Caca

Following the tradition of tightrope walker Maria Spelterina, we cross the tightrope as a dangerously political and significant act. Not falling among, above, across, along, in, on, below, upon Caca is our greatest feat.

Biography

Kairiana Núñez Santaliz is a Puerto Rican artist and theater educator for children, youth, and the elderly. Autobiographical and epistolary materials, dogs, dreams, and the Puerto Rican colonial situation are some of the topics that influence her work. She was a founding member of Jóvenes del 98 —a street theater group directed by Maritza Pérez Otero.

The Hemispheric Institute connects artists, scholars, and activists from across the Americas and creates new avenues for collaboration and action. Focusing on social justice, we research politically engaged performance and amplify it through gatherings, courses, publications, and archives. Our dynamic, multilingual network traverses disciplines and borders and is grounded in the fundamental belief that artistic practice and critical reflection can spark lasting cultural change.

Hemispheric Institute Projects and Initiatives

Gatherings Encuentros are itinerant, biennial gatherings of hundreds of artists, scholars, and activists from across the Americas to collaborate, share work, and engage in dialogue and experimentation through a program of lectures, performances, roundtables, work groups, exhibitions, and workshops.

Publications HemiPress is the Hemispheric Institute’s digital publications imprint, created to house and centralize our diverse publication initiatives. Using a variety of customized open-source digital humanities platforms, HemiPress includes the Gesture short works series, the Duke U.P./HemiPress digital books, stand-alone essays, and the Institute’s peer-reviewed journal emisférica, alongside interviews, Cuadernos, and other online teaching resources.

Local Events Housed at NYU, Hemi New York is a hub for artistic and scholarly exchange. Hemi New York hosts year-round public programming, including lectures, conferences, performances, exhibitions, artist residencies, and a visiting scholars program. Core initiatives include EMERGENYC, our training program for emerging artivists; the Critical Tactics Lab, a forum for researching contemporary and historical collective action; and Hemispheric Dialogues, a series of informal conversations on issues such as Indigeneities, Disabilities, and Trans-feminisms.

Courses Our interdisciplinary courses, offered in different locations in the Americas, combine the face-to-face quality of traditional classrooms with immersive site visits and online collaboration. Taught by leading scholars and artists and open to students from throughout the Hemi network, our intensive courses have been held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico; Bogotá, Colombia; and Lima, Peru.

Membership Hemi is animated by its member institutions. Each organization contributes its local knowledge to create a network far more powerful than any single entity. In addition to participating in the vision and practice of Hemi, member institutions gain enhanced access to Hemi’s digital authoring tools, online archives, and other pedagogical resources. Faculty and students also have opportunities to propose work groups, participate in graduate-level courses, and engage with an active, Americas-wide network to address pressing social issues.

Video Library Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL) is the first major online video archive of performance in the Americas, created in collaboration with NYU Libraries and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This growing repository guarantees historical preservation and free online access to more than 900 hours of streaming video through the Hemi website. Each collection includes a trilingual profile that contextualizes the work.

Work Groups Work groups facilitate long-term and collaborative research between scholars, artists, and activists. These groups are interdisciplinary and focus on themes such as Performing Disability/Enabling Performance, Performance Practice as Research, Women Mobilizing Memory, Performing the Asian/Americas, The Street and the Network: Activism in the 21st Century, and Carnival and Popular Fiestas.

Physical Library Housed in the Tamiment Library at NYU, our physical archive includes fragile materials such as slides, photographs, books, posters, and other performance ephemera, as well as collections of important artists and activists like Jesusa Rodríguez (Mexico) and the Yes Men (US). Archives at Risk, the collection of materials housed in NYU’s Special Collections at Bobst, preserves work on performance and politics that cannot—or will not—be protected in their countries of origin in the Americas.We also maintain a collection of rare books, journals, and videos at our offices in New York.

Network Institutions

• American University

• Arizona State University

• Brown University

• Columbia University

• Concordia University

• Cornell University

• Dartmouth College

• Duke University

• Harvard University

• ITESO, Guadalajara 

• New York University

• Northwestern University

• OCAD University

• Ohio State University

• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

• Pratt Institute

• School of the Art Institute of Chicago 

• Trinity College

• Universidad Austral de Chile

• Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

• Universidad Nacional de Colombia

• Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica

• Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras

• Universidad Veracruzana

• Universidade de São Paulo

• Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina

• Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

• Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

• Universidade  Federal de Minas Gerais

• Université du Québec à Montréal

• University of Arizona

• University of California at Berkeley

• University of Colorado Boulder

• University of British Columbia

• University of Manitoba

• University of Miami

• University of New Mexico

• University of Southern California

• University of Texas at Austin

• University of Toronto

• University of Windsor

• University of Winnipeg

• University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Wesleyan University

• York University

Steering Committee

• Thomas Abercrombie

  Professor Department of Anthropology/CLACS FAS

• Jans Andermann

  Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• Miriam Basilio

  Associate Professor Museum Studies and Department of Art History FAS

• Barbara Browning

  Associate Professor Department of Performance Studies TSOA

• Sebastián Calderón Bentín

  Assistant Professor Department of Theater TSOA

• Pamela Calla

  Clinical Associate Professor Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies FAS

• Ana María Dopico

  Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• R. Luke Dubois

  Associate Professor Technology, Culture and Society Tandon School of Engineering

• Stephen Duncombe

  Professor Department of Media, Culture, and Communication

• Ada Ferrer

  Professor Department of History FAS

• Licia Fiol-Matta

  Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• Sibylle Fischer

  Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• Malik Gaines

  Assistant Professor Department of Performance Studies TSOA

• Faye Ginsburg

  David B. Kriser Professor Department of Anthropology FAS

• Gabriel Giorgi

  Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• Greg Grandin

  Professor Department of History FAS

• Lynn Gumpert

  Director Grey Art Gallery

• Jill Lane

  Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese

• André Lepecki

  Associate Professor Department of Performance Studies TSOA

• Debra Levine

  Assistant Professor Theater Program NYU Abu Dhabi

• Nicholas Mirzoeff

  Professor Department of Media, Culture, and CommunicationNYU Steinhardt

• Tomás Urayoán Noel

  Associate Professor Department of English FAS

• Lorie Novak

  Professor Department of Photography and Imaging TSOA

• Ann Pellegrini

  Professor Department of Performance Studies SCA/TSOA/FAS

• Dana Polan

  Professor Department of Cinema Studies TSOA

• Rubén Polendo

  Associate Professor Theater Program NYU Abu Dhabi

• Rubén Ríos

  Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• Dylan Robbins

  Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• María Josefina Saldaña

  Associate Professor Department of Social and Cultural Analysis FAS

• Karen Shimakawa

  Professor Department of Performance Studies TSOA

• Anna Deavere Smith

  University Professor Department of Performance Studies

• Robert Stam

  Associate Professor Department of Anthropology FAS

• Marita Sturken

  Professor Department of Media, Culture, and Communication NYU Steinhardt

• Sinclair Thomas

  Professor Department of History FAS

• Laura Torres-Rodríguez

  Assistant Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• Zeb Tortorici

  Assistant Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese FAS

• Alexandra Vazquez

  Associate Professor Department of Performance Studies TSOA

• Alejandra Velasco

  Associate Professor Gallatin School

• Deborah Willis

  Professor Department of Photography and Imaging TSOA

Council

• Sérgio Andrade

  Professor Department of Arts of the Body Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

• Shannon Bell

  Professor Department of Political Science York University

• Kathleen Buddle

  Associate Professor Department of Anthropology University of Manitoba

• Nao Bustamante

  Vice Dean and Associate ProfessorRoski School of the ArtsUniversity of Southern California

• Charlotte Canning

  Professor Department of Theatre and Dance University of Texas at Austin

• Andre Carreira

  Professor Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina

• Sue-Ellen Case

  Professor and Chair Department of Theater School of Theater, Film and Television, UCLA

• Anabelle Contreras Castro

  Professor, School of Scenic Arts Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica

• Kency Cornejo

  Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Art and Art History

• Jean-François Côté

  Professor Université du Québec à Montréal

• Roewan Crowe

  Associate Professor and Chair Women’s Gender Studies University of Winnipeg

• Petrona de la Cruz Cruz

  Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya San Cristóbal de las Casas, México

• Eleonora Fabião

  Artist Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil

• Susanna Friedmann

  Associate Professor Institute of Aesthetic Research Universidad Nacional de Colombia

• Marcela Fuentes

  Assistant Professor Department of Performance Studies Northwestern University

• Esther Gabara

  Associate Professor Department of Romance Studies and Art, Art History Visual Studies Duke University

• Regina Josá Galindo

  Artist Guatemala

• Maruja García Padilla

  Associate Professor Department of Humanities Women and Gender Studies Program Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras

• Beatrice Glow

  Artist New York

• Macarena Gómez-Barris

  Professor and Chair Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies Pratt Institute

• Paola Hernández

  Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Jorge Hernández Esguep

  Director School of Visual Arts Universidad Austral de Chile

• Teresa Hernández

  Artist USA Artists Puerto Rico

• Marianne Hirsch

  Professor, Departments of English and Comparative Literature Director, Institute for Research on Women and Gender Columbia University

• Karen Jaime

  Assistant Professor of Performing and Media Arts and Latina/o Studies, Cornell University

• Stephen Johnson

  Professor Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies University of Toronto

• Smaro Kamboureli

  Professor Department of English University of Toronto

• Peter Kulchyski

  Professor Department of Native Studies University of Manitoba

• Dominika Laster

  Assistant Professor of TheatreDepartment of Theatre History and Criticism

• Stephen Allen Lawson

  Artist, 2boys.tv Montreal, Canada

• Zeca Ligiéro

  Professor Center of Arts and Literature Programa de Pós-Graduação em Teatro Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

• Elisabeth Silva Lopes

  Professor Department of Theatre Arts School of Arts and Communications Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

• Agnes Lugo-Ortiz

  Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish Department of Romance Languages and Literatures University of Chicago

• Lillian Manzor

  Associate Professor Modern Languages and Literatures University of Miami

• Leda Martins

  Professor Department of Literature Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

• Paloma McGregor

  Artist Angela’s Pulse/Dancing While Black New York

• Kaitlin McNally Murphy

  Assistant Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese University of Arizona

• Lorie Novak

  Professor Department of Photography and Imaging New York University

• Julio Pantoja

  Artist Argentina

• Luis Peirano

  Professor School of Arts and Sciences Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

• Antonio Prieto-Stambaugh

  Professor Department of Theater Universidad Veracruzana

• Teresa Ralli

  Artist Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani Peru

• Pilar Riaño-Alcalá

  Associate Professor School of Social Work and Family Studies The University of British Columbia

• Milla C. Riggio

  Professor Department of English Trinity College

• Ramón Rivera-Servera

  Associate Professor and Chair Department of Performance Studies Northwestern University

• Jesusa Rodríguez

  Artist Resistencia Creativa Mexico

• Analola Santana

  Assistant Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese Dartmouth College

• Kim Sawchuk

  Professor Department of Communication Studies Concordia University

• Javier Serna

  Professor School of Theater Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

• Jacques Servin

  Artist The Yes Men/New York University

• Roberto Sifuentes

  Associate Professor, Performance School of the Arts Institute of Chicago

• Peggy Shaw

  Artist Split Britches New York

• Doris Sommer

  Professor Department of Romance Languages and Literatures Harvard University

• Silvia Spitta

  Professor and Chair Departments of Spanish and Comparative Literature Dartmouth College

• Marcos Steuernagel

  Assistant Professor Department of Theatre and Dance University of Colorado Boulder

• Mark Sussman

  Associate Professor Department of Theater Concordia University

• Diana Taylor

  University Professor Departments of Performance Studies and Spanish Founding Director, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics New York University

• Dot Tuer

  Professor OCAD University

• Gina Ulysse

  Professor Anthropology and African American Studies Wesleyan University

• Paolo Vignolo

  Professor Departamento de Historia Universidad Nacional de Colombia

• Tamara Underiner

  Associate Professor School of Theater and Film Arizona State University

• Lois Weaver

  Artist Split Britches New York

• Brenda Werth

  Associate Professor Department of Language and Foreign Study American University

• Jennifer Willet

  Assistant Professor School of Visual Arts University of Windsor

• Patricia Ybarra

  Associate Professor Department of Theater Arts and Performance Studies Brown University

FRPxTN (Frisly Soberanis) — Immersion and Narratives Laboratory

Space: Centro de Cultural Digital (CCD), Área polivalente (Trapecio)
On view from June 14 - 15, 2019

During the week of activities at the Hemispheric Institute’s Encuentro, the CCD’s Immersion and Narrative Laboratory met with the Family Reunions Project. Here, we present open transcripts with our reflections our process for reconfiguring cartographies through immersive narratives.

The Illuminator - Free Technologies Laboratory

Space: CCD (Centro de Cultural Digital), Área polivalente
On view June 14-15, 2019

During the week of the Hemispheric Institute’s Encuentro, the CCD’s Free Technologies Laboratory collaborated with The Illuminator collective. Here we present the open transcripts of our process in our work to conceptualize technologies and virtual bodies as tools to resist ideological and geographical borders.

FRPxTN (Frisly Soberanis) — Immersion and Narratives Laboratory

How can we work against the limitation of borders? Is it possible to create transversal shifts through collaborative work and fiction? From the power of tactical media and debate to the reconfiguration of cartographies through narrative, this working group will generate an area of experimentation aimed at creating action tools to address the imminent crisis of meaning. With the guidance of Frisly Soberanis of the Family Reunions Project (FRP) and representatives of the CCD's Immersion and Narratives Laboratory, we will experiment with creating and exchanging action tools, embracing our own process and opening ourselves to all outcomes. Following the working group, we plan to publicly exhibit our work with the hopes that it will be reinterpreted, questioned, and intervened.

The Illuminator — Free Technologies Laboratory

Central to the work of The Illuminator and the Laboratorio de Tecnologías Libres (Free Technologies Laboratory) are notions of bodies and virtuality, the use of technologies as critical tools, and the role of digital narratives. This working group will trace lines of collaboration from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, focusing on the use of technologies, access to information, and the virtual movement of bodies. We will use this experimental space to explore the power of technology in cultivating a sense of empathy and in pushing for the inclusion and integration of different languages. As we present our own reflections, we will invite the general public to be part of this conversation and exploration of ideas.

THE HUMBOLDT EFFECT: Travelers, Narratives, and Senses. America as Form and Source

The Alexander von Humboldt Archive is an artistic research project that intervenes in institutional settings (museums, archives, libraries, and universities) to challenge scientific-intellectual authority, patrimonial-artistic authenticity, and geo-biopolitical legitimacy—products of XVII century scientific expeditions. THE HUMBOLDT EFFECT is a dialogue on the relations between word - body - space - ritual, which generates a critical space and a common language.

Presentation: Fabiano Kueva, Luis Gerardo Morales, Ana Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel Fernández, Cecilia Delgado Masse, Adriana Salazar, Néstor Quiñonez

*Space is limited to 30 people. Please RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Biography

Fabiano Kueva is an artist and curator whose work has been exhibited in museums, public spaces, and community settings. He has participated in the Havana Biennial (Cuba, 2009), the Montevideo Biennial (Uruguay, 2014), and Venice Biennal (Italy, 2015), and was recipient of the Prince Claus Fund Grant 2010. Kueva lives and works in Ecuador.

Fabiano Kueva: THE HUMBOLDT EFFECT: Dispossession. Collections. Repatriation. The Geopolitical Life of Objects and Documents

The Alexander von Humboldt Archive is an artistic research project that intervenes in institutional settings (museums, archives, libraries, and universities) to challenge scientific-intellectual authority, patrimonial-artistic authenticity, and geo-biopolitical legitimacy—products of XVII century scientific expeditions. THE HUMBOLDT EFFECT is a dialogue on the relations between word - body - space - ritual, which generates a critical space and a common language.

Presentation: Fabiano Kueva, Ana Rodríguez, Miruna Achim, Malena Bedoya, César Martínez

*Space is limited to 30 people. Please RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Biography

Fabiano Kueva is an artist and curator whose work has been exhibited in museums, public spaces, and community settings. He has participated in the Havana Biennial (Cuba, 2009), the Montevideo Biennial (Uruguay, 2014), and Venice Biennal (Italy, 2015), and was recipient of the Prince Claus Fund Grant 2010. Kueva lives and works in Ecuador.

During this Encuentro, we believe it is important to explore the non-playful dimensions of “the world upside down.” There is no doubt that violence persists in Mexico today. Kidnapping, femicide, forced disappearance, displacement, and homicide—not only the dissolution of bodies, but of life itself—all continue to mark the political and representational landscape of the entire region. This Imaginary invites us to think and act in the face of past and present violence.

Biographies

Ileana Diéguez is Research Professor at UAM-Cuajimalpa. She holds a PhD in Literature and was a postdoctoral fellow in Art History at the UNAM. Her research topics include art, the body, memory, grief, representations of violence, theatricalities, and social and expanded performativities.

Violeta Luna’s work explores the relationship between theater, performance art, and community engagement. Luna uses her body as a territory to question and comment on social and political phenomena. Luna holds a graduate degree in Acting from the Centro Universitario de Teatro, UNAM. Luna performs and teaches extensively throughout the world.

Rián Lozano (Moderator) is a researcher and Academic Secretary of the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas (Institute of Aesthetic Research) at the UNAM and a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI). She holds a degree in Art History and a PhD in Philosophy (Aesthetics and Art Theory) from the Universitat de València (Spain).

How many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? On Creating Feminist Comedy in the 21st Century

How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb? is a keynote address and insider’s look at what went behind the funny posters, poignant protests, fax blitzes, speak-outs and street theatre actions the Guerrilla Girls used to attack and expose sexism in the theatre world. It includes a step-by-step guide to the art of collaboration.

Biography

Donna Kaz is a performer, activist, author, and a leading feminist voice on how to combine activism and art. For the past 20 years, she has been proving feminists are funny with Guerrilla Girls On Tour. Her new eBook, PUSH/PUSHBACK: 9 Steps to make a Difference with Activism and Art, is at ggontour.com. donnakaz.com | @guerrillagsot @donnakaz