Fueling PAWA’s long tradition of presenting cutting-edge performance art, international artist VERÓNICA PEÑA arrives in Wellington to premiere ‘ALBARKAS’, a performance art work and participatory workshop about passion, carried memories, life, erasure, and liberation.

Public Performance - ‘ALBARKAS’

Time: 12pm-3pm 30.11.2024 

Location: Meet us at TBC location to join from the start of the performance or find us in the city by following our instagram for live updates on the day. 

“Faced with the approaching steps of the inevitable, I felt the impulse of taking with me the little pair of albarkas my hands had saved for so many years. What do we carry with us? What is so important as to drag it against the asphalt beyond the sea, time, and distance? What impractical objects are close to your chest at home, or echoing the past in your migrating suitcase?” 

For her durational performance ALBARKAS, Verónica Peña will wander through the streets of Wellington, embraced by the fragrance of memory. She will carry—and be carried by—a large, foreign object inspired by a traditional albarka, footwear originally made of calf-leather from the Basque Country (Spain), where the artist spent her childhood with her grandparents.

Motivated by the uncontrollable nature of change, this performance challenges the familiar of the everyday. It reveals a body caught between the fortune and pain of existence—moving and pausing, filled yet empty, grounded yet trapped, collective yet solitary. Through her journey, the artist’s numbness dismantles, leaving behind traces of emotion, care, and liberation.

Albarkas invites spectators to reflect on the deeper layers of their own lives, questioning what is remembered, what is forgotten, and what is carried forward.

Workshop  - ‘From: Memory. To: Present.’

Date & Time: 6pm-9pm 27.11.2024 

Location: TBC 

What to Bring: An object of personal significance

Book your spot here!

Join interdisciplinary artist Verónica Peña for an engaging  hands-on workshop exploring Performance Art. Open to all, this free experience will offer you an opportunity to learn about the inners of performance art, discover tools to naturally begin practicing, and contribute to ALBARKAS by collectively building the sculptural object Verónica will use for her public performance.

Participants are asked to bring a personally meaningful object, as the workshop will focus on transforming the memories and emotions it evokes into gestures of liberation. Through guided exercises, conversations, and live examples, we will explore the connections between past and present, and poetically engage with body, time, and space. 

Since 2010, Verónica has been exploring participation, including interactive performances and workshops in iconic locations like Times Square, and the School of Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, express, and immerse yourself in performance art. Let go and explore the depths of memory, presence, and human connection!

Artist Talk

Time: 7pm-8:30pm 26.11.2024 

Location: TBC 

Please join PAWA for an Artist Talk with VERÓNICA PEÑA. Verónica is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and international-community advocate from Spain based in New York since 2006, and temporarily living in Australia. 

Her practice explores absence, separation, and the search for harmony through Performance Art, science, and technology. Motivated by a desire to challenge preconceptions and dissolve barriers to human unity, she counteracts violence and fear by generating art performances that promote empathy, inspire understanding, and challenge separation. Her work combines prolonged underwater submersion, durational performance, audience participation, and visual metamorphosis to address global issues of migration, cross-cultural dialogue, peaceful resistance, public liberation, death, body-mind fluidity, and women’s empowerment. Don’t miss her talk about ALBARKAS, and the excitement of liveness in Performance Art.
 

Albarkas is made possible through the support of Wellington Public Art Fund