James Luna Guillermo Gomez-Pena, La Nostalgia Remix

A New Performance Series by Guillermo Gomez-Pena and James Luna

Two extreme performance artists and shamans decide to become lounge entertainers and share their bizarre performance art with new audiences in an attempt to jumpstart a new religion for cultural outsiders.  Master artists James Luna and Guillermo Gomez -Pena will challenge and inspire their audiences with an evening of performance art and commentary that turns poignant, hilarious, thought provoking and outrageous.

James Luna & Guillermo Gomez-Pena, La Nostalgia Remix. 2011

Cecile Brass, The Rebirthing Project, 2011

This spring, OPTICA begins a series of exhibitions dealing with the gallery’s history by broaching the culture of artist groups and art centres. This project, curated by Lori Blondeau, will present a selection of archival documents (videos and photographs) relating the history of TRIBE, A Center for Evolving Aboriginal Media, Visual and Performing Arts, as well as a performance by Cecile Brass. Since its inception, the artist collective has publicly raised highly relevant questions of identity, territory, and politics regarding the status of native peoples and First Nations’ place in our history.

A womb reconstructed on a large scale provides the foundation for a retelling of a personal narrative about the artist, the birth of her three sons, her culture, her family and her community. The work incorporates theatrical and audio art elements into the creation of a performance that, on the surface, tells the story of the birth of a child, but really touches upon universal and shared experiences within our communities.