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The culmination of a virtual residency that unfolded before and during the pandemic, Sustento asks: What is sustenance and why is it important?
In the spring of 2019, Puerto Rican artist Awilda Rodríguez Lora came to the Wex and posed this question during a memorable performative talk. That inquiry was both timely and prescient. Puerto Rico was still recovering from the devastation of 2017’s Hurricane María, and the world was a year away from a cascade of tragedies brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Following that talk, Rodríguez Lora’s relationship with the Wex continued with a virtual Performing Arts residency and performances. Working with a constellation of collaborators in Ohio State’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) and the Wex’s Department of Performing Arts, she continued to investigate the question of sustento or sustenance. The video Sustento is the culmination of this project. It features Rodríguez Lora performing in the Wex’s Performance Space, while an animated avatar twin is created in ACCAD’s motion capture lab.
Sustento poses the universal question of how we humans can sustain ourselves in the face of constant demands and oppression. Rodríguez Lora reveals that sustento is human connection, family, action, community, the body, action, bread, water, our loves, love, impulse, movement, and energy. It is intangible but necessary.
Presented both in Spanish with English subtitles and in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. (21:13 mins. HD video with 5.1 sound)
Sustento is a practice of the body that is only possible through collaboration, a performance for the survival of a Black Caribbean queer artist who envisions just futures for all. Future is movement towards the present: Sustento is about being present. Through moving images and sound design, we will witness the journey of La Performera, Awilda Rodríguez Lora, narrated by her future self. Sustento is a sea of beings who inspire vulnerability as an artistic action of creation, a feminist practice aimed at a future where everyone can exist in their joy and truth.
Can the future Performera tell us the story of the now? Can we be present while recognizing the trauma in the survivor, the warrior, the exhausted, the exotic, the dancer, the virus, the love, and the grief?
An avatar of La Performera was created by Vita Berezina-Blackburn as part of a three-year artistic residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts, La Rosario, and the Motion Lab at the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) at The Ohio State University with techno-dramaturgy by Norah Zuniga Shaw and Livable Futures. Supported by the Puerto Rican Arts Initiative, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Northwestern University. Directed by Macha Colón, performed and choreographed by Awilda Rodríguez Lora, Sustento explores time travel and movement as a strategy of hope. Let us move as the living beings we are. THANK YOU for being present.
Sustento es una práctica del cuerpo que sólo es posible en colaboración, un performance para la supervivencia de una artista cuir negra caribeña que imagina futuros justos para todes. Futuro es movimiento hacia el presente: Sustento es estar presente. Mediante imágenes en movimiento y su diseño sonoro, presenciaremos la jornada de La Performera, Awilda Rodríguez Lora, narrada por su futura yo. Sustento es un mar de seres que inspiran la vulnerabilidad como acción artística de creación, una práctica feminista orientada a un futuro en el que todes puedan existir en su alegría y verdad.
¿Puede la futura Performera contarnos la historia del ahora? ¿Podemos estar presentes reconociendo el trauma en la sobreviviente, la guerrera, la agotada, la exótica, la bailarina, el virus, el amor, y el duelo?
Un avatar de La Performera fue creado por Vita Berezina-Blackburn como parte de una residencia artística de tres años en el Wexner Center for the Arts, La Rosario, y el Motion Lab en el Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) de la Universidad Estatal de Ohio, con tecnodramaturgia de Norah Zuniga Shaw y Livable Futures. Apoyado por la Puerto Rican Arts Initiative, la Fundación Andrew W. Mellon, y la Universidad Northwestern. Dirigido por Macha Colón, interpretado y coreografiado por Awilda Rodríguez Lora, Sustento explora el viaje en el tiempo y el movimiento como una estrategia de esperanza. Movámonos como los seres vivos que somos. GRACIAS por estar presentes.
FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Humanities
ADDITIONAL SUPPORTED PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation
EXHIBITIONS 2024–25 SEASON MADE POSSIBLE BY
Bill and Sheila Lambert
Crane Family Foundation
FREE GALLERIES MADE POSSIBLE BY
PNC Foundation
WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Mellon Foundation
Every Page Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Nationwide Foundation
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme
The Columbus Foundation
Axium Packaging
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Ohio State Energy Partners
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang
Melissa Gilliam and William Grobman
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle
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Awilda Rodríguez Lora
