{"id":4930,"date":"2014-09-27T09:07:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T13:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=4930"},"modified":"2025-02-05T16:09:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T21:09:58","slug":"breaking-down-and-crossing-borders-at-art-borders-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/breaking-down-and-crossing-borders-at-art-borders-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking down and crossing borders at “Art & Borders” performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a moment, it was hard to distinguish reality from performance.<\/p>\n

Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and Mich\u00e8le Ceballos Michot\u00a0walk through a door in a wall of windows and onto a concrete porch at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a lights a cigarette. Michot lifts a pickaxe and places the handle behind her neck, begins a series of stretches, then eases the pick down her neck, the point of it pressing a line into her skin.<\/p>\n

It turns out it was just a pre-performance warm-up. But with an international reputation for performance art that precedes them both by miles, it\u2019s easy to believe otherwise \u2013 or at least want to. A short while later, the plenary \u201cArt and Borders,\u201d began, one of several sessions on the first full day of the \u201cWith\/Out Borders\u201d conference hosted by the Arcus Center.<\/p>\n

Michot begins a dance routine, a stand of tall trees glowing in afternoon sunlight framed in the glass wall behind her. She powders herself, then grabs a handful of powder and lets it sift through her fingers and into her mouth. After tip-toeing around the stage area, and sprawling out on her stomach, gasping, she enters the crowd, climbing over chairs and falling into the arms of a man whose face turns pink with blushing, places her behind in another man\u2019s lap, reaching down to pick up his Starbucks drink, and takes a sip.<\/p>\n

\"Actors<\/a>
Art & Borders became the first theatrical performance at K’s new Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No one is off limits. All of the 100 or so in attendance are living props, it seems, characters in this improvised dance. There are no borders.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a, dressed in all black, eyes behind sunglasses, a black line drawn across his face, reads from a poem, the moving prose deriding the treatment of immigrants (\u201cWe shape your desire while we contract our services to postpone the real expulsion<\/em>\u201d) recognize the borders we put around ourselves (\u201cWe are equally scared of one another<\/em>\u201d) and realize the healing, paradigm shifting, immense power of art to break down those borders (\u201cYou just can\u2019t take our art away<\/em>).\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and Adriana Garriga-Lopez<\/strong>, K\u2019s Arcus Center chair and assistant professor of anthropology, participate in a question and answer session, the format of which, again, breaks through the borders of what is considered normal.<\/p>\n

G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a wears a dog collar attached to a chain that Garriga-Lopez is holding. She queries him on his motivations for performance art and what he hopes it achieves.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you view the body?\u201d Garriga-Lopez asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe performance artist sees the body as a landscape, a map, an architectural artifact, mythological creature, text,\u201d G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a says.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you see yourself as a poet, or a dancer, or a performance artist, or an activist? Or are all those things the same thing?\u201d Garriga-Lopez asks.<\/p>\n

She tugs at the chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you choking me?\u201d G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a says. \u201cI am this and that and everything in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you like in your personal life?\u201d Garriga-Lopez asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m on stage, I\u2019m more warrior-like, more Indian shaman, a little more queer, more deliberate and outrageous. And off-stage, I am just another perplexed mediocre human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps. But like the start of his performance, it\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and Mich\u00e8le Ceballos Michot at www.pochanostra.com.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a moment, it was hard to distinguish reality from performance. Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and Mich\u00e8le Ceballos Michot\u00a0walk through a door in a wall of windows and onto a concrete porch at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a lights a cigarette. Michot lifts a pickaxe and places the handle behind her neck, begins a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":4931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[234,233],"tags":[42,20],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-4930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-faculty-staff","tag-arts","tag-social-justice"],"yoast_head":"\r\nBreaking down and crossing borders at "Art & Borders" performance - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a moment, it was hard to distinguish reality from performance. 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Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and Mich\u00e8le Ceballos Michot\u00a0walk through a door in a wall of\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/breaking-down-and-crossing-borders-at-art-borders-performance\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-27T13:07:45+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-05T21:09:58+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2014\/09\/d-Menta-and-Ballerina.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1319\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1069\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/breaking-down-and-crossing-borders-at-art-borders-performance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/breaking-down-and-crossing-borders-at-art-borders-performance\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking down and crossing borders at \\\"Art & Borders\\\" performance - News and Events\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/breaking-down-and-crossing-borders-at-art-borders-performance\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/breaking-down-and-crossing-borders-at-art-borders-performance\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2014\/09\/d-Menta-and-Ballerina.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-27T13:07:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-05T21:09:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8b54e37c984840c05e9ec797b6616166\"},\"description\":\"For a moment, it was hard to distinguish reality from performance. 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G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a lights a cigarette. Michot lifts a pickaxe and places the handle behind her neck, begins a series of stretches, then eases the pick down her neck, the point of it pressing a line into her skin.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out it was just a pre-performance warm-up. But with an international reputation for performance art that precedes them both by miles, it\u2019s easy to believe otherwise \u2013 or at least want to. A short while later, the plenary \u201cArt and Borders,\u201d began, one of several sessions on the first full day of the \u201cWith\/Out Borders\u201d conference hosted by the Arcus Center.<\/p>\n<p>Michot begins a dance routine, a stand of tall trees glowing in afternoon sunlight framed in the glass wall behind her. She powders herself, then grabs a handful of powder and lets it sift through her fingers and into her mouth. After tip-toeing around the stage area, and sprawling out on her stomach, gasping, she enters the crowd, climbing over chairs and falling into the arms of a man whose face turns pink with blushing, places her behind in another man\u2019s lap, reaching down to pick up his Starbucks drink, and takes a sip.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4936\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4936\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2014\/09\/rt-Borders-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4936 size-medium\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2014\/09\/rt-Borders-2-300x262.jpg\" alt=\"Actors perform during Arts and Borders at Arcus Center\" width=\"300\" height=\"262\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4936\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Art & Borders became the first theatrical performance at K’s new Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>No one is off limits. All of the 100 or so in attendance are living props, it seems, characters in this improvised dance. There are no borders.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a, dressed in all black, eyes behind sunglasses, a black line drawn across his face, reads from a poem, the moving prose deriding the treatment of immigrants (\u201c<em>We shape your desire while we contract our services to postpone the real expulsion<\/em>\u201d) recognize the borders we put around ourselves (\u201c<em>We are equally scared of one another<\/em>\u201d) and realize the healing, paradigm shifting, immense power of art to break down those borders (\u201c<em>You just can\u2019t take our art away<\/em>).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and <strong>Adriana Garriga-Lopez<\/strong>, K\u2019s Arcus Center chair and assistant professor of anthropology, participate in a question and answer session, the format of which, again, breaks through the borders of what is considered normal.<\/p>\n<p>G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a wears a dog collar attached to a chain that Garriga-Lopez is holding. She queries him on his motivations for performance art and what he hopes it achieves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you view the body?\u201d Garriga-Lopez asks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe performance artist sees the body as a landscape, a map, an architectural artifact, mythological creature, text,\u201d G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you see yourself as a poet, or a dancer, or a performance artist, or an activist? Or are all those things the same thing?\u201d Garriga-Lopez asks.<\/p>\n<p>She tugs at the chain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you choking me?\u201d G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a says. \u201cI am this and that and everything in between.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat are you like in your personal life?\u201d Garriga-Lopez asks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I\u2019m on stage, I\u2019m more warrior-like, more Indian shaman, a little more queer, more deliberate and outrageous. And off-stage, I am just another perplexed mediocre human being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps. But like the start of his performance, it\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Guillermo G\u00f3mez-Pe\u00f1a and Mich\u00e8le Ceballos Michot at www.pochanostra.com.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4930"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24061,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions\/24061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4930"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=4930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}