Exercises for Rebel Artists

Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a post-Mexican performance artist, writer, activist and pedagogue. He is the author of ten books including Ethno Techno and Dangerous Border Crossers, both published by Routledge. His legendary performance pieces include "Border Brujo" (1988), "Couple in the Cage" (1992), "The Cruci-fiction project" (1994), "El Mexterminator" (1987-88) and the Mapa/Corpo series (2004–2008). He is founder of the San Francisco-based art collective La Pocha Nostra. Roberto Sifuentes is an interdisciplinary artist and founding member of La Pocha Nostra. He has toured internationally with Gómez-Peña since 1991. As a performance pedagogue, Sifuentes has been Artistic Director of The Trinity College/La MaMa Performing Arts ProgramNYC and is currently Assistant Professor of Performance at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Intro by Guillermo Gómez-Peña. Aims and Objectives. Preparing a Performance Workshop. Notes to the Workshop Participants. The Workshop. Performance Exercises, Rituals and Games To Cross Borders. Part One: ‘Hands On’, Physical and Perceptual Exercises. Part Two: Conceptual and Poetic Exercises. Part Three: Living Images and Exercises to Generate Performance Material. Part Four: Designing and Fleshing Out Performance Personas. Part Five: Preparing a Performance Salon. The Syllabus. Quick and Dirty Exercises. In Permanent Process Of Reinvention: A Pedagogical Travelogue. Tips for Young Live Artists. Letter from Oaxaca.