LAB ARTIST 2022

Marcela E Torres mobilizes sound, sweat, and emotional projection to build sensorial performances. These experiences provide a portal into the sensoria of marginalized bodies and are designed to be ingested by viewers as physiological memories. Viewers are invited to share experiences of stress, fear, and celebration to simulate the heterogeneous embodiment of Queer POC, Latinx, and Indigenous people – through visceral movement.

~ Born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Residing in Chicago, Illinois. Torres received a BA in Sculpture Intermedia and a BFA in Art History from the University of Utah, continuing their studies in MFA in Performance from School of the Art Institute Chicago. Torres has performed at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, NE), The Momentary (Bentonville, AK), Fringe Festival (Detroit, MI), Experimental Actions (Houston, TX) and Time Based Arts (Portland, Oregon). Torres has exhibited work at Recess (Brooklyn, NY), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL) UW-Parkside University (Kenosha, WI) , Tropical Contemporary (Eugene, OR), Petzel Gallery (NYC, NY). In 2021 Torres held residencies at Creative Exchange Lab at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts and Denniston Hills Residency.

During their Lab year, they will develop “Fire Drilling,” a choreographic narrative about colonization and the resilience of Latinx cultures through herbal ancestors’ connections to ceremonial and Mexican dance forms. This performance endeavors to activate the master plant, tobacco as a protective ancestor whose story parallels our own of genocide, U.S. intervention, and continual displacement.