Luisa Ungar (Bogotá, Colombia), studied visual arts in Bogotá and Amsterdam. Her work has been shown and performed at different venues such as Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre; Ca2M, Madrid; Marrakech Biennial Parallel Projects; Museo de Arte Banco de la República, Bogotá; MAMM, Medellín; Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm; Bienal Sur, Argentina; Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, among other venues. She has been coeditor of publication projects such as DISDISDIS (On vampires and other forms of conviviality), and Proyecto Asterisco. She was a resident artist at Gasworks, TRain Residency in London and RESò, in Italy; and at AIR Antwerpen, and Maebashi Arts Center Japan, by invitation. Episodes of her on-going performance Clapping Backwards have been showed in the context of Spring Workshop's program `Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor´, in Hong Kong 2015 and as part of the program `De-skilling curation´, performed at Artis Royal Zoo Library, Amsterdam in 2016. Recent shows and performances include Pavillion, at the M KHA Museum in Antwerp (2018), and Dominio de la Extinción, at Lugar A Dudas in Cali, Colombia (2018).
luisa ungar recent work
Through performance and installation my work seeks to open a discussion about specific structures that shape our behaviors. My main focus is what we understand and name as the ‘natural’, and the narratives revolving around gender, animality and the non - human in relation to that. I deal with the question of spontaneity using didactic formats as scenarios to explore how this dynamic manifest itself: I constantly review uses of collective memory, modes of representation and pedagogical discourses. Site specificity is a central concept for me: by questioning underlying organizational structures, I look for the relations and the models that constitute the identity of a place, for example. I use humor, conversation, fiction and other strategies to explore how social norms are constructed and institutionalized, often traversing archives and western systems of knowledge production and organization. I explore hybrid formats and platforms as tools to deal with the social fabric. My latest work deals with strategies that normalize gender stereotypes through language, looking at notions of obedience that serves as survival strategies in local environments in Colombia.
VIRTUD Performance
https://vimeo.com/331015260
2 Interns / 3 sets of 20 minutes each, performed during three days in different spaces of the museum. By following the codes of a 19th century military ideographic book, two interns of the art museum communicate with each other from a considerable distance. They perform the word virtue, in intervals of twenty minutes during the day. A transcription of the alphabet is available for the audience. Interns: Daniela Vargas Beltrán / Sofía Child Peláez. Commissioned by 4 actos / Espacio Odeón. Bogotá, (CO) 2018
Ladies, Parrots and Narcotics Performance
45 min. / Real and Artificial Tulips / branches of coca plant How to make a modern bouquet using Coca Plant and Tulips. The performance takes the discussion to a set of instructions about of how to make a flower arrangement with this two species of plants. The artists play with the language that is used in flower arrangement tutorials to establish tensions between the historic, economic and political realities of the two plants in a dialogic, humorous manner. The arrangement is never finished and the performer is constantly interrupted by an annoying member of the audience. Collaboration with Milena Bonilla. Performance at Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano 2017 Exhibition "Flowers are Documents" curated by Emanuele Guidi
Europe Supported By Africa And America Banana, block of styrophome (120 cm x 90 cm). Based on the engraving Europe supported by Africa and America, by William Blake, 1796.
Lack Of Dexterity (Human Tongues) Performance Lecture 45´´
The Performance reviews ways in which the Japanese Kitzune Fox manifests itself in female bodies. The starting point is the story of a stone in Maebashi City, Japan, that complained out loud in the XVI Century when it was going to be carved by a local artisan. It was then turned into an Inari (sacred fox) shrine and transcriptions of its screams are kept at the local museum. Documentation shows the translator listening to the stone. Material used in performance.
Lecciones Y Demostraciones
https://vimeo.com/331105264
Performance 45´´ / Chorus, (40 members) / 4 performers. This performance presents itself to the audience as a live experiment that reviews feminine behaviors described by the19th. century Pronunciation And Spelling Exercise Guide, used for educating young ladies in Colombia. Audience is told that none of the participants on stage knows beforehand how the lesson will go. Obedience through uses of body and voice are exercised during the demonstration, focusing on ways in which the masculine gaze seeks to determine the behavior of the female in the local context. A choir is introduced as a model of how obedience works: a unified body that responds to instructions because it is well trained as a unit. Towards the end of the event, however, the chorus increasingly disobeys until it enters into a frenzy of laughter and mockery of the exercises. The choir is Neuma Project, a group made up of activist members of the LGBT community of Bogota. (Complete Credits on Video)
Working as a metaphor of the paradoxical relation we have with the notion of obedience as a survival strategy in local environments, the performance looks at power strategies that are used to disconnect feminine body and feminine roles in the local context by normalizing them through language.
El Dominio de La Extinción 97 Skins of various mammals, documents, testimonies, books. Assets seized and confiscated from mafias during the 70s and 80s. Collection from the Humboldt Institute, Bogotá, Colombia. Installed at Lugar a Dudas, Cali, 2018 “Emptied of meaning. Captured (and out of their bodies) the skins no longer have a meaning: lying in a legal limbo can no longer be sold. They are useless things. Things without a system. They lack the necessary conditions to serve science: they can not be cataloged, without metadata we no longer know their original conditions. Useless for the exotic printing market, old and illegal, they are no longer usable - lying outside of the cosmogonies of the communities where they used to cover the bodies of the animals… in the hunt and the rite.”
Sketch for an insults concert Sound Installation 1 megaphone / audio 4:24 min on loop Collection of insults taken from various sources in Colombia, first broadcasted in the streets of Bogotรก. https://soundcloud.com/luisa-ungar/educational-loudspeaker
Snakes over Bees Sound Installation https://soundcloud.com/luisa-ungar/snakes-upon-bees Based on notes made by Saanvi Kumar, who worked as bee keeper at the Kralingen Gardens in Rotterdam from 1971 to 1978. This text revises some of Saanvi Ě s notes on the bees - their behaviors, living conditions and particular live cycles. Some of this material is adapted from the book The life of bees by M. Maeterlinck. The audio was loud spoken from under a bee hive in the bee house of Kralingen Gardens, as part of Swarming, Spawns Rebel Workers. Ghost Projects, Rotterdam.
Sketch for an insults concert / on translation 45 prints on paper / wooden structure / 1 megaphone Audio 4´24 min on loop Where is the gap between the form and the meaning of an insult? Collection of insults taken from various sources in Colombia, first broadcasted in the streets of Bogotå. Here in Rotterdam, RAM Foundation, 2015.
PAVILION Rijksmuseum auditorium and Museumplein Amsterdam Performance 1´ 15´´ Collaboration with Milena Bonilla “Site-specific performance, it explores the traces left by a witness of the ‘International Colonial and Export Exhibition’ that took place in Amsterdam in 1883. Wandering through the sites of its historical materialization it blends archival material and fiction, following the specters of colonial spectacles in a short-circuit between past and present. Part of the artists’ ongoing joint investigation of the entangled genealogy of human zoos, colonial shows and museum displays”. Commissioned by TAAK and Heterotropics. Amsterdam, 2017. www.heterotropics.com
PAVILION At Rijksmuseum auditorium and Museumplein Amsterdam 2017
Clapping Backwards Episode1 Performance An expert and her apprentice, video, objects. 45´´ On this occasion the expert on animal behavior uses the apprentice (me) to show how some species develop a specific rhythm and control when encaged at the Amsterdam Artis Zoo . This demonstration follows up on the studies "spontaneous innovation for future deception" (SIFFD), an expertise developed by zoo specialists in the 1940´s to study the behavior of animals that create means to deceive others. The performance varies depending on the encounters with the experts on the different places where it is presented. The role of the expert is left on doubt as well as the way in which exoticism filters every day human relations.
Clapping Backwards Episode II An expert and her apprentice, objects. Comissioned by Christina Lee for `Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor´ Spring Works, Hong Kong, 2016. On this occasion the demonstration focused on the way in which local wild species of Hong Kong adapted themselves to urban spaces, through different migrations, dealing with the complex layers of colonization in this territory and the difficult living conditions which some migrants face. The local expert on animal behavior used the apprentice (me) to show how some species develop a specific rhythm and control when encaged in Hong Kong Zoo.
Clapping Backwards (Episode III) Artis Royal Zoo Library, Amsterdam. The demonstration looks at the space of the library as a territory for exploration, pointing at connections between books on tropical fauna and ways in which South American animals are exposed at the Zoo. As part of the program deSkilling curator, curated by Emma Panza, the performance makes permanent metaphorical references to migration conditions and how knowledge structures face them.
Animal Magnetism Performance 45´´ An animal communicator and her apprentice / a table with various objects / papers / drawings / screening. A public session of animal communication. An expert contacts exotic animals using images that portray them when imported for public shows in London in XIX century. The apprentice contextualizes some of the stories emphasizing on portraits of famous woman lion tamers taken from local archives. The narrative concentrates in details and talks about aspects such as domestication, fidelity, exoticism and femininity. The conversation is open for interventions from audience. The veracity of the Animal Communicator is left in doubt. Here performed at Gasworks as part of the open studios for the TRain residency, London, June 2014.
What Do You Hear When You Eat Chocolate
https://vimeo.com/143482014
Audio excerpt from a conversation between three characters, 4'15 A conversation between a cacao plant and two south americans living in Amsterdam. While the two persons insist on asking the plant about issues such as her dreams and her past, she explains she is a working class plant and does not have much free time for such things. The conversation touches themes such as slavery in cacao history, and european - american trade relations. Collaboration with Milena Bonilla. 2014
Guided Zoo Visit Performance
https://vimeo.com/63538310
A Guided zoo tour given by two animal-behavior experts who relate material on drugs, animal, and art illegal trade in Colombia. An annoying tourist from Mexico interrupts constantly asking almost absurd questions regarding nationality and animality in both countries.Topics such as latino-american identity and its relations to animal symbols, or the death of a man killed by a rhinoceros at this same place, attempt to point at possibilities or impossibilities of human language.The script for the guide is built with material taken from socio-political history archives, local press, zoo archives, Colombian art history, police archives. Presented at Festival Internacional de performance Cali. With Alberto Baraya and Jonathan Hernรกndez.
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Guided Zoo Visit - fragment of script
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Willing Suspensions Of Disbelief Performative lecture. 35´´ The lecture explores the language of transparency and ‘that which is not directly seen’. The staging looks at opaqueness using as a main metaphor the figure of the Axolotl, otherwise known as the Mexican Salamander, an amphibian that has the rare trait of retaining its larval features throughout its adult life. Commissioned by Reality Production: A performative staging in three scenes, CuratorLab project, Konstfack. Tensta Konsthall. Stockholm. 2016
Semelhante Atrae Semelhante https://vimeo.com/113547979 The film follows Welton Santos, geophysical architect from Sao Paulo specialized on acupuncture of the surroundings. It looks at his practice as a juncture between dealing with the unknown, and the particular and difficult relation that the city has with water. The notion of divination has a specific connotation when thinking about language: entering foreign environments you might feel you need some kind of divination to be able to communicate. The urge to foresee and read signs in unexpected ways seems to become strong in such situations. Welton follows clues to understand the environment. Insects love "sick types of frequencies" and they gather around such places; trees have different inclinations depending on the their relation with water and energy.
Animal Physiognomy - She Took The Right Hand Lecture Performance + mixed media + video projection. 2013 The work focuses on a monument of Garibaldi which was build by socialist committees in 1886 to be re build by fascist committees in 1923. The bear that accompanies it remains untouched and gives the starting point to some almost strange relations between past and present. Using symbols of animals as instruments of orientation for a foreign observer, the performance is built following clues found in local environment, interweaving micro-stories with seemingly disjointed historical narratives and archaeological remains of the cities of Biella and Turin.
Animal Physiognomy General view of stage for performance
dog from Biella with cloth
Monument to Garibaldi censored by fascist movement from Piadmont in 1923 in Biella
Traditional Bear dress of the region
Famous Red shirt of Garibaldi Made in Biella
Animal Physiognomy Fragment Of Script Bear which remains of the original monument built by socialist movement in 1886
The Rabbit Looks To The Left A performative gathering Collaboration with Milena Bonilla
https://vimeo.com/143007236
Based on the colombian tradition of reading the chocolate spots. Hot chocolate leaves the necessary stains for images to turn into visions and conversation. After putting the cup upside down, leftovers occupy their place, spirals of meaning show up and hide; their in apprehensible character might play around fears, affections and expectations or with the idea that there is a future and there was a past. The script of this performance uses as a starting point stories from the history of cacao combined with the possibilities that the actual spots might offer. M reads to L and vice versa, the dialogue revolves around the connections that cacao has with money and anxiety. First performed October 2014 at Ronwrong, Amsterdam, it has been shown in different venues since then. In 2019 a workshop performance version was done by Ungar in the context of the exhibition Still I Rise: Feminisms. Gender, Resistance in Nottingham Contemporary, UK.
She Asked About Money Collaboration with Milena Bonilla 21 inkjet prints b/w 29,7 x 21 cm each 2016
- this easter bunny brings the prey between the teeth -
Il terzo paradiso 3 Interventions in original book by Michelangelo Pistoletto. Above: In pg 89 - L'Italia Coloniale - April 1928 - VI - Un trofeo della casa grossa,
Pabellón I Lecture - Performance / 60 min. With Milena Bonilla. Documentation made at the CA2M in Madrid as part of the exhibition Nominal Nature curated by Jaime Cerón. March 2015 “The curtain, the stage and the screen were my own skin. It was full of radiance, with a light shining with the full color spectrum... I got killed by a bunch of rats, I didn’t have the right to be alive, because being alive represented a danger for the survival of the whole spectacle. I was then, rendered as a body and decoration, ready to be photographed, ready to become a souvenir for a whole generation of skinless spectators…” Based on a file found in the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, the performance contained loose images and notes that refer to universal exhibitions and various animal and human zoos of different periods, but lacked any apparent order or logic. The performance offers the audience a tour through these physical and metaphorical spaces, starting with the fact that fairs have been an important factor when it comes to spreading knowledge, ideology and fun, and the field of art has been strongly influenced by its existence.
Returning To The Place Of Things. Manual For A Performance On Animal Behaviour 19 drawings, ink on paper
Library Of An Amateur Traveler Books, shelve, list of books. An almost empty library shows books and documents that deal with South American folklore, European art from 1920´s and 30´s, and German political history. The piece is showed in a public space in Bogotá that carries the name of a right winged politician who fought in Colombia against migration during second world war.
All Signal No Message Performance. 35´´ 2 performers / objects / sound system “Working towards the setting up of a research space, the artist-duo take as a departure point the synchronicity between the Krakatoa eruption and the Amsterdam Colonial Exhibition, as well as the unprecedented global effect that the eruption had environmentally and in terms of the spread of information. From these premises, they approach volcanic life as a kind of dormant interactivity between lifeforms inside a volatile structure. The history of the volcano becomes connected to the external world, inspiring tools for crafting actions and interventions in the exhibition space.” Collaboration with Milena Bonilla Commissioned by Heterotropics Project for Lodgers Program, M KHA Antwerp, 2018.
Ways Of Speaking (Or seeking the perfect inattention after years of disciplined attention) Publication 2015 (foto: Hugo Herrera Tobรณn)
DISDISDIS
http://issuu.com/deluxu/docs/disdisdis_web_version
The project develops around the idea of language as materiality and the boundaries between theory and practice. It was realized in various formats, such as: publications, lecture-performances and workshops. The first publication of DISDISDIS (64 pages, October 2013 - On Vampires And Other Forms Of Conviviality), deals with discussions around the use of terms such as socially-engaged, context, responsible transformation, participation and community. In collaboration with Carolina Rito.
On Vampires And Other Forms Of Conviviality Performance A conversation between an inquisitive european curator and a Colombian artist held after the screening of Colombian fake documentary “Vampires of poverty�. The two practitioners talk about issues such as colombian history, the art field or merengue music, uncovering notions on exoticism, socially engaged practices, art and community. In collaboration with Carolina Rito.
The Circus No Regrets For Illusion Lecture Performance - 45 m. The lecture uses modern circus as a metaphor to talk about contemporary art practices that claim a strong relation towards the sphere of the real.
Wooden Types in disappearance Posters / Workshop In the process of evangelizing the inhabitants of Rio Grande do Sul in the seventeenth century, Jesuits created new wooden types to write "letters that did not exist in Guarani". The posters propose new readings to the types referring to processes of extinction and obsolete technologies. The project was commissioned by Mercosur Bienal to be done in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
ungarungar@gmail.com