ARTIST STATEMENT
I’m Daniel Ortiz Amézquita and I’m a performing artist. Defining myself as such is a continuous exercise and it means recognizing the performing arts field as a multidimensional universe to which I relate through different approaches, roles, and questions.
I´m an actordancerdirectorproducerculturalmanagerstorytellerandresearcher. Most of the time I´m all of these roles, at times I’m just a few, or just one, sometimes I’m a mixture of some of them and there are times in which I’m none of them.
My context has constructed an idea of what performance means, of how much agency the spectator has, of what is deemed theatrical and what isn’t, on how to create a caring and humane methodology to design performances, on what is alive in a performance, on the potential of the encounter in the performing arts, and so on. All of These concepts create a huge puzzle that inspires me to question what I’ve been taught and what’s possible, questions that I have tried to answer through laboratories and the creation of prototypes with my performance research group.
I construct and deconstruct, organize and disorganize my practices and techniques according to the needs of each creative process. I borrow from contemporary dance, theatrical and danced improvisation, acting, and dramaturgy to nurture each process.
14 THOUGHTS FROM TODAY
1. The Performing arts are the art of the encounter, the present, the happening, of what’s "alive," of sharing, of the poiesis. These should be our axis’ and we should be responsible for them .
2. I think our world needs new proposals in our performing arts, proposals that are in touch with our context, and that are self-reflective and self-critical plays and processes
3. It is crucial for us to navigate the boundaries: to have one foot inside the neoliberal, capitalist productive models that demand quick, effective, and production en masse, and with the other foot firmly outside, swaying to the rhythm of slow and enjoyable creative processes. This duality is our reality, and we must strive to challenge the outside efforts that seek to homogenize and exploit us.
4. I propose to rethink the figure of: ‘the master’. We are all colleagues and friends, united by our admiration for each other, obssesed with the exchange of knowledge and striving to make our voices heard worldwide. and thus, we share what we know, be it techniques, languages and exercises, in hopes that it leads to someone’s discovery of their own path, art and voice.
5. It is worth observing theater and the theatrical act as an instrument that controls, regulates, and shapes the behavior of the audience. It is worth experimenting with laboratories and performance prototypes to discover tools that encourage participation and freedom while participating in the performing act.
6. It is worth remembering that theaters were a colonialist invention brought to Latin America from the ‘old world’ and that Latin American communities might have developed different performance devices.
7. We can design caring and humane creative processes that are fresh and enjoyable while still being challenging, conflictive, and profound.
8. If the world we live in is experiencing pain, war, repression, and sadness, and the art we have had a part in building this world, then art is also responsible for this suffering.
9. All disciplines are welcome. We, performing artists, need you. Literature, anthropology, sociology, maths, physics, astrology, ancestral knowledge, magic, history, biology, etc. are precious tools that help us understand the world.
10. The creative practices can be healing, therapeutic, entertaining, healthy, and even sports. Let's not be afraid of the transformative possibilities of our practices.
11. there are artists that are actors, artists that are dancers, artists that are cultural producers, artists that produce plays, artists that are politicians, artists that are writers, artists that are musicians. There are musicianactordancers, politiciandancerculturalproducers, producerwritermusicians, artistartists, culturalproduceractorillustrators and so on.
12. Performing artists should think in the economic sustainability and dignification of our profession. We should imagine economic and collaborative systems, while we continue to strive to improve the public policies that concern us.
13. Performing arts think, research, and generate knowledge that only it can generate.
14. I love and admire artists.