Andrés Senra
Interior Beauty in Motion Fellow June-December 2021
Becoming Other. Building Alliances of Desire and Care on a Trans-species Planet
During his time at The Salon, Andrés Senra presents a series of videos about the possibility of queering identity beyond gender binaries, as well as subverting the dual Western value system that separates the human from the non-human. This system of Western knowledge organizes the universe according to taxonomic rules that separate and divide it into artificial/natural, subject/object, mind/body, organic/inorganic, living/non-living, woman/man, human/non-human, human/animal, ability/disability, nature/culture, white/non-white, subject/object, reason/emotion, freedom /necessity, civilized/wild, and so on, assigning positive and negative values in a hierarchical way. Negative values have traditionally been assigned to the feminine, the queer, the animal and the non-white.
The video works created for The Interior Beauty Salon question these values that produce otherness and also subvert anthropocentrism as an episteme that places human (white cis hetero men) in a position of hierarchy and dominance over all other beings. Each piece of videoart and videoperformance will be uploaded once a month until December 2021, reflecting on the possibility of building alliances of desire and care with the planet and the beings that inhabit it from the position of the Other.
Upcoming Open Call for Videos: Andrés Senra will also make an open call for artists who would like to contribute to his ideas with video creations that will be presented collectively in an online event in November. Video creations and video performances must reflect on the concept of caring for the planet through practices such as veganism, magic, rituals, feminism, anti-speciesism, queer and anti-racist artivism, and must not last longer than 2 minutes.
About the creative: Andrés Senra has received the Multiverso Videoart Grant, BBVA Foundation (2015); Fase 7 Mobility Art Grant from The Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID) (2014). He has also received an artist research grant of the National Museum of Contemporary Arts of Spain / Reina Sofía (2013-2014). In 2012 he was selected by the Goethe-Institut and Instituto Cervantes of Spain for the art program Participar.de, taking place in Berlin, Madrid, and Toulouse. In 2012 and 2013 he received the Ministry of Culture Grant for the promotion of Spanish art abroad. In 2009 he received the Madrid Procesos artist Grant of AVAM and Karl Hofer Universität Der Künste, Berlin; and in 2005 Senra was artist in residence at the Contemporary Art Center La Casa Encendida in Madrid. Winner of the Casa Velázquez Prize for Art Creation at Estampa (2009), he has also received, among other prizes, the Region of Madrid Award for art creation (2008). Senra’s work has been exhibited in important galleries and museums around the world such as Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía MNCARS (Spain), VanAbbe Museum (Holland), Art Center Nabi (Korea), and Centro Cultural Recoleta (Argentina), among other places.
Photo: still from Chapter 1 Puppy / Courtesy of the artist
Andrés Senra related links: website / IG / Vimeo / Facebook / YouTube
Chapter 1 / Puppy
Chapter 2 / Becoming Other
Chapter 3 / On the Origin of Trans-Species
Chapter 4 / A Farewell Song to Humans
Chapter 5 / Transparaiso
Andrés Senra’s participation in The Salon included an open call for 2 minutes videos for We Were Never Human, a screening at BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance). Curated by Andrés Senra with Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo.
Creatives were called to propose up to two minutes videos/video performances that reflected on the concept of caring for the planet. Examples included practices such as veganism, magic, rituals, anti-speciesism, ecofeminisms, ecoqueerism, anti-ableism and anti-racist artivisms. The videos submitted to this open call were meant to question otherness and also subvert anthropocentrism as an episteme that places human in a position of hierarchy and dominance over all other beings. This call considered videos reflecting on the possibilities of building alliances of desire and care with the planet and the beings that inhabit it from the position of the Other.
Alliances of Care and Desire arises from Andrés Senra’s own impetus and interest in the possibility of queering identity beyond gender binaries, as well as subverting the dual Western value system that separates the human from the non-human. This system of Western knowledge organizes the universe according to taxonomic rules that separate and divide it into artificial/natural, subject/object, mind/body, organic/inorganic, living/non-living, woman/man, human/non-human, human/animal, ability/disability, nature/culture, white/non-white, subject/object, reason/emotion, freedom /necessity, civilized/wild, and so on, assigning positive and negative values in a hierarchical way. Negative values have traditionally been assigned to the feminine, the queer, the animal, and the non-white.
THE VIDEOS SELECTED PREMIERED AT BAAD! (BRONX ACADEMY OF ARTS AND DANCE) AS PART OF THE OUT LIKE THAT 2022 FESTIVAL.
We were Never Human (trailer for screening).
A video art show curated by Andrés Senra and Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles.
Participating artists:
Dimple B Shah / Daniela Beltrani / José Carlos Casado / Fantasía Collage (Aurora Duque de la Torre & María Huerta Arce (Lo Súper)) / Gwen Charles / David Farrán de Mora / Félix Fernández / Aitor Flores / Heather Fries / Ivana Larrosa / Marisa Maza / Carali McCall / Ildiko Meny / Amaia Molinet / Ruth Montiel Arias / Iván Pérez / Cristián Pietrapiana / Anna Recasens / Carlos Rivero / Ruth Somalo / Tatu Vuolteenaho/ Jody Wood / Jennifer Zackin
Presented on June 3rd, 22, 7:30 PM
BAAD! 2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461. (Westchester Square) PHONE: 718-918-2110.
THE VIDEOS SELECTED PREMIERED AT BAAD! (BRONX ACADEMY OF ARTS AND DANCE) AS PART OF THE OUT LIKE THAT 2022 FESTIVAL.
Documentation of We Were Never Human, a video screening at BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance). Presented as part of the OUT LIKE THAT 2022 Festival.