USA Projects

PROEZA - an Autonomous Space Program - is an interdisciplinary collaboration with weavers, seamstresses, painters, carpenters, cultural activists and organizers from Southern Chiapas, México. It is intercommunal and intergalactic in nature. I've been visiting the five Zapatista Autonomous Government Centers and nearby villages and towns since 2009, meeting and interviewing community leaders and artisans and proposing to build collaborative InterGalactic SpaceShips.

The resulting work will be displayed in its own planetarium in April 2012 at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles - the post-modernist futuristic landmark designed by Frank Gehry. With your support, we will organize a series of talks and print a bilingual publication to accompany the exhibition at REDCAT. The talks will feature community members and scholars who actively participate in the movement towards a meaningful indigenous cultural survival and autonomy in Chiapas, inspiring many like minded movements around the globe.The talks and subsequent publication would contribute to this ongoing inter-cultural dialogue about what kind of future we want to live in, together. Your support would help document and communicate this very important aspect of the work.

This project culminates a long journey started in 1989 when I met José Benitez, a Huichol artist and Maracame (shaman), who presented me with my first window into the worldviews of some of America's original peoples. It is my sincere desire to give back to Benitez and his extraordinary communities with this exhibition, symposium and publication.

On October 1st, I returned to San Cristobal de Las Casas to start construction on the artwork in collaboration with a local team. I am in residence at EDELO: En Donde Era La ONU - an alternative cultural venue in San Cristobal de Las Casas housed in the former United Nations Offices. We are busy joining cloth, baskets, LED's, wire, paint and twine to give life to our first InterGalactic vessel. I am very excited to share the results of our work in Los Angeles and beyond.