CUATRO X CUATRO
Cuatro X Cuatro is a Mexican laboratory of arts and humanities that was formed in 2007 in Xalapa, Mexico. Its members come from different parts of Mexico and are convened by Shantí Vera. Since 2007 they have developed projects and spaces to think and be together. Their thinking encompasses light, sound, color and matter as states and spaces as distributions of the sensitive; they are interested in gravity (force and metaphor); choreography and choreography; the Mexican and Latin American context; the South (not geographically but as an absent territory in the dominant imaginary of the world). They have presented their practice in the most relevant cultural venues in Mexico and in the most remote places of the so-called periphery of Mexico, as well as in 25 countries in Europe and Latin America. They have received multiple awards, recognitions, scholarships and grants. Cuatro X Cuatro does not make shows to entertain, they develop spaces and projects to imagine, create encounters and relate to the world.
JÉSICA ELIZONDO
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Jésica Elizondo. Interdisciplinary artist and lighting designer. A light enthusiast and Honorary Artist of FONCA since 2017, she explores the processes of transformation and activation of space-time in the performing arts. Her work focuses on spatial conceptualization and lighting design, with a special interest in bodies that function as containers of choreographic knowledge. Her work in lighting design has been recognized with four LIT Lighting Design Awards (Switzerland): in 2024 for Stage Lighting con LEIB ¿qué resiste un cuerpo? and Theater Performance Design con CUERPO NO CUERPO; in 2022 for Theater Performance Design for her work on ROADTRIP and in 2021 in the Stage Lighting category for DISOLVER. That same year, she was a finalist for The WIL Award (UK) in the 2020 Achievement category, sponsored by Women in Lighting. In 2020, she published the book Iluminando espacios, which gathers the thoughts of over 50 Mexican artists. In Mexico, she has won the award for Best Lighting Design at the National Dance Award three times: (2019, 2011 2008). Currently, she is a Member of the National System of Art Creators (SNCA) 2023-2026 FONCA. With over 70 stage lighting designs, her work has been presented in major venues in Mexico and in more than twelve countries.
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SENDIC VÁZQUEZ
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Sendic Vázquez. Artist, choreographer/director. Interested in the scenic act as a living process, he has shared ideas and knowledge with different artists in choreographies, installations and laboratories in Mexico, Europe, Central and South America. He has been awarded the State Youth Award Chiapas 2020; Selected to participate in the Performing Arts Encounter 2020 of SACPC; Grantee of El Arte Ayuda of CONECULTA Chiapas; Grantee of the Programa Jóvenes Creadores 2018-2019 and the Programa Creadores Escénicos 2015-2016 of the SACPC (formerly FONCA); in 2015 won the Premio Nacional de Danza Guillermo Arriaga/INBA-UAM in the category of Best Male Performer; Grantee of the PECDA-Veracruz 2012 in the category of Young Creators. He currently directs La Sociedad del Paisaje (www.sociedaddelpaisaje.com) and is a member of Cuatro X Cuatro (www.cuatroxcuatro.org), where he investigates amorphous, illegal, impractical, uncomfortable, wide-ranging practices, from a corporal laboratory of exploration, sound and improvisation [Una Vía Negativa] linking it with different spaces of experimentation, pedagogy and creation.
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ARTURO LUGO
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Arturo Lugo “ELCHINO” Multifunctional artist graduated from the Centro de Educación Artística "Luis Spota Saavedra" and the Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán EPDM. He was part of the Diplomado Interacciones in the city of Oaxaca; scholarship holder of the Fondo Nacional de Cultura y Artes (FONCA) 2011-2012, he is part of the 2017-2018 generation of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Germany. He has worked as a performer, art director, costume designer and lighting designer for different artistic projects in Mexico and Berlin. In 2013 he creates and manages the project Amplio Espectro and the cultural company LA SANTA CULPA. |
FERNANDO FRÍAS
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Fernando Frias As a documentary video producer specialized in performing arts, he has been collaborating since 2010 with various international performing arts festivals in countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Spain, through the collective project Maremoto Producciones, of which he is a founding member; an independent effort in the field of contemporary dance that, using audiovisual tools, seeks to open windows that attract the gaze of new audiences. |
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PAULINA CERVANTES
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Paulina Cervantes Plastic artist and photographer. Alternating work on personal projects and documentary photography of stage since 2015, she collaborates with some of the major festivals and international meetings of performing arts held in Mexico. She is currently a member of Maremoto Producciones, a collective project of visual artists specialized in the documentation of scenic art. |
MANUEL ESTRELLA
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Manuel Raul Estrella Chi Interdisciplinary artistic. Musician specialized in sound design for performing arts. Performer Graduated from the degree in Musical Arts of the School of Arts of Yucatan. In 2007 He began his studies in dance and improvisation of movement. The interest of Him its focuses on the investigation of sound and body in the scene. His work has been presented in countries like Germany, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain, USA, Sweden, Uruguay and Panama, as well as in numerous forums and festivals of Mexico. He has been a scholarship of the State Promotion for Culture and Arts of Yucatán (FOECAY) “Young Creators” 2007, Program of Impulse to the Creation and Development of the Arts (PECDA) “Young Creators” 2014 and the National Institute for the Culture and Arts (FONCA) “Young creators “2017-2018. He has twice winner of the “Guillermo Arriaga National Dance Award” in the 2014 and 2015 broadcasts for best original music in the works “Habitante” and “El reparto de lo sensible” directed by Shanti Vera. |
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MELISSA HERRADA
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Melissa Herrada. Performance artist, choreographer, dancer, body researcher, and teacher based in Berlin and Baja California, México. In 2014 she graduated with a Fine Arts (Contemporary Dance) degree from the Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlan, Mexico and in 2024 she she obtained her Master's Degree in Choreography at HZT in Berlin. During her career, she has participated in different contexts in Mexico, the United States of America, Ecuador, Colombia, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil, Czech Republic, Spain and Belgium. In 2015 she became a resident professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, USA. During 2018 and 2019 she was part of the Advisory Council of Culture and Art in her hometown in Mexico. For her artistic activity, she received grants from PECDA in 2014 and 2018 in the category of Individual Artistic Development, Scenic Creators in the category of Youth in Training from FONCA 2015 and Young Creator in Choreography 2024 from FONCA. Since 2016, she has been a creative collaborator of the Mexican company Cuatro X Cuatro under the artistic direction of Shantí Vera. She recently obtained the International Collaboration Grant from the British Council 2021-2023 collaborating with the director of the CASA Festival Cordelia Grierson from London, UK. On her latest project, she’s collaborating with the visual artist Andrea Carillo with the support of the Magnum Foundation from New York City.
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SHANTÍ VERA
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Shantí Vera. Latin American artist. Graduated in Contemporary Dance with honors by Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico, MA in Performing Arts and Visual Culture by Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha and Museum Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain and MA in Pedagogy Arts by Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico. During his career, he has developed as a performer, director, choreographer, pedagogue, researcher, writer and curator presenting his work in multiple contexts in Mexico, Germany, Spain, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Italy, Sweden, Northern Irland, Romania, Czech Republic, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, France, England, Slovakia, Belgium & Peru. Since 2007, he develops EL CUERPO VACÍO (empty body) a laboratory of thought into action, experiencing and playing from multiple areas of knowledge for the stage, focusing on the body, thought, imagination, space, creation and choreography. His artistic work is a political commitment to the defense of the body. Since 2007 is the director of the company CUATRO X CUATRO and in 2009 he created FESTIVAL4X4 (with 15 editions to date), both spaces intended for experimentation, research, promotion, and exhibition of contemporary performing arts. He has received several grants and awards from cultural institutions and festivals in Mexico, UK & Iberoamerica.
Profile in ARTEA: archivoartea.uclm.es/artistas/shanti-vera/ |
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