Here are some photos from the performance and artistic installation "Weird Birds” 🐦‍⬛👁️ a collaboration with my great friend, choreographer, and dancer Efi Farmaki.

We also had the privilege to put music to this creation with Reimer Bo on accordion.

Thank you both for joining on this idea, which we presented in May at the opening of Containerakademiet.

"Weird Birds" 🐦‍⬛👁️symbolizes a metamorphosis, a personal journey of breaking free from the constraints that hold us back. Through our reflections, we discovered that flight is a powerful metaphor for this quest.

The glances that weigh, those that support, those that judge... A new way of seeing after each journey, after every profound experience. The eyes behind each gaze in this installation are the feathers of those wings. 

Work in progress

In front of the sea is my home, a place that no longer exists as a physical space when traveling is a constant.

In front of the sea I feel close to all those people and landscapes that I do not forget.

Every object I find on the beach, especially in winter especially in winter, when it's just us, tells me a story that I imagine.

I am working on an exhibition project of paintings, sculptures and installations inspired by the memories of my travels, by the amulets I keep from each place and also by those items found on the coast.

2022, 120x97 Acrylic and mixed media on fabric.

What would you take with you when you leave? I mean, when you leave, leave, when you don’t know if you’re coming back.

The luggage gets lighter on the way, you get rid of the weight of the dispensable. All that remains is for what it means, not for what it is.

In that new destination, if the place deserves it, someone will love the stories that your objects hold.

2023, 120x100 cm Acrylic and mixed media on fabric.

I didn’t know it, but it was during that time in Brazil that my metamorphosis began. Travelling and painting, painting without frontiers and without material limits. My room was about 6m² in a house shared with more than 20 people, but we had an outside patio with big walls, so I had the idea of stapling the fabrics outside. Looking to solve a space issue I found my pictorial freedom. I discovered that painting on raw fabrics is like painting without limits. I can cut the textile out or enlarge it and then, by rolling it up, I can take it anywhere with me. My paintings became part of my luggage.

In order for none of this to make sense, I painted this work on a closed format canvas, a box that makes the weight of all that luggage heavier.

2022, 160x153 cm Acrylic and mixed media on fabric.

Part of the project Hybrid Identities.

Yes, of course,

I'll take care of it, yeah yeah,

all right, okay,

I'll be right there,

yes, it’s a great opportunity…

I can, but do I want to?

What do I want?

We have changed. We are aware of our potential and we want to take our place, the place that has been denied to us throughout history. But can we do it without leaving anything behind? Can we do it if we keep everything?

Buy an original reproduction on paper.

2022, 135x110cm Acrylic on fabric.

*Work acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias (Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias)

Pinche jefa is part of the series Urbanas, an ode to a generation of nomadic women, travelers, expatriates, migrants. To their ability to assimilate diverse identities and transform them into a hybrid identity; a vision of plurality that our society needs more than ever to face future challenges.

I met Mar in Paris (2018), she was leading the art center where I was conceded an art studio. From the first day, it beats me when I listen to her that she quiets more than she tells, transparent that there is always more. María del Mar, Mar, more Mar than María, is like this: small, with a delicate and beautiful appearance, talented and with tremendous strength that she hides behind excessive smiles and jokes that also mask the secrets that hurt her.

Her amulet is a small old elephant carved in stone and decorated with beads.

Mar is also an artist, she works modeling pieces inspired by body parts like the one she wears on her head in "Pinche jefa".

From Mexico, she rides an elephant through the streets of Paris crowned by one of her sculptures.

2023. Yucatán, México. Art installation for the scenography of a play premiered at the Merida Fest.

Exilia was an adventure. An invitation to another world, the theater.

For three weeks I worked on the backstage with actresses, managers, technicians and the director on a theatrical project 100% created by women for the Mérida Fest 2023.

The proposal was to conceive an artistic scenographic device created in a parallel process to the creation of the play itself, which three weeks before the premiere did not yet exist. The challenge was complex, hard and beautiful.

I worked on two interrelated proposals. A mural work installed at the entrance of the theater and a multimedia work born from an exploration of the holographic effects of projections on fabrics and the experience that these effects provoke in people when you play with light, movement, sound and scale. Having the actresses Mariah Li, Randia Sofia and Aleé Sanchez was a privilege for this exploration, as well as the music of cellist Malina Cano, guitarist Andrea Carrillo and violist Sheila Miranda.

These works are part of the series Hybrid Identities inspired by nomadic women, travelers, expatriates, migrants, in their ability to adopt diverse identities and transform them in a multiple vision of reality that our society needs more than ever to face future challenges.

I collected photos and stories of the amulets of women with this profile and from them I worked on several pictorial works.

In the first image, Vero, an Argentinian woman living in Paris, wears her grandmother's shirt. Other talismans are also integrated in the work.

The following painting is a portrait of Alexandra Honey, a Mexican singer. Her amulet is the ukulele and the work is inspired by one of her videos singing and playing in the streets of Paris.

Part of the project Hybrid Identities.

The image shows a group of women painting a mural together.

They are drawing symbols that represent the amulets of female migrants/nomads/expats that I collected during months. With this work I want to highlight and reclaim the place of women in society, in art and also in the streets.

Almost everywhere in the world we still turn at every corner to make sure that no one is chasing us, we speed up our pace if someone comes behind us or we do not pass-through certain areas if it is dark.

in this work, we don't let them intimidate us, we conquer those places.

2024

“En cuanto salimos del coche, comenzamos a reír, reír por estar vivos, reír con las últimas fuerzas, dando tiempo al cuerpo para soltar y descansar.”

(As soon as we got out of the car, we started laughing, laughing for being alive, laughing with the last of our strength, giving the body time to let it go and rest.)

Fragment of the text that tells the story of the night we crossed the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. I was inspired by that trip to create this work, which is both a tribute to friendship and to laugh at fear.

2021, 135x122 cm Acrylic on fabric.

Artwork I painted in Paris as part of the Hybrid Identities project, an ode to a generation of nomadic women, travelers, expatriates, migrants...

fragment of a text inspired by the painting:

And we escaped without looking back. Looking ahead, without thinking much to avoid analyzing the hazards and therefore following the instinct.

Unstable? yes. Better? too. Risks? Lots.

I can is part of the series Urbanas, an ode to a generation of nomadic women, travelers, expatriates, migrants. To their ability to assimilate diverse identities and transform them into a hybrid identity; a vision of plurality that our society needs more than ever to face future challenges.

"When I am alone abroad with friends who do not speak my mother tongue, making origami cranes reassures me and reminds me that I am a powerful woman, capable of achieving whatever I want in this crazy world," Nalani tells me.

That same day, in a bar in Montmartre (Paris), where we gathered with friends, I asked Vero about her amulet, about an object that is special to her because of what it makes her feel or remember, even if it is insignificant to the rest of the world.

At first she said she didn't think she had one. After a while she came back and told me about one of her grandmother's shirts and gave me a paper crane she had just made from a piece of napkin, "this is my object too".

Two cranes in the same day that in this work levitate in the hands of a woman of mixed features, deep, strong and serene look. Her feet on the ground.

Adresse: Le Génie de la Bastille 126, rue de Charonne – 75011 Paris Date:

27/04/2022 - 08/05/2022

Solo exhibition and self-managed program of events at La Genie de la Bastille Gallery. Paris, France. It was a multidisciplinary and immersive exhibition project, an ode to a generation of nomadic women, travelers, expatriates, migrants... To their ability to assimilate diverse perspectives and transform them into a hybrid identity; a vision of plurality that our society needs more than ever. The objective of organizing this program was to transform the gallery into an active space of encounter. Very interesting synergies were generated between the attendees and participating artists.

Hologram instalation. Work in collaboration with Efi Farmaki choreographer and dancer.

"The place it was" is an imagined landscape, a non-place without people. The walls of this urban landscape become canvases that express what people shout and the lights tell us that, not so long ago, it was inhabited.

Fragmento del texto de Luis Feás Costilla Comisario de la exposición "Personæ".

UNA ARTISTA SIN MÁSCARAS
“Desde entonces la inquietud sobre las consecuencias de la forma de vida de las sociedades occidentales en el medio ambiente es un asunto recurrente en su trabajo, que la ha llevado desde Asturias a pasar largas estancias en São Paulo, Lisboa, Londres, Yakarta, Pekín, Nueva York o Madrid, lugares todos cuyos suburbios se ha dedicado a explorar. Su activismo, que es también social, se plasma artísticamente en su obra.”

“En la exposición que aquí se muestra, y que sirve para celebrar el galardón, el más importante que reciben los artistas jóvenes asturianos, María Peña Coto enfrenta la dialéctica humanidad/naturaleza a través de la máscara, que expresa muchos de los conceptos implícitos en su obra, como los referidos a la identidad y al conflicto hombre-animal. El título Personæ, etimológicamente, también hace referencia a la diferenciación de los individuos de la raza humana, singularizándolos frente a la naturaleza, con la chulería propia de los matones de barrio, que hacen huir despavoridos a los animales del entorno, o en su caso reintegrándolos en ella, como el activismo animalista que todavía busca la conexión respetuosa del medio urbano con el natural.”

“Muchas de sus telas, pintadas e intervenidas, están recompuestas mediante retazos, y en alguna de ellas se busca la participación del público asistente, en
una tendencia que María Peña Coto comparte con muchas compañeras de generación. Lo participativo no es tanto una cuestión de método como de estilo y
se corresponde adecuadamente con alguien que no es solo buena artista sino mejor persona, confiada en que no sea demasiado tarde para corregir colectivamente un trazado que nos lleva directamente hacia la destrucción. Ya en su momento advirtió Walter Benjamin que la revolución no sería tanto la locomotora de la historia como el recurso al freno de emergencia que impediría al género humano descarrilar.”

Series inspired by childhood stories of a friend from Afghanistan.

On the rooftop of the Shangyuan Museum of Contemporary Art, located in a very rural area of the province of Beijing, I created a participatory performance in which the audience took part in a multi-sensory ritual about fear.

After a few minutes of guided meditation, I gave them a fabric to write on it a barrier or obstacle that affects their lives. Something that they would like to symbolically face in this experience. Then I helped each one to cover their eyes with it.

The music of two violins and a cello of three talented musicians created a magical atmosphere in that rather special place.

On this roof there is a crystal labyrinth that I encouraged the people to walk through blindly, guided only by the sound of music and touch. At the end of the experience, they removed their blindfolds and were invited to express their emotions through paint on a large white canvas, creating a collective piece.

Lastly, we sat together to share a tea and their experiences. Some of them expressed very deep emotions, as for example oseries of pictorial works, videos and installationsne of the women who explained that when she approached the cello very close, blind, she felt a very strong emotion that made her burst into tears.

I did this collective performance during a four-month art residency in this museum. Before it, I had realized an action on the Great Wall of China. For three hours, I walked along the wall in high heels, blindfolded. Only the touch, the voices and the music of a violin and a cello guided my steps. On different fabrics covering my eyes, I had written words representing obstacles related to my gender.

Watching the video of this performance, I felt that the most important part of the moment was not captured. The stress, the claustrophobia, the loss of balance; how these sensations were transformed; how I had entered a state of meditation and calm; how I had felt my senses of touch, smell and hearing heightened to the maximum; how the sounds of the environment seemed to be amplified, the music seemed to be colored and how I had totally lost track of time. None of that was captured, that could only be transmitted by generating a similar experience for the people.

From these two experiences I created a series of pictorial works, videos and installations with objects brought from China that have been exhibited in several galleries in Spain.

Acknowledgements: Wang Ya Xi John (Camera), Tiangu Fan (Music ), Guochang Mao (Music), Wang Guo Kun (Music), Stella Wang for the assistance, Wang Rong and the Artists in Residence 2016 at Shangyuan Art Museum, her director and friends.

2016. Performance at the Great Wall of China. Video Great Walls documents a performance in which I walked in heels for 3 hours blindfolded with scarves a part of The Great Wall of China. My only cues were some voices and the music from a violin and cello that guided my steps. On the scarves were written various words representing gender obstacles I’ve often experience in my lifetime. I was symbolically facing those boundaries.

Watching the video of this performance, I felt that the most important part of the experience was not captured. It wasn’t showing the stress, the claustrophobia, the loss of balance, nor how these sensations were transformed. How I had entered a state of meditation and calm, how I had felt my senses of touch, smell and hearing heightened to the maximum.

The sounds of the environment seemed to be amplified, the music seemed to be colored and I had totally lost track of time.

All of that could only be transmitted by generating a similar experience for the viewer himself, which led me to the idea of a collective performance in the crystal labyrinth.

Acknowledgements: Wang Ya Xi John (videos and photos), Tiangu Fan (Music ), Guochang Mao (Music), Wang Guo Kun (Music).

Great Walls is a multidisciplinary project based in two performances that I developed in China. I documented them in two videos and I made a series of paintings based on them.

This project has been shown at the Sala Borrón in Oviedo, the cultural center Antiguo Instituto Jovellanos, Gijón, and the Sala de Arte Joven in Madrid.

Nos juntamos a cenar en uno de los estudios del museo (Shangyuan Art Museum). Y en ese pueblo perdido en la China rural, con un grupo de artistas locales, brindamos. Brindamos al grito de ¡Campei! En la clandestinidad de un lugar así la información fluía, las historias de un colectivo considerado subversivo, el de los artistas. 

En el proceso creativo de esta obra invité a participar a algunas de las personas que conocí allí. Un experimento sobre sus reacciones y las mías al intervenir libremente en mi trabajo.

Cities are open books that tell stories of the people who inhabit them. Walls become canvases that express what people shout. Silence, fury, joy...

They rise up forming homes, stores, prisons, offices...

Visible and invisible walls that divide us.

Squares, control towers, shelters, hospitals, apartments where to buy love, chapels, mosques and temples. Everything is part of the same city, the city where the memories of traveling come together.

Serie trabajada durante una residencia artística en el centro de arte contemporáneo Zaratan, (link) en Lisboa.

Lisboa es una gran ciudad que todavía late a un ritmo diferente. Por momentos y en ciertos rincones, Lisboa te traslada al medio rural donde las relaciones sociales y con el medio natural son muy diferentes. Esto me inspiró a trabajar sobre la relación entre las ciudades y el medio natural.   

Las grandes urbes del mundo son reflejo de los principales avances y retos de este tiempo. Espacios mixtos y llenos de contrastes en los que se mezclan culturas e ideologías, se definen las políticas que rigen las normas de cada país, se trabaja en los principales avances tecnológicos y se activa la economía. Pero el sistema que hasta ahora ha sostenido este desarrollo viene de la mano de importantes desafíos como la desigualdad, los altos niveles de contaminación y de consumo de energía y la elevada concentración de personas en las ciudades que aumenta a pasos agigantados mientras otras zonas van quedando despo- bladas.

Según NNUU la mitad de la humanidad, 3500 millones de personas, vive hoy día en las ciudades, de los cuales 828 millones viven en barrios marginales. En 2030 casi el 60% de la población mundial vivirá en núcleos urbanos. Aunque las ciudades ocupan apenas el 3% del planeta, representan entre el 60 y 80% del consumo de energía y el 75% de las emisiones de carbono. Estos datos alertan sobre la magnitud del reto al que nos enfrentamos en un mundo en el que, además, los recursos en los que hemos basado el desarrollo cada vez son más escasos.

Jeffrey Sachs, uno de los más prestigiosos especialista en desarrollo sostenible, nos da la siguiente recomendación: “Miremos al horizonte. Hay mucho ruido y miramos a lo urgente, pero no a lo importante”.

El texto que mejor contextualiza esta obra son las palabras de Chema Monreal, patrón de barco y técnico en Salvamento. Dice:

“¿Sabéis como retumban los gritos de socorro en mitad del mar cuando no divisas a la persona?...¿Sabéis cómo es un cuerpo flotando boca abajo, por el que ya nada se puede hacer?.
¿Sabéis a qué velocidad se traga el mar un cuerpo, cuando diez segundos antes te miraba pidiendo ayuda?...¿Sabéis qué es el frío y la soledad?... No lo sabéis.
Ojalá vuestra imagen del mar sea siempre la del verano, el sol y el chiringuito, porque si algún día os veis en esta otra situación, rezad para que en los despachos de un gobierno den la orden de ir a buscaros." (fragmento).

She carries a bag over her head that reminds the resistant striped plastic bags so common at the borders. I painted this work in an studio in the 18th district of Paris, a multicultural neighborhood where different generations of migrants settled. One day, we had a workshop at the studio with a group of children who asked me if they could also paint. I found pertinent to leave them a place in my work, so they wrote their names, and the youngest girl did a scribble. These are traces of the context and the moment, which are part of the work.

¡Ya! está inspirada en la ópera “Fuenteovejuna”, de J.Muñiz, que versiona el clásico de Lope de Vega adaptándola a la actualidad. Formó parte de la exposición #FOV comisariada por Luis Feás en colaboración con Ópera de Oviedo.

Los personajes vagan por la ciudad a ciegas, guiados por la inercia, pero sin la inquietud ni actitud para ver más allá de sus máscaras. Solo ella reacciona a un estímulo, se quita la venda y mira sin miedo.

OKE: - oke, oke; oke, d’accord; oke seriz – Son expresiones en kreyol haitiano que consiguen suavizar cualquier situación de tensión. 

La exposición “Oke, el mantra de Haití" narra momentos, paisajes y conclusiones de un viaje por Haití.

Haití es África en el Caribe, es color, magia y fuerza, pero es también un país cansado. Un cansancio que se traduce en hostilidad hacia el otro, incitando a reflexionar sobre la historia menos amable del mundo occidental. 

Las obras sobre las que he trabajado son como el “oke”, a través de la forma y el color suavizo mis reflexiones sin perder por ello la fuerza del contenido. 

La arquitectura y la mujer se convierten, una vez más, en protagonistas de mis obras. Es en ellas donde de nuevo encuentro la fuerza e inspiración del país.

 Los tonos predominantes provienen de las fachadas de las casas haitianas. Colores claros y luminosos que parecen estar ahí para dar un respiro a un presente más gris. 

Cada vez que superamos barreras sociales y políticas parece imposible volver atrás, vemos lo ridículo que ha sido tal forma de discriminación y pensamos que lo hemos conseguido. Sorprende entonces que vuelva a pasar, que muchos derechos y libertades queden expuestos de nuevo. Esta obra nos sitúa como espectadores externos ante diferentes formas de exclusión, pero con la llave del cambio a nuestro alcance.

“Del otro lado” busca generar preguntas y debate que completen y enriquezcan la pieza. En el poder de cada uno está la fuerza del conjunto.

2013, 100X119 cm Acrylic and mixed media on canvas.

When we finished the workshops, some children invited us to go into the settlement to meet their families. Young men carrying scrap metal immediately noticed my camera and laughing they shouted "photo, photo!" and looked at me recreating magazine ad poses. I captured that image and immediately my camera became the focal point. Everyone wanted to be photographed and they competed to strike the best pose.

The men of the scrap metal asked me to accompany them home to continue the shooting. With many doubts, I entered one of the dwellings in the core of the village. The precarious exterior appearance of this construction of wood, cardboard and metal plates contrasted with a warm and cozy interior.

The space was quadrangular, with no divisions. The walls were covered with several woollen blankets. In one corner was the kitchen, with an electric cooker and a fridge that doubled as a TV table. Hanging over the blankets on the wall above the bed was a large Spanish flag with the Osborne bull. What surprised me most was a large electronic piano next to the door. Inside was a very beautiful woman, probably much younger than she looked. When she smiled she showed two gold teeth, very fashionable among the neighbours of "El gallinero". Her hair was tied back and she wore a long pale pink dress.

She was just finishing dressing her newborn baby. The one who looked like her partner picked up the little one and began to pose with him next to the piano. All those adults with hard features and complex lives, for a moment, in front of the camera became children.