Posted: January 28th, 2022

Art Proposal essay

Please Don’t Bury Me Alive!

Key Terms: Robert Smithson, Modernism, Colonialism, Latin America, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, La Migra, Immigration, Modernisms, Borderland, Mythohistorical, Imaginary, Speculative, US-Mexico, Play, Theater, Performance, Art, Hotel Palenque, Critical Pedagogy, Performance Lecture, Salvador Roberto Torres, Chicano Park

Abstract: “There is something about Mexico. An overall hidden concealed violence about the landscape itself. Many artists and writers have gone to Mexico and been completely destroyed, you know . . . So you have to be very careful when you go to Mexico so that you are not caught up in this—in any of this kind of unconscious, dangerous violence that is really lurking in every patch of earth” —Robert Smithson, 1970

“Please Don’t Bury Me Alive!” is a performative lecture that investigates how Latin America has figured into the construction of various western art-historical narratives. The performance lecture, which is suitable for an academic conference setting, moves back and forth between two readers. The first reader re-presents Robert Smithson’s Hotel Palenque artist talk, initially delivered to graduate students at the University of Utah in 1970. Smithson’s ruminations about art, architecture, and Mexico are paired with historical photographs of San Diego’s Chicano Park. The discord and resonance between the two mirror the fractured associations between modernity and coloniality. The second reader performs an abridged and rewritten version of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. In an attempt to complicate the social implications of waiting, the re-written play is set in an unnamed detention center along the US-Mexico border. Throughout the monologue the main character contemplates the nature of confinement, the immanence of torture, and the effects of delay on the racialized subject. Over the course of “Please Don’t Bury Me Alive!” both the restaged artist lecture and the modified play cross paths in unlikely ways drawing attention to the role movement, migrations, Mexico, colonialism, and imaginative mythohistorical interventions play in the Othering and rethinking of Modernsim’s legacies.

Biography: Anthony Romero and Josh Rios are educators, artists, and cultural critics. Over the past several years they have been developing various performances, 2 and 3 dimensional works, curatorial projects, installations, writings, and screenings that deal with the key experiences of being US citizens of Mexican origin. Broadly speaking, their projects center on contemporary Chicana/o aesthetics, the elided histories of the Chicana/o struggle, and the larger themes of US-Mexico relations. In November they will be artists in residence at Harold Washington College. In December they will be participants in Chicago’s Poet’s Theater Festival. Their performances and projects have been most recently featured at the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Texas State University, Art in these Times, Andrea Meislin Gallery, and Sector 2337.

Anthony Romero / Joshua Rios Performance Lecture Proposal

Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please

Robert Smithson, Modernism, Colonialism, Latin America, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, La Migra, Immigration, Modernisms, Borderland, Mythohistorical, Imaginary, Speculative, Mythohistorical, Imaginary, Speculative, Mythohistorical, Imaginary, Speculative, Mythohistorical, Imaginary, Speculative, Mythohistorical, Imaginary, US-Mexico, Hotel Palenque, Critical Pedagogy, Performance Lecture, Play, Theater, Performance, Art Chicano Park, Salvador Roberto Torres

“There’s something about Mexico,” says the author. The terrain itself has a generalized underlying aggression. You know, a lot of artists and authors have gone to Mexico and been absolutely destroyed… So, when you go to Mexico, be very careful not to get caught up in this—in any of this kind of unconscious, lethal violence that is lurking in every corner of the globe.” 1970, Robert Smithson

“Please Don’t Bury Me Alive!” is a performance lecture that looks at how Latin America has been incorporated into various Western art historical narratives. The performance lecture, which would be appropriate for an academic conference, alternates between two readers. Robert Smithson’s Hotel Palenque artist talk, originally delivered to graduate students at the University of Utah in 1970, is re-presented in the first reader. Smithson’s musings on art, architecture, and Mexico are juxtaposed with vintage pictures of Chicano Park in San Diego. The contrast and resonance between them reflects the shattered links between modernity and colonialism. Abridged and rewritten versions of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot are performed by the second reader. The re-written piece is set at an undisclosed detention center along the US-Mexico border in an attempt to deepen the social implications of waiting. The main character ponders the nature of captivity, the imminence of pain, and the impact of delay on the racialized subject throughout the monologue. The restaged artist lecture and the adapted play cross paths in unexpected ways throughout “Please Don’t Bury Me Alive!” to highlight the significance of movement, migrations, Mexico, colonialism, and imaginative mythohistorical interventions in the Othering and rethinking of Modernism’s legacy.

Anthony Romero and Josh Rios are cultural commentators, educators, and artists. They’ve been working on a variety of performances, 2 and 3 dimensional works, curatorial projects, installations, writings, and screenings for the past few years that deal with the key experiences of being US citizens of Mexican descent. Their work are centered on modern Chicana/o aesthetics, elided history of the Chicana/o struggle, and bigger concerns of US-Mexico relations in general. They will be artists in residence at Harold Washington College in November. They’ll be performing in Chicago’s Poet’s Theater Festival in December. The Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Texas State University, Art in these Times, Andrea Meislin Gallery, and Sector 2337 have all recently showcased their performances and projects.

Proposal for a Performance Lecture by Anthony Romero and Joshua Rios

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