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Conuco | An Excerpt Window Installation

July 11, 2021 - August 22, 2021

Cacao A Venezuelan Lament Excerpt Installation

This immersive, multidisciplinary window installation illustrates stories from the cacao forest in Venezuela, also known as Conuco. Against a backdrop of political upheaval, the work explores the living and lost memory of Venezuela’s cacao cultivation while exhibiting the vibrancy of the region’s coastal rhythms and its vast landscapes.

Designers Alexandra Gelis and Alejandra Higuera draw hypnotic sounds of the Venezuelan Quitiplas into our urban experience. This Afro-indigenous percussion instrument made of bamboo sticks carry laments and conversations inside the humid and colourful cacao farms in the coastal towns of Tapipa, Cata and Rio Caribe. The work, led by Victoria Mata, invites an intimate connection to the hands, voices and songs of cacao farmers, elders, knowledge keepers and masters that have accompanied the artistic process of this creative team for the past twelve years.

You’re further invited to join us in connecting with our cacao farmer collaborators whose stories and histories are the inspiration and backbone of this production. Fill out the google form below to receive your own postcard mail art kit so that you can join us in sending your drawings and messages to cacao farmers in Venezuela!

This is a free outdoor event.

Sign up for a free post card kit: click here

Creative Team

Creator and Choreographer | Victoria Mata

Creative Producer |  Alison Wong

Production Assistant |  Daniela Arango

Environment Design | Trevor Schwellnus

Camera | Cyntia Iradi, Luis Calderon, Juan Pablo Pinto, Carlos LaSala, Victoria Mata

Documentation Assistance | Eloi Araujo Mata, Liset Mariana Huerfano, Misset Parata, Nahiti Ortega

 

Single Channel Video by Alejandra Higuera

Original Compositions by Ivan Lira

Appearances by Carlixta Palacios, El Gato, Trabajadoras de la Hacienda Mendoza, Alicia Palacios, Trabajadores de la Hacienda San Eloy, Lourde Ramírez, Trabajadoras de la Empresa Campesina Chuao, Ivan Lira, Alexis Machado, Belkis Figuera, Jesús Rondón, Paula Nuñez, Petra Herrera, Pio Jose Lira, Ezequiel Millan, Luis Molilla, Yamile Taina Perez Palacios, Alida Quintero, Omaira Guillermina López Lyon, Hilario Garcia, Ricardo Mato López, Nelson Enrique Rangel, Maria Cristina Lira, Jesus Lira Medina, Jesus Diaz, Arcadio Moya,  Sr. Félix Corro, Alberto Bonilla, Dimas Berroteran,  Bailarinas de Vasallos de Venezuela -Rita Vaamonde Specht, Rossmary Rondón,  y Nahiti Ortega.

 

Three Channel Video by Alexandra Gelis

Sound design |  Alexandra Gelis

Dancers | Victoria Mata, Nahiti Ortega

Voices by Jackeline Rago (Lament Song), Alexis Machado (Narration), Victoria Mata/Diana Reyes (Poem)

Quitiplas by Yamile Taina Perez Palacio

Appearances by Carlixta Palacios, El Gato, Trabajadoras de la Hacienda Mendoza, Alicia Palacios, Trabajadores de la Hacienda San Eloy, Trabajadoras de la Empresa Campesina Chuao.

 

Made possible through the support of Toronto Arts Council’s Open Doors program.

Details

Start:
July 11, 2021
End:
August 22, 2021

Venue

St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
27 Front St. East
Toronto, Ontario M5E 1B4 Canada
+ Google Map

Organizer

HAPPENING Multicultural Festival & Cacao Collective, in partnership with TO Live, presents…