La Pocha Nostra at Columbia College tonight

This evening, acclaimed performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes and Violeta Luna of the ensemble La Pocha Nostra cap off a weeklong residency at Columbia College with a free public performance of Corpo/Ilicito: The Post-Human Society #69. I talked yesterday with Gómez-Peña, the recipient of a 1991 MacArthur “genius grant” and a longtime explorer of cultural and psychological border territory, about the new work.

Time Out Chicago: You’ve described Corpo/Ilicito as responding to the challenge of the end of the Bush regime. How does Obama’s election alter the position of the oppositional artist?

Guillermo Gómez-Peña: We’re exploring philosophically the transition from a legacy of cultural fear, the demonization of the body of the Other: the Latino immigrant, the queer body, the female body. This legacy is still with us, parasitic, like a lingering fog in the streets and in the institutions. How is it affecting us? How are we self-censoring?

And then how does this fit with an institutionalized culture of hope? We’re trying to compare notes from our own project of hope. Are we in sync with them? Is Obama willing to listen to artists and intellectuals?

TOC: You’ve developed this iteration of the performance in part through workshops at Columbia College. How has that process worked?

GGP: It’s been fantastic. There was a very sophisticated curatorial process that drew artists from organizations and communities throughout the city. It’s a very diverse group—diverse in age, in art practice, in ethnicity. We’ve got a very interesting troupe, and we’re hoping there will be a residue, that some will be empowered to participate in the process when we return for the second part, in the spring.  At Columbia, we’ve found the ideal conditions for our own style of pedagogy. And that’s crucial, because these kinds of educational spaces are appearing less and less within our institutions and universities; they’ve become more careful, worrying more about what kind of art or conversation they can support.

TOC: Your work has often centered on the issue of the border, especially the U.S.-Mexico border. Did the border arise as an issue during this Chicago residency?

GGP: Yes. I think that national borders are being reproduced in our cities. Chicago is a city that suffers from endemic internal borders. Inevitably, in the work that we workshopped, a lot of these borders began to emerge.

There are borders between neighborhoods, borders between genders. You have, for instance, new generations of gay and lesbian Latino artists who have trouble with older activist organizations that may not be so open to their imagery.

And the issue of immigration remains problematic under Obama. Politicians don’t talk about immigration—this is another legacy of the Bush era. There’s been a formidable demonization of the Latino Other in our institutions, and this worries me very much as a border artist. With the frail, precarious position of undocumented immigrants, it’s as though we’re back in a pre–civil rights era. And this is not part of the national debate. They don’t have strong voices speaking for them, and they are still a crucial part of our financial and cultural well-being.

TOC: What can people expect if they attend Corpo/Ilicito?

GGP: It’s going to be a very wild performance. When audience members first come in, they’re going to find that the whole building is occupied with live art images. We’ve been developing a wide array of site-specific images for the performance. And then, when they reach the space, they will experience a high-energy interactive performance art piece. We’re using sound, video projection, multiple stages. A lot of the issues we’re discussing will emerge, but not in an explicit, thematic way: It follows an elliptical, poetic method.

La Pocha Nostra performs Friday 30 at 7pm at Columbia College (618 S Michigan Ave). Admission is free, but arrive early.