used theatrical props to narrate a child-like story of a woman who turned people into pears if they kept secrets from her. She was standing while she told the story, and the group sat around at a certain distance, giving her the only focus.
Francisco's piece was part of both categories as it was meant to be observed but it was also very accessible for the audience to engage with him in dialogue while he laid in the room and covered his body in maple syrup and gold leaf.

Durational Art Practice: Milan Kohout

"YOU DO NOT NEED TO KEEP ME IN THE CAGE ANYMORE"

Milan Kohout staged a performance in the Boston Railway Station during rush hour on May 30, 2000. For two hours he stood in a cage from 4pm to 6pm and talked to people passing by explaining he was in a cage because he had once been "an unreasonable critic of the capitalist system", but now he had "accepted the capitalist market and recognized that system to be the best one in the history of humankind" he then followed, "i now agree that whoever doesn't have money shouldn't have health care, and if you don't have good school fine because you are poor."
"I love market economy, no reason to keep me here anymore, it's the best!"
He said society had the right to put him in the cage because he was a critic of the capital system, but now that he had changed his mind, he should be freed.
Milan Kohout thinks artists should be the conscience of society, even if they express ideas that are not so pleasant to face.
http://www.mobius.org/mobius_artists.php?id=milan
http://radicaljesters.com/v2/performance/

Community Based Art Practice: The Institute for Infinitely Small Things.

The Institute for Infinitely Small Things is a collective based in Boston that uses performance and dialogue as a means to conduct "creative, participatory research that aims to temporarily transform public spaces dominated by non-public agendas"
One of their projects which encouraged the participation of their community was a video guidebook of a list of 57 things to do for fun and leisure in Harvard Square that did not involve spending money. Some of the ideas they proposed were very clever and promoted the activation of public spaces that often goes unnoticed. An example was the idea to play a chess game on checkered floors in a public building and have your friends be the pieces of the board. Another cheeky idea was to "redecorate"; the group is filmed putting up Christmas wreaths on the street. The video proposes a new way of doing things, entices your creativity to step out of the box, and find ways to entertain yourself that are out of the ordinary.
The video was designed for public video screens above the tourist kiosk in Harvard Square.
http://www.ikatun.org/57/
http://www.ikatun.com/institute/infinitelysmallthings/

Relational Performance: The Federation of Students and Nominally or Unemployed Artists

A group of ten students and artists came together to create the project of the Federation of Students and Nominally or Unemployed Artists. They each raised $100 each for a total of $1000, and on September 2008 set up a booth on Union Square to give away all the money in the form of instant grants ranging from $10 to $60 for art projects that are thought of on the spot by people passing by. The aim of the project is to inspire, encourage and support creativity in people and that by doing so, they will be able to "see themselves as something other than workers or consumers even if it's just for the length of time required to apply for the FSNUA grant." This project is so valuable because it presents society with "an example of generosity without an ulterior motive" which is exactly the kind of thing that we need to get into our culture as a common practice.
There is a video on their website of the experience. Visit www.generosityfoundation.org to learn more about the project.

group 4

The last performance of the day was done mostly by improvisation. The group had made a structure that had a glass that distorted light and proportion when one stood behind it. The performance started with an even keyboard music in the background and a box in the middle of the stage, a male figure came on and started tearing the cover of the box to reveal a shrunken female figure trapped inside. When the girl escaped from the box, the man was still harassing her, and eventually ate her. The entire time there was a tense and sexual power relation between the characters. The performance was done again, this time without music, and a second male character added to the conflict. This time the two men licked the girl's face, and then they got into a fight.
(note, I still have to find a picture for this performance!)

group 3

The third performance of the day was a lot more dramatic and tense. The uniform beating of a deep drum started the performance with the silhouettes of a man holding out his arm with something in his hand. Gradually the object starts to unfold to reveal the face of a pig. At this point, the drumming had set a tone of increasing anxiety.
The next scene was the silhouette of a shirtless man with a protruding stomach and the mask of a police officer. His movements were slow and brisk, and he ended up kneeling on the ground looking up at the other figure.
The last scene was with both men facing each other holding out the masks that were getting closer to each other. The policeman now had two heads, and the drumming started escalating. The performance culminated with chanting from the actors... and then, finally, silence.
The relationship between a pig and a cop raised political questioning during the performance. It made me think of the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, with themes of corruption and power.

group 2

The performance was a playful and loose reference to Alice in Wonderland. The stage was framed by a ribbon with fringe and pompons as to indicate the audience they were about to witness a fairytale. It started with the silhouette of a girl blowing on a bouquet of flowers. She was offered a cup of tea and after drinking it the screen was filled with colourful planets that moved energetically and changed size, as if the frenzy had been caused by the tea. Another memorable scene showed the girl undressing and taking off a lacy bra and then realizing she's being spied by a man. She shrieks and a giant high-heeled shoe kicks the man out of the screen. The performance was enhanced by live drumming and beautiful wire puppets and props made from wire with intricate lace-like designs that were reminiscent of Indonesian puppetry.
All in all i think this was a wonderful, creative performance that made me feel and enjoy it like I was a child!

shadow shows

One of the activities I have most thoroughly enjoyed during the past weeks has been a shadow show presentation we had to prepare for Video and Performance class at Emily Carr. The class was divided into four groups and we each had to put together a 3 minute show. Below is my personal take on the performances I saw, which i found all to be delightfully entertaining.

improv everywhere

Note: I highly recommend following the link below to watch this video before reading the note on it. It is guaranteed to make you laugh
http://improveverywhere.com/2008/03/09/food-court-musical/

Another performance group that I absolutely love is Improv Everywhere. The group was created in 2001 in New York by Charlie Todd, an actor who decided instead of waiting around for a theater to hire him, he would make his own theater in the city. The group has often been compared to flash mob groups, but Charlie Todd explains Improv Everywhere started long before flash mobbing became popular.
The group goes out causing unexpected, random situations in mundane locations, and causes "scenes of chaos and joy". They have performed, or created over 80 situations in the past years that have gone from throwing a birthday party for a stranger where everyone pretended to know him and called him by a different name and gave him gifts, to getting thousands of people to casually take off their pants on the subway while acting normal. When other people are now aware what is the reason for the odd behaviour they get startled, scared, happy, angry... the important thing is they are moved, and an otherwise mundane, unremarkable moment is now memorable and significant.
I find Improv Everywhere to be truly inspiring because by changing the common behavior of a large group of people in public places they transform the space, they take people out of their ordinary mindset and create possibilities for new ways of doing things.
One of my favorite performances is Food Court Musical, where undercover actors staged a musical at the food court in a mall. A woman working at a hot dog place spontaneously bursts into song, and more and more people keep on joining her. The rest of the people are completely confused and bewildered, they have no idea what is going on. All in all, it was a great laugh... and isn't that ultimately what life is about?

PNEUMUS

Pneumus is the name of a performance project formed in Guadalajara, México.
A group of actors, musicians, and other creative minds came together to form a project that mimics silent cinema from the 20s while performing live music that incorporates the most creative sound objects, including a rubber squeaky spider, pots and pans, whistles, cowbells, and random materials for construction work are all used in unexpected ways.
While the band is playing, one of the performers is showing a set of hand-drawn white on black images that tell a story of a character going through different settings, that include an underwater scene, a train, Venice in the 1920s, and others. While the images are being shown, the music connects to the story, and suddenly the musicians are characters in the story, and so is the audience, as the performers start to interact with them.
I find this to be a most engaging, creative and wonderful performance, like nothing I had ever seen before.
check it out.
www.pneumus.com

inspiring performances

i love performances that take me out of my ordinary mind-set and remind me life is just a game. and these performance pieces that have that exact effect.

The Sultan's Elephant by Royal de Luxe
Royal de Luxe is a street theater group that started in 1979 by Jean Luc Courcoult in France. They have created impressive productions with enormous mechanical marionettes as bigh as 11 meters high that move through the streets of various cities they have performed in.
The Sultan's Elephant was first performed in May 2005 in Nantes and Amiens to commemorate the centenary of Jules Verne's death and was commisioned by these cities. In 2006 it was performed in London.
When speaking about his work, Jean Luc Courcoult explains, "the aim is to place dream in people’s life", and this is exactly what he achieves. For a period of four days, a giant girl and an elephant toured the streets of London. The puppets were held up by cranes which were controlled by men dressed in red velvet uniforms of royal servants. This was a wonderful performance, a free spectacle that was enjoyed by roughly a million people and for four days it transformed the city into a fairy tale of which the spectators were all a part of.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qBXr15K2uSc