Guillermo Gomez-Pena: Chicano 'Cyberpunk' Rebel with a Creative & Ambitious Cause
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Ethno-politics, immigration, technology and language can happen on the canvas, in an opus, or in any artistic medium. And, if you are Guillermo Gomez-Pena, you could address societal concerns regarding Latinos through performance art, audio, video, installations, poetry, journalism and cultural theory. A writer, a MacAuthor fellow, and an editor, Gomez-Pena brings style, energy and heritage to everything that he completes.
Born in Mexico City in 1955, Gomez-Pena arrived to the states 23 years later with an urge to explore intercultural issues using experimental language and mixed media. His work encouraged the coinage of terms, "Chicano cyber-punk" and "ethno-techno art" through narrative and large-scale performance projects.
His work integrates stories: those of minorities, migrants and the stateless. He does this in English and Spanish; through fact and fiction; and with humor and frustration. His need to submerge his viewer/reader/audience member into a Chicano experience, results in an inter-border and inter-racial education, felt in his books, art pieces, videos and live performances. He does his work alone, but also with his team, La Pocha Nostra, an eclectic mix of artists, filmmakers, actors, writers, dancers, and curators who are all radically opposed to the institutionalization and commercialization of art.
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"We fear institutionalization profoundly, which is one of the main issues that the field of performance art is increasingly facing. How do you deal with the fact that we have been fully accepted by academia, and theorized about, and taught, and therefore de-fanged? We have also been fully embraced by international festivals," Guillermo Gomez-Pena said during an interesting and thorough interview with Tess Thackara of Art Practical. He then added that he turns down festivals because he isn't interested in becoming the "seasonal freak."
The first page of one of his upcoming book states: "This book is for the rebel, critical, experimental, theoretical, race and gender literate, techno-savvy, tender, bold, hybrid, queer, immigrant, orphan, outsider, PCB circuit board deterritorialized, robo-shamanic, performance or live artist obsessed with crossing borders, all kinds of borders in his/her practice."
Gomez-Pena's website thrives as a living archive and photo-performance gallery; meant to immortalize and document his artistic efforts. With it, he is able inject viewers with personal thoughts on evolution, liberation, gender/ethnic-bending, the culture of violence, and intelligent artwork, even when he isn't performing.
View attachment 1149
Ethno-politics, immigration, technology and language can happen on the canvas, in an opus, or in any artistic medium. And, if you are Guillermo Gomez-Pena, you could address societal concerns regarding Latinos through performance art, audio, video, installations, poetry, journalism and cultural theory. A writer, a MacAuthor fellow, and an editor, Gomez-Pena brings style, energy and heritage to everything that he completes.
Born in Mexico City in 1955, Gomez-Pena arrived to the states 23 years later with an urge to explore intercultural issues using experimental language and mixed media. His work encouraged the coinage of terms, "Chicano cyber-punk" and "ethno-techno art" through narrative and large-scale performance projects.
His work integrates stories: those of minorities, migrants and the stateless. He does this in English and Spanish; through fact and fiction; and with humor and frustration. His need to submerge his viewer/reader/audience member into a Chicano experience, results in an inter-border and inter-racial education, felt in his books, art pieces, videos and live performances. He does his work alone, but also with his team, La Pocha Nostra, an eclectic mix of artists, filmmakers, actors, writers, dancers, and curators who are all radically opposed to the institutionalization and commercialization of art.
SHARE THIS STORY
Tweet
Like Us on Facebook
"We fear institutionalization profoundly, which is one of the main issues that the field of performance art is increasingly facing. How do you deal with the fact that we have been fully accepted by academia, and theorized about, and taught, and therefore de-fanged? We have also been fully embraced by international festivals," Guillermo Gomez-Pena said during an interesting and thorough interview with Tess Thackara of Art Practical. He then added that he turns down festivals because he isn't interested in becoming the "seasonal freak."
The first page of one of his upcoming book states: "This book is for the rebel, critical, experimental, theoretical, race and gender literate, techno-savvy, tender, bold, hybrid, queer, immigrant, orphan, outsider, PCB circuit board deterritorialized, robo-shamanic, performance or live artist obsessed with crossing borders, all kinds of borders in his/her practice."
Gomez-Pena's website thrives as a living archive and photo-performance gallery; meant to immortalize and document his artistic efforts. With it, he is able inject viewers with personal thoughts on evolution, liberation, gender/ethnic-bending, the culture of violence, and intelligent artwork, even when he isn't performing.
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