My Peroformance Art work can be dividided between the pieces presented with my Transdisciplinary Art Group Hostal Mercedes Av., and those made solo.
The work done with Hostal includes 3 projects during the years 2017-2022, and almost 20 more in the 2022-2026 period.
To the first Hostal period correspond the folowing prjects: (1) What does it mean to be alive?, (2) What do you think about when you look at the sky?, and (3) What is the most important thing in life?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ALIVE?
This project began in 2015 with a call for submissions in which 143 people from all over Latin America, Europe and the United States (Spanish speaking), wrote a letter to someone they hadn’t seen in a long time, explaining what they had seen, heard, and experienced. At the end of each letter, the authors offer a response—addressed to God, Nature, or the original recipient—to the question: What does it mean to be alive?
The authors were housewives, professionals, students, and amateur writers. During 2015 and 2016, copies of the correspondence were delivered to strangers on the streets of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Querétaro, and Tlaxcala, without giving the authors an opportunity to respond.
The project included 23 paintings by Carlos A. Ponzio (Mixed media on paper: 42 cm x 59 cm), which were exhibited alongside the letters in November 2016 in Tlaxcala. Some of the media coverage can be found here: 1. Agenda, 2. Exp Polit.
Between January 2017 and February 2018, Performances were held in Mexico City with Hostal Mercedes Av. at venues such as Casa del Tiempo, Galería Garros, Salón TEA, Laberinto Cultural SantaMa. and ENMJN. Selected excerpts or complete letters were dramatized between performances of live music, surronded by the paintings. During the Performance, attendees had the opportunity to write their own letters, and read them aloud on the microphone at the moment of the performance. For this project, more than one hundred and fifty letters were submitted this way.
Folowing projects included Performances that added Dance, and Music and Paintings done collaboratively. The paintings related to this project in particular, were the following:
Documents:
Video Segment of First Performance in Mexico City
Registered Performances (Feb 2017 – Aug 2022)
Cartas originales completas: 143 Cartas Paginadas
Selecciones: Fragmentos de las 143 Cartas
Cartas leídas el 24 de Febrero de 2018, en ENMJN
Lista de fragmentos leídos en Laberinto Cultural SantaMa
Lista de cartas leídas en Salón TEA, 29 de abril de 2017
Lista de cartas leídas en Galería Garros
Lista de cartas leídas en Casa del Tiempo (25 de enero de 2017)
Lista de cartas expuestas y leídas en Tlaxcala
Introducción a la conferencia en Tlaxcala
Convocatoria original para escritores
OTHER “HOSTAL” PROJECTS:
¿En qué piensas cuando miras al cielo? (What do you think when you look at the sky?)
¿Qué es lo importante en la vida? (What’s the most important thing in life?)
SOLO WORK
Influenced by performers such as Andrea Fraser, Carey Young, Coco Fusco, and Ryan Gander, (who use the lecture or public speaking format to convey rethorical questions about art and society, and to explain themselves and their work), I use the performance lecture as a tool of insight about (Economics of) Art and its relationship to Immortality, Eternal Life and other topics.
Two recent lecture-performances were the following:
- Economic Lessons of AI Intrusion in Art Markets. (06/06/24). Indiana University.
2. What is at Stake when We Price Art? (February 19, 2025). Video Slides (Slide Art):