Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins: Papeles (Papers) , July 12, 2019, performance at La Nacional (NYC) - Female Migration series organized by Se Habla Español. Image: Lina Puerta
How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins: PAN de YUCA
EFA Project Space presents How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins: PAN de YUCA by the artist Karina Aguilera Skvirsky. Employing a traditional, South American Pan de Yuca bread as raw building materials, Skvirsky’s live participatory performance doubles as a community action, with the audience assisting in the building of an ephemeral Incan border wall within EFA Project Space.
The performance is preceded by a screening that introduces Incan construction techniques. How to Build a Wall... links popular narratives concerning the persistence of pre-Columbian identity with current discussions on borders, immigration, and nation states. A Q&A with the artist and reception will follow the performance. Admission is free and first-come, first-served.
How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins: Pan de Yuca is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement (LMCC), supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). Pan de Yuca for this performance is provided by by La Nueva Bakery (Jackson Heights, Queens).
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and early arrival is recommended.
About the Artist
Karina Aguilera Skvirsky is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice began in photography and grew into video and performance. Skvirsky became interested in photography at a young age discovering her identity by organizing her parents’ photo album. As an artist, Skvirsky excels at telling stories through images, static or moving, often using performance to ground them. Her video, The Perilous Journey of María Rosa Palacios and series of images, The Railroad Workers, draw parallels between a teenage girl’s journey through the mountains of Ecuador, and the indigenous and Jamaican workers who constructed one of the most dangerous stretches of railway in the world. The project premiered at the 2016 Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador) curated by Dan Cameron.
In 2010 she participated in There is always a cup of sea for man to sail, the 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010), where she exhibited work from her project, Memories of Development.
Skvirsky's work has been exhibited internationally in group and solo shows including: Centro de la imagen, DF, MX (2018), Centro de arte contemporaneo Quito, EC (2018), The Deutsche Bank, NY, NY (2018), Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2017), Ponce + Robles Gallery, Madrid, SP (2017), The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA (2016), Hansel & Gretel Picture Garden Pocket Utopia, NY, NY (2014), DPM Gallery, Guayaquil, Ecuador (2014), Instituto Cervantes, Rome, Italy (2013), The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ (2013), Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, NY, NY (2013), La Ex-Culpable, Lima, Peru (2010), Scaramouche Art, NY, NY (2010), Galeria Proceso, Cuenca, Ecuador (2009), The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT (2007), El museo del barrio, NY, NY (2006), Sara Meltzer Gallery, NY, NY (2006), Jessica Murray Projects, NY, NY (2006), Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY (2006) and others.
She has received grants from: Creative Capital (2019), The National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC), San Antonio, TX (2018), Fulbright Scholar Program (2015), The Jerome Foundation (2015), The New Jersey State Council in the Arts in photography (2015), The New York State Council on the Arts, Film and Electronic Arts, NY (2010), Urban Artist Initiative, NY, NY (2006), Puffin Foundation, Teaneck, NJ (2006) and others.
She has participated in the following artist in residence programs including: Office Hours, El museo del barrio, NY, NY (2015), The Laundromat Project, NY, NY (2011), MacDowell Artist in Residence Program, Peterborough, NH (2005 & 2010), Cuts and Burns Residency, Outpost, Artist in Residence Program, Brooklyn, NY (2008), Harvestworks New Work Residency, NY, NY (2006), Swing Space, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY, NY (2005), Institute of Electronic Arts Residency, Alfred University, Alfred, NY (2005), Center for Book Arts, Artist in Residence, NY, NY (2005), Smack Mellon Artist in Residence, Brooklyn, NY (2004), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Workspace, Woolworth Building, NY, NY (2003), Cyberart Residency, Longwood Arts Project, Bronx, NY (2003) and others.
Skvirsky is represented by Ponce + Robles Gallery, Madrid and is a member of the EFA Studio Program.