¿Para qué? - Perdón Que No Fue Pedido, is a performance that considers reconciliation for past relationships and matriarchal bonds. Torres plays between dream building, ceremony and delusion, to understand how memories can be reconfigured as a site of coping to build new ideas of self. This work considers how we give our ancestors, our monsters and ourselves "our flowers".
*This program will include partial nudity
This event is presented in connection Marcela Torres exhibition I Brought You Flowers | Te Traje Flores
Arts + Public Life, Arts Incubator: 301 E Garfield Blvd | Gallery Hours Thursday-Saturday 1PM-5PM
March 15 - May 4, 2024
I Brought You Flowers/Te Traje Flores is a site that considers the cultural resonance of gifting flowers as acts of nurturing within BIPOC communities.
Inspired by Nahua and Mayan codices and contemporary writing that breaks down their logographic terms. Flowers symbolize places and names, the exhibition explores the profound connection between botany, our ancestral heritage, and the act of giving. Central to the exhibit are ceramic pieces cradling flowers, each representing a spectrum of recipients: flowers to ourselves, xochitl to our ancestor, flores to the earth weaving a rich tapestry of interconnectedness and reconciliation.
Bio:
Marcela Torres is an artist, organizer, and educator that uses strength-building exercises and community rituals, to propose forms of reparations. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah and residing nomadically. Their physical research builds on methods of transcendental rituals, racial struggles within the United States and contemporary Latinx diaspora. Torres received a BA in Sculpture Intermedia and a BFA in Art History from the University of Utah, continuing their studies with a MFA in Performance from School of the Art Institute Chicago. Torres has performed at Performance Space New York, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Momentary, Fringe Festival and Time Based Arts. Torres has exhibited work at Hyde Park Art Center, UW-Parkside University and Petzel Gallery. Torres has been in residency at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Franconia Sculpture Park, Recess, Links Hall and Creative Exchange PICA. They were a 2022 Chicago Dance Maker Forum Lab Artist, and a 2023 IACA Artist Fellowship Awardee for New Forms.
This program is presented in collaboration with EXPO CHICAGO as the official start of EXPO ART WEEK.
On April 9, explore more galleries, museums, and exhibition spaces in our dynamic community of arts and culture as Blanc Gallery, DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Logan Center Exhibitions, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, The Renaissance Society, Smart Museum, South Side Community Art Center, and 4th Ward Project Space, among others, all open with late hours and other events throughout the evening.
