Pérez Art Museum Miami’s (PAMM) Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI) kicks off Beyond Representation, a research and exhibition project focusing on performance art practices from the Caribbean and its diasporas, with a two-part program showcasing the rich creative and artistic contributions of Caribbean and Latinx artists to the American avant-garde.
First, watch “¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989–1996,” a documentary about Rompeforma: Maratón de Baile, Performance & Visuales, an experimental dance and performance festival that took place in Puerto Rico from 1989–1996. This screening will be followed by a conversation with film co-directors and pioneer choreographers and performance artists from Puerto Rico, Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez.
Then, enjoy the reenactment of Vejigante decrépito, a live performance by Puerto Rican visual artist, dancer, choreographer, performer, and Rompeforma participant Awilda Sterling Duprey. Vejigante decrépito draws on the figure of the vejigante, a folkloric character typical of Puerto Rican carnival celebrations.
About ¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989-1996
“¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989–1996” is a documentary about Rompeforma: Maratón de Baile, Performance & Visuales, an experimental dance and performance festival that took place in Puerto Rico from 1989–1996. This documentary is co-directed and produced by Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez, edited by Laura Sofía Pérez, and musically scored by Eduardo Alegría. “Fenomenal” provides evidence of the rich creative and artistic contributions of Caribbean and Latinx artists to the American avant-garde, and showcases the repertoire of a generation of Caribbean and Latinx experimental dance, performance, and curation often overlooked and/or forgotten by historians, scholars, and practitioners in the field.
“Fenomenal” features dozens of performances and commentary by many current leaders of the field, and some who have sadly passed. Among the most notable artists are: Awilda Sterling Duprey and Coco Fusco, who were featured in the 2022 Whitney Biennial; Antonio Martorell, recently awarded the National Medal of the Arts (USA); Pepón Osorio, whose solo exhibition is currently on view at the New Museum (NYC); Raphael Montañez, founder of El Museo del Barrio (NYC); David Zambrano, celebrated dancer, master teacher, and director of TicTac Art Centre in Brussels; celebrated theater and performance artists Carmelita Tropicana and Guillermo Gómez Peña; Nuyorican poets, Sandra María Esteves, Pedro Pietri, and Miguel Algarín; and many more.
About Awilda Sterling Duprey, Vejigante decrépito, 2023
Awilda Sterling Duprey’s performance Vejigante decrépito draws on the figure of the vejigante, a folkloric character typical of Puerto Rican carnival celebrations, in particular the Festivities of Santiago Apóstol (St. James), the saint of devotion in the town of Loíza, Puerto Rico. A term deriving from the words vejiga (bladder) and gigante (giant), the vejigante carries a bladder full of water to scare the participants of the festivities held each year on July 25. In Sterling Duprey’s version of Vejigante, the character is so tired of repeating the same role every year that he has worn himself out. In this performance, the metaphor of the vejigante also makes reference to the stagnation and uprootedness suffered by the majority of the island’s poor populations, especially those of African descent.
Beyond Representation is organized by Andrew W. Mellon Caribbean Cultural Institute Curatorial Associate Iberia Pérez González.
About the Artists
Puerto Rican dancer, choreographer, and video artist and filmmaker Merián Soto, is the creator of aesthetic-somatic dance practices and methodologies, Branch Dancing and Modal Practice. She is known for works that explore and reflect upon Latinx heritage, history, culture and the legacy of colonialism, experiments with Salsa, and the Branch Dance Series, which includes dozens of performances on stage, in galleries, and in nature, as well as video installations, and year-long seasonal projects. Soto has received numerous grants and awards including a BESSIE (2000), a Greater Philadelphia Dance and Physical Theater Award “ROCKY” (2008), a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2015), and a United States Artists Doris Duke Fellowship in Dance (2019). Soto resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she is a Professor of Dance and Curator of the Reflection/Response Choreographic Commission in the Department of Dance at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. Current projects include La Escuelita Fenomenal, with Viveca Vázquez; ongoing collaborations with Eiko Otake, and Silvana Cardell; and Legacy Unboxed, an archival and exhibition project in collaboration with Liz Lerman, Jawolle Zollar, Joanna Haigood, and Eiko Otake.
Viveca Vázquez is a main figure in the field of experimental dance and performance in Puerto Rico. She is also full professor at the University of Puerto Rico where she teaches movement courses at the theater department and the classics at the school of General Studies. She is a 2022 United States Artists Mellon Fellow. In the past, she has also been awarded fellowships in dance from National Endowment for the Arts and Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. In 2013, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC) presented a retrospective of her work titled CONDUCTA Coreografía del Error [CONDUCT Choreography of Error], marking the first time a museum in Puerto Rico acknowledged the work of a movement artist on such a big scale. Vázquez’s work has also been presented in experimental venues in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Portugal, Ecuador, and Brussels. During 2023, she has been presenting Fenomenal, Rompeforma 1989-1996, a documentary film she co-produced and co-directed with fellow dancer and colleague Merián Soto.
Awilda Sterling Duprey earned her master’s degree from the Pratt Institute in New York. Her artistic practice integrates painting, drawing, mixed media, installation, and performance. The Black Paintings of Franz Kline, Conceptual Art and Dada are her main influences, as well as the magical-religious traditions of Afro-Cuban culture. Her work has been presented in the Caribbean, the United States and Europe. She has been awarded the USA Artists Fellowship (2010); El Resuelve (2017) and El Serrucho (2019) by Beta-Local; Tree of Life Artists Grant (2019); Artists Relief Grant from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico (2020); USA Artists Relief Grant (2020); and participated in MAAS MoCA Artists Residency (2022). Recently, Sterling Duprey has exhibited her installation work at the There Is No Post-Hurricane World and As Quiet as It’s Kept at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In 2023, she was awarded the Award for Arts Achievement and Excellence by the International Council of Fine Arts Deans.
