Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, Braiding Renewal, Pocahunter Series, still, 2023.
Screening and discussion with Verena Melgarejo Weinandt moderated by Renata Cervetto and Marcela Borquez
November 23, 2024 - 2pm
Free, no reservation required
Event in English
As part of Writing With The Body, we will screen two of the most recent works by artist Verena Melgarejo Weinandt: Connecting in darkness. Invoking Pocahunter (part 1) (2022) and Transformation. Braiding renewal Pocahunter (part 2) (2023). After the screening, Verena will join in an online presentation followed by a Q&A moderated by Renata Cervetto and Marcela Borquez, where she will expand on her work and share details of the third video that completes the sequence.
Verena Melgarejo Weinandt is a German-Bolivian artist, curator, educator and researcher. She currently works at ERC artistic-research project Repatriates at the Central European University Vienna (www.repatriates.org). Before that, she was a researcher at the University of the Arts Berlin at the DFG Research Group "Knowledge in the Arts”. Her current artistic-research project focuses on her performative alter ego Pocahunter, looking at the significance of indigenous stereotypes in the German-speaking context and how they shape cultural and institutional practices and beyond that, our relation to the fictive, imagination and non-human-beings as a tool to (re)create the self and individual and collective identity. An important focus of her practice is building bridges to the work and legacy of the “feminist visionary spiritual activist poet-philosopher-fiction writer” Gloria E. Anzaldúa through artistic, pedagogical, activist and theoretical approaches.
This event is part of the program Writing With the Body
Initiated and organized by Marcela Borquez, Renata Cervetto and Carla Rangel, Writing With the Body is a one-month public program running at the SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art from November 19 to December 14, 2024. Conceived as a collective learning space, the program will include the intensive workshop, as well as rounds tables, screenings, activations, and activities open to everyone. Contributions by artists Verena Melgarejo, Amanda Gutiérrez, Florencia Sosa Rey, Colectiva Polea and Helena Martin Franco, will foster a deeper exploration of Anzaldúa’s work and legacy. The public program has been put together in partnership with Artenso (Research and Innovation Centre for Art and Social Engagement), LabARD (Arts Research Laboratory in Decoloniality of UQAM), centre Turbine, OMEC-INRS (Observatory of Cultural Mediations) and DARE-DARE.
PARTICIPANTS
© Photo: José Manuel Duque
© Photo: Antonio Bellón
Verena Melgarejo Weinandt is a German-Bolivian artist, curator, educator and researcher. Through artistic, pedagogical, activist and theoretical approaches, she builds bridges to the legacy of the “feminist visionary spiritual activist poet-philosopher-fiction writer” Gloria E. Anzaldúa. In her work, her body and her (ancestral) history are used to address colonial and patriarchal structures and search for ways of individual and collective healing that she calls “arte-sana”.
Marcela Borquez is a Mexican cultural worker based in Montreal, with a focus on the relationships between art and pedagogies, collective engagement, and questions of identity and belonging. She has developed public programs in collaboration with cultural and community organizations. As a member of the artist network Red de Pedagogías Empáticas, she coordinated the publication Bisagra: Pedagogías Empáticas/Indisciplinas Artísticas (2022).
Renata Cervetto is currently a PhD candidate in UOC (Barcelona), has a background in Art History (UBA), holds a Master's in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture (UCM, 2023), and has completed de Appel Curatorial program (Amsterdam, 2014). She works at the intersection of curating and education, focusing on how art fosters new mediation formats and long-term community projects. As an editor and author, she published several publications and articles regarding these topics. She has been part of the curatorial team of the 11th Berlin Biennale (2019-20), and coordinated the educational department at MALBA (2015-2018).