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You are here: Home / LACE / 2020-Current Year / LO ÚNICO SEGURO ES QUE NOS VAMOS A MORIR

LO ÚNICO SEGURO ES QUE NOS VAMOS A MORIR

EN/ES

LO ÚNICO SEGURO ES QUE NOS VAMOS A MORIR
Una celebración sincrética del ciclo interminable de la vida y la muerte.

Performance de Carmina Escobar en colaboración con Wesam Nassar
Live-stream el 2 de Noviembre, 2020, 8 PM PDT 


“La verdad es que la vida es dura y peligrosa; que quien busca su propia felicidad no la encuentra; que el que es débil debe sufrir; que el que exige amor será decepcionado; que el codicioso no se alimentará; que el que busca la paz encontrará contienda; que la verdad es solo para los valientes; que el goce es solo para quien no teme estar solo; que la vida es solo para quien no tiene miedo de morir ”.

― Joyce Cary

LO ÚNICO SEGURO ES QUE NOS VAMOS A MORIR es una instalación performativa en observancia de la festividad del Día de Muertos, basada en la celebración sincrética mexicana del ciclo interminable de vida y muerte en donde las catástrofes nunca son la destrucción total, sino las transiciones entre formas. En nuestra actual crisis existencial, aceptar el cambio es abrazar la vida, y abrazar la vida es acoger la muerte, reconociendo el breve aliento que es nuestro paso por esta tierra. El título de este performance  “LO ÚNICO CIERTO ES QUE VAMOS A MORIR” deja al aire la frase, para ser completada por el público, “ASÍ QUE DEBEMOS VIVIR”.

Escobar construirá un altar comunal en el escaparate de LACE, construido a partir de objetos y ofrendas de compañeros artistas, músicos y amigos relacionados con el espacio artístico de LACE, estableciendo  así el espacio ritual para la actuación la noche del 1 de noviembre. En colaboración con el videoartista Wesam Nassar, Escobar traza una danza entre la muerte y la vida que finaliza en la celebración y reconciliación de ambos.  Una semana antes del evento Escobar iniciará el proceso de recolección de los obsequios para el altar, trazando su camino, así como iniciando una grabación procesional de colaboradores de mucho tiempo Maqueos Music Oaxacan Brass Philharmonic, cuya música tradicional se toca en procesiones, fiestas y funerales. Escobar traza esta procesión expandida visitando a los miembros individuales de la banda, y grabándolos desde el exterior de su casa, para crear una pieza sonora prolongada que acompañará el ritual performativo.

Este performance tomo acabo en el espacio del escaparate donde se encuentra la exposición Ser todo Es ser parte/To Be Whole Is To Be Part. Agradecimientos a Carmen Argote, Sandra de la Loza, Jimena Sarno, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Anna Luisa Petrisko y Arshia Haq por las ofrendas al altar comunal.

 

Filed Under: 2020-Current Year, LACE

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PRESS RELEASE: Announcing LACE’s Next Emerging Curators

Announcing the 2025 Lightning Fund and Jacki Apple Awards

“Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics” named Best Art by The New York Times

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LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)

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On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for this year's Artists’ Film International (AFI'25) at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

This touring film program is collectively curated and presented by 16 international arts organizations and convened by Forma (@formaartsmedia). AFI’25 introduces the work of talented moving image artists to worldwide audiences, and will be live over 300 days, with exhibitions, screenings and public programs hosted across 4 continents.

LACE’s selection for AFI’25 is "Leymusoom Garden: New Sun" (2024) by Heesoo Kwon (@leymusoom). Kwon’s oneiric visual language and unique animation style allow her to create memoryscapes of personal and community liberation. The film rewrites mythical matrilineal histories through utopian and whimsical abstractions of time, space, and memory to ultimately bring forth healing and transformation. 

Admission is free! RSVP at the link in our bio.

Image caption:
Still from Heesoo Kwon, Leymusoom Garden: New Sun, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Saturday, July 19, 2–5 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

Curated by Selene Preciado and Andrea Acuña, this film program presents a selection of video works that integrate ancestral knowledge and indigenous storytelling, imagining futures where the past and present connect through the power of ruins and resilience. Followed by a musical performance with multimedia NeoCumbia artist El Keamo (@el_keamo).

Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio!
We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Cu We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Curator! Meet Semaj Peltier (@horsebreath87) and pom*pom (@__pom____pom__), collaborators in a curatorial collective and experimental film archive organizing community-based events since 2022. For the Emerging Curator Program, Semaj Peltier and Pom Pom curate "No Loneliness Like This," a film and food event showcasing experimental films that traverse the many manifestations of state-sanctioned isolation.

Peltier, a projectionist, archivist and filmmaker, brings a praxis shaped by her studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Masters program, specializing in ephemeral histories shaped by coloniality and otherness. pom*pom, developed by Russell Hartling and Crystal Dawana, is an experimental food collective whose sensory-driven dining experiences intersect with film programming to evoke memory, storytelling, and connection. Together, they build worlds where film and food become tools of resistance—rituals that evoke memory, incite dialogue, and nurture solidarity through shared sensation and subversion. 

This year’s panel included Jheanelle Brown (@jheaneeeeeelle), faculty member at CalArts and Curator of Film at REDCAT; Carrie Chen (@carriechen01), artist, curator, and educator; and Heber Rodriguez (@hebereatschips), Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division. 

Read the full press release in our bio!
If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive th If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive the experience, head over to the LACE website to watch a selection of the performances with more to come soon!

“ENDURANCE” presented performance art and interdisciplinary work by elder artists. These artists use their practices to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences that they have gained throughout their lives. This series is a companion program to LACE’s 2024 performance series, “ABUNDANCE”, both featuring often invisibilized bodies.

This program was held at L.A. Dance Project (@ladanceproject) from May 16–17, 2025.

The online presentation of “ENDURANCE” is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles (@culture_la). 

Photos by Angel Origgi (@angeloriggi).

Image captions in order:
Barbara T. Smith, OWB, 2025
Ulysses Jenkins and his band “Who Dat!,” Ethnic Cleansing, 2022/2025
Hirokazu Kosaka, Shoot Yourself, 2025
The Dark Bob, Beirut, 1982/2025
Kamau Daáood, Griot notes: Poem in Invisible Ink
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