"You Don't Look Bolivian"
(series of twenty-four photographs)
This visual piece explores the question, 'What borders do you want to cross today?' and seeks to interrogate notions of race, whiteness, ethnicity, Otherness and group belonging in the context of immigration, coloniality and contested identifications both within and without one's own place of origin.
Embodying a mixed family within Bolivia (one side hailing from the highlands and the other from the lowlands of the country), and coming of age in a foreign, white-supremacist society that both accepted me and denigrated where I came from, the performance explores the contradictory experiences of discomfort, acquiescence and ultimate rejection around static notions of identity, particularly as determined by the Western gaze; while the photograph stills invite the viewer to dwell the feelings of in-betweeness and ambivalence.
This peformative action was done as part of the course Identity, Ritual and Resistance: Performing the Body in South East Asia with the Eropean Cultural Center (ECC). The photographs that were produced, have been selected to be part of their VR Exhibition "Fall Term @ECC Performance Art" showcasing some of the best works created in their program.
(series of twenty-four photographs)
This visual piece explores the question, 'What borders do you want to cross today?' and seeks to interrogate notions of race, whiteness, ethnicity, Otherness and group belonging in the context of immigration, coloniality and contested identifications both within and without one's own place of origin.
Embodying a mixed family within Bolivia (one side hailing from the highlands and the other from the lowlands of the country), and coming of age in a foreign, white-supremacist society that both accepted me and denigrated where I came from, the performance explores the contradictory experiences of discomfort, acquiescence and ultimate rejection around static notions of identity, particularly as determined by the Western gaze; while the photograph stills invite the viewer to dwell the feelings of in-betweeness and ambivalence.
This peformative action was done as part of the course Identity, Ritual and Resistance: Performing the Body in South East Asia with the Eropean Cultural Center (ECC). The photographs that were produced, have been selected to be part of their VR Exhibition "Fall Term @ECC Performance Art" showcasing some of the best works created in their program.
