About

Artistic Practice

I am a Venezuelan-born Dutch artist committed to the creation of tangible and intangible works. My performances rely on musical sound, alternatively combined with physical theatre and cinematic footage. These tend to explore diverse notions of space and how shifting positions within it enables multiple layers of meaning. My record of tangible artworks includes installations, printouts, creative writings, musical compositions, audio recordings, and digital images, which are often connected to my performances. My style leans towards a modernist aesthetics in theatrical, literary and visual terms, whereas my music is closer to a form of postmodernism that feeds from global music, hard rock, minimalism and elements of serialism. Some of my recent projects repurpose contributions of 20th-century Dutch artists, such as Theo van Doesburg, Joris Ivens and Constant Nieuwenhuys, for the creation of new artworks. I have been professionally active since 1999, time during which I have shown my work internationally, including venues in Venezuela, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, and The Netherlands.

Research Practice

My research focuses on art theories and practices as found in diverse cultural settings and historical periods. From the methodological point of view, I tend to align my work with the principles of phenomenology and artistic research. Relying on the notion of experience as the level of description, most of my research is built around case studies that allow for exploring ways of thinking about human experience through the arts in the widest sense, including music, theatre, cinema, literature and the visual arts. My artistic practice feed directly into my investigations, which often take the for of reflexive, arts-based research. Complete list of publications available at ORCID

Education

• PhD in Creative and Performing Arts. Leiden University, NL
• MA in Philosophy of Art (2010) Leiden University, NL
• BA in Art (2005) Universidad Central de Venezuela, VE

Teaching Practice

Teaching is a unique way of relating to people. There is hardly any other situation in which giving and receiving are so finely conflated. Its scope is not exhausted by the one-way street that would seem to connect teachers to students in a traditional lecture. Teaching means sharing in such a way that givers and receivers get to profit in equal measure. This I learned in my years as a music instructor back in the 2000s. I noticed that the more I taught the better I performed, which in turn gave me more to offer. We learned together. I teach university students in the same spirit. I want them to take home that which I find most valuable, that which I also want for myself: critical thinking. I promote a way of learning whereby questions are considered in terms of their grounds of possibility. I invite my students to cultivate accuracy of expression and thought, to properly formulate and understand complex ideas and situations. I encourage them to think creatively and reflexively, in awareness of their own biases, experiences, and emotions. I believe in the benefits of active learning, whereby students become involved in their education.

I currently teach at Leiden University (profile) and Webster University Leiden Campus.

Artist’s Statement: Social Engagement

I’m not a social worker, nor do I offer social services. I do not mirror the angst of the community, though I’m not blind to it. I do not remove people from the responsibility to give meaning to their own experiences. I do not involve the audience in my personal ideology, nor do I promote theirs. Through my artistic practice, I get involved with the ideas and events that gather us together—to agree or disagree.