Charo Oquet
Premiering in Edge Zones Gallery – 3317 NW 7th Ave. Circle, Miami, FL 33127
ARRAYANOS
Dates: March17 and 18,2017
Time: 8 p.m.
Press Preview: Wednesday, March 15 – 8 pm
Curator/Director: Samuel Ibarra Covarrubias
Co-Director: Krzysztof Leon Dziemaszkiewicz
LiveMúsicas: Gregorio and Eduardo Alvarez, Miguel Valentine
Collaborations: Johan Mijail Castillo Guillen, Robert Oiartzun Susjñar
Contact: Charo Oquet – 305 303 8852 – edgezones@me.com
A large exhibition and performance by renowned Miami inter-disciplinary artist – Charo Oquet at Edge Zones Gallery will inaugurated on March 17 and 18, 2017, curated and co-directed by the Chilean playwright Samuel Ibarra Covarrubias and the Polish artist residing in Berlin Krzysztof Leon Dziemaszkiewicz.
Arrayanos is the latest creation by interdisciplinary artist Charo Oquet that summarizes sections of research that expands over 20 years of her work.
Charo Oquet has entered into the rhythmic and luminous world of Arrayano culture, a human group that inhabits the borders of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and has a very deep spiritual imagery that materializes in songs, dances and syncretic religious devotions. The Arrayano people do not have an easy existence as settling in a geopolitically indeterminate space their lives lack social policies that assure basic conditions of life.
Charo Oquet has investigated this culture especially their spiritual devotional world that has very extended connections with deep Africa. Their songs, dances and rituals are crossed by hopes and dreams of the future, by the idea that the gods dance and accompany the fervor and prayers of the people who ask for health, well-being and peace.
In this Arrayanos project Charo Oquet positions anthropological and social performative readings to create a work that enters into dialogue with the stories of her life as an artist has and the place she takes to work on and intervene. The city of Miami as a hub of crosses and exchanges gives her the opportunity to address multiple diasporas that live in it, Dominicans, Haitians, Puerto Ricans, African-Americans.
Arrayanos is a creation process that Oquet started in the beginning of the 90s in his native Dominican Republic, but has also been conceptualized with readings, residencies and creation processes in to name a few: Spain, New Zealand, Istanbul, France, Haiti, Berlin or Norway. In all these places Charo Oquet has modeled a work that crosses the documentary video, photography, painting, engraving, installation and collage, but also textile art and copious bibliographical research.
Arrayanos is a new “live documentary” integrates video, installation and film, narration, and live performance. Inspired by the new “live documentary” form of artists such as Sam Green, whose “The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller,” is a documentary film presented as a unique performative experience with live musicians, “Arrayanos” creates a dialogue about Haitian/Dominican relations through the lens of “Gaga,” an Afro-Caribbean music/dance ritual form. Gaga is a vibrant folk tradition that traveled from Haiti (where it was known as “Rara”) to the Dominican Republic starting circa 1844 via the migration of sugar cane plantation workers. It incorporates elements of ritual, folklore, fertility rites, music, dance, colorful costumes, and interrogation of the roles of gender, class, and authority
The Arrayanos performance will be accompanied by a large visual installation that brings together multiple formats and fragments of work, as well as video recordings and will be inaugurated on Friday, March 17 and Saturday, March 18 at 8 pm (doors open at 7 pm) at Edge Zones Gallery located at 3317 NW 7th Ave. Circle, Miami, FL 33127. Charo Oquet will perform a piece created especially for the show and symbolically summarizes a long thematic and creative trajectory. The work will feature the collaboration of experimental musicians Greg and Eduardo Álvarez (Jellyfish Brother) and Miguel Valentine and Samuel Ibarra Chilean artist who makes a residence in Edge Zones.
About the Artist
Dominican born Miami based, Charo Oquet, was named a South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellow in 2015 and 2005. She has received several prestigious grants from entities such as MAP Fund 2014, Museum of Modern of Santo Domingo 2011, Florida State 2015, Performing America of the National Performance Network and the QEII Arts Council of New Zealand. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at Pavilion of Contemporary Art (PAC), Italy; Ft. Lauderdale Museum, Bass Museum, New Zealand National Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, NZ., New Zealand National Museum, Casal Solleric, Spain, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Denmark Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin, Kunstnerne Hus, Norway. Her work has been featured in notable publications and is found in the permanent collections of the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno; Spain; the Ft Lauderdale and Frost Museum of Florida; New Zealand National Museum, Wellington, N.Z.; Govett-Brewter Art Gallery, N.Z.; and The World Bank. A book of her work was published. A book of her work was published in Spain in 2002.
The work has been made possible through the generous support of The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital, primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funds come from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It is also made possible in part by a grant from the National Performance Network’s Performing America’s Program. Lead funding of the national performance network performing America’s program is provided by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.
It is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts, the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
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