Laura Anderson Barbata

Mexican artist (born 1958)

Laura Anderson BarbataBorn1958Mexico City, MexicoMovementContemporary art
Laura Anderson Barbata (born 1958) is a contemporary artist.[1] Based in Brooklyn and
Mexico City, Barbata's work uses art and performance to encourage social justice by
documenting traditions and involving communities in her practice.[1]

Early life and education[edit]

Laura Anderson Barbata was born 1958 in Mexico City, Mexico. She moved to Sinaloa,
where her father was a restaurateur,[2] and spent the early part of her childhood in
Mazatlá n with little or no access to museums.[3]
When she was 10 years old, Barbata's family moved to Europe. The first museum her
parents took her to was the Louvre.[3] Deeply impacted by the Winged Victory of
Samothrace, Barbata began to explore the world through drawing.[3] She studied sculpture
and engraving at the School of Visual Arts at the University of Rio de Janeiro and
architecture in Mexico City.[4]

Work[edit]
Anderson has exhibited in the United States, Mexico, Europe, and South America. She is in
the permanent collection and has shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY;
The Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City, Mexico; and the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, among others.[4] Barbata has organized projects in the Amazon of
Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Norway and the USA.[5] Among her current
projects include The Repatriation of Julia Pastrana and her project Transcommunality
(ongoing since 2001) with traditional stilt dancers from New York, West Africa, the
Caribbean, and Oaxaca, Mexico.[5]
Barbata's art is deeply entwined with social practice, community engagement, and
postcolonial critique.[6] For the Yanomami Paper Project, Barbata worked as an apprentice
to the Yanomami Community in the Amazonas region of Venezuela.[7] In return, she taught
the community how to make books and paper from local resources.[3] Barbata has
continued to work with this community, producing books in the Yanomami language with
drawings by the community's children.[3] The Yanomami community continues to make
their own papers and books.[3] Some of these books are now held in collections including
the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library.[8]

Transcommunality[edit]
In 2002, while working as an artist-in-residence in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbata was
introduced to the founder of the Keylemanjahro School of Arts and Culture in Port-of-Spain.
[9] The school hosted an after school stilt dancing program open to all kids, intended to
keep children out of trouble while also engaging them in the cultural tradition of stilt
dancing to prepare for the annual NCBA Junior Carnival Parade.[10] Barbata worked with
Keylemanjahro for 5 years alongside the students and parents to create costumes for their
performances.
The group worked with little to no resources and relied exclusively on the help of parents in
the neighborhood. The children had been creating their costumes by painting their bodies
with toxic house paint. Additionally, students participated in carnival with the same
presentation every year, which excluded them from competing for character awards.
Barbata suggest that the children could develop and create their own costumes to learn
about the environment and other cultures, and worked with Keylemanjahro to discuss
possible themes and design of characters for the kids to portray and compete.[3]
In 2007, Barbata returned to New York and continued her work with stilt dancing by
collaborating with the Brooklyn Jumbies, a group of stilt dancers from the West Indies and
West Africa. Together they hosted Jumbie Camp, a workshop to train young stilt dancers
and prepare for a street performance on 24th Street in Chelsea, and later for the West
Indian American Junior Carnival Parade.[3]
Barbata has continued to work with the Brooklyn Jumbies to extend outreach programs in
different parts of the country, particularly in communities or areas that are populated by
Mexican descendants and African-Americans. They have staged multiple spontaneous
interventions around New York City. In 2011, Barbata and the Brooklyn Jumbies staged
Intervention: Wall Street in response to the economic crisis. The performance took place in
the financial district of New York. The Moko Jumbies walked on stilts in business suits
towards Wall Street, while Barbata strolled and danced in front handing out gold-covered
chocolate coins. The coins had the word Mexico on it. Intervention: Indigo took place in
2015 in Brooklyn, New York in response to violence against African American communities.
The performance began at the Bushwick police precinct and ended in an area populated by
artists. The performers were dressed in indigo-colored textiles inspired by the Danza de los
Zancudos (traditional stilt dancers from Zaachila) from Oaxaca and the Dance of the Devils
(Danza de los diablos) from the Afro-Mexican coast of Guerrero.[6]

Julia Pastrana[edit]
In 2003, Barbata learned about Julia Pastrana when she was invited to collaborate on
designs for the New York premiere of the play The True History of the Tragic Life and the
Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World by Shaun Prendergast.
[11] Barbata felt deeply moved by Pastrana's story and drew a connection to her own
childhood experience growing up in the same area of Mexico as Pastrana and dancing for
money.[12] Barbata's ultimate dream goal was that Pastrana should go back to Mexico and
be buried.[3]
In 2005, during a residency in Oslo, Barbata began petitioning the Institute of Forensic
Medicine at the University of Oslo for Pastrana's repatriation. In September, she published
an obituary for Pastrana in an Oslo newspaper that informed that there would be a catholic
ceremony (faith that Ms. Pastrana practiced during her life). Barbata organized the catholic
mass in memory of Julia Pastrana in the Cathedral of Oslo. The ceremony was attended by
hundreds of people, many of whom were circus performers who brought her flowers.[13]
Barbata sent documents making her case for Pastrana's release to Norway's National
Committee for the Evaluation of Research on Human Remains. Barbata also wrote letters to
the National Research Ethics Committee for the Social Sciences and Humanities, the
Governor of Sinaloa in Mexico, the Foreign Affairs Department of Mexico, the University of
Oslo, journalists, artists, and anthropologists. Many of these recipients became invested in
the project.[14]
In 2012, Governor Mario Ló pez Valdez of Sinaloa joined Barbata's cause and petitioned for
Pastrana's repatriation. Ló pez Valdez sent a letter to the National Committee for Ethical
Evaluation on Human Remains, NESH, to request for the repatriation of Julia Pastrana to her
native state for burial. His letter was accompanied by a letter by Barbata that included the
moral, ethical and social justifications for Pastrana's return to Mexico for burial.[5] NESH
responded to the repatriation petition with a document recommending that Julia Pastrana
be repatriated to México.
The University of Oslo and the Institute of Basic Medicine of the University of Oslo received
NESH's recommendation, a formal petition from Ló pez Valdez's, as well as a letter from
Barbata herself. The university accepted Julia Pastrana's repatriation to Mexico, but with
the conditions that she never be exhibited again, that she be buried and not cremated, and
that she be given funeral services following her Catholic faith.[15]
On February 7, 2013, Barbata confirmed the identity of Pastrana's body in Oslo before the
coffin was sealed. Ms. Barbata and a University of Oxford forensic anthropologist, Nicholas
Má rquez-Grant, noticed that Pastrana's feet still had bolts and metal rods that were used for
exhibiting her body. The bolts were removed and placed at the foot of her coffin.[16]
Pastrana's coffin was transported by plane from Oslo to Culiacá n where she was welcomed
with a military arrival. The following day, on February 12, the coffin of Julia Pastrana was
transported from Culiacá n to Sinaloa de Leyva. She was welcomed with official ceremonies
and a funeral mass, then taken to the Municipal Cemetery following local traditions. Julia
Pastrana's coffin was covered in flowers and buried. Pastrana was dressed in an indigenous
huipil made by Francisca Palafox, a master weaver from Oaxaca[11] and placed in her
coffin with a photograph of her child on her chest. Her tomb was covered in concrete and
enclosed in walls that measure more than 1 meter in thickness to ensure that her tomb will
never be vandalized and to guarantee that she will never be exposed again. The tomb was
then covered with thousands of flowers that had arrived from all over the world.[5]
Barbata's book The Eye of the Beholder: Julia Pastrana’s Long Journey Home brings
together contributors from a wide variety of fields to explore Pastrana's story.[16] Barbata
has explored Pastrana's story through a variety of other mediums, such as through
performance work, photography, and stop motion animation.[13]

Selected exhibitions[edit]
Solo exhibitions/performances [edit]
Intervention: Indigo. Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México. (2018)[6]
Intervention:Ocean Blues. Performance in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies. Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York. Commissioned by Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston and supported by No Longer Empty in Brooklyn, NY.
(2018)[17][18][19]
Original is Never Finished. Adidas film Shoot. New York. In collaboration with the Brooklyn
Jumbies. Director: Monty Marsh. (2018)[3]
The Eye of the Beholder. A Performance Work in Progress. Amphibian Stage Productions
New Plays Development Residency, Fort Worth, Texas. Director: Tamilla Woodard, Digital
Design: Katherine Freer (2018)[20]
Tiempo Local: arte y activismos para una memoria fronteriza. Laura Anderson Barbata: La
extraordinaria historia de Julia Pastrana, Centro Cultural Españ a. Santiago de Chile (2018)
[3]
Ocean Calling. Performance in collaboration with Chris Walker, the Brooklyn Jumbies and
Jarana Beat. United Nations Plaza, New York. Commissioned by TBA21 Academy, Vienna
(2017)[21][22]
Intervention: Raphael Red. Performance in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2017)[3]
Ocean Blue(s). Performance in Collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies. NTU Centre for
Contemporary Art Singapore (2017)[3]
La Extraordinaria Historia de Julia Pastrana. Performance Work-in-progress, in
collaboration with Fem Appeal. Columbia College Chicago; Rutgers University, NJ (2017)[3]
What-Lives-Beneath, TBA21 The Current Convening (performance in collaboration with
Amina Blackwood-Meeks, Chris Walker, the Brooklyn Jumbies and the National Dance
Company of Jamaica), Kingston, Jamaica (2016-12)[3]
Laura Anderson Barbata: Collaborations Beyond Borders (exhibition), Mary H. Dana
Women Artists Series Galleries, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (2016)[3]
Transcommunality: Laura Anderson Barbata, Collaboration Beyond Borders, Cornell Fine
Arts Museum, Orlando, Florida (2016)[3][23]
Helen Louise Textile Collection Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2016)[3]
BRIC Art House, Brooklyn, New York (2016)[3]
Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, NL (2016)[3]
Museo de la Ciudad de México (2016)[3]
Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Mexico (2016)[3]
Intervention: Indigo (public street performance in collaboration with Chris Walker, the
Brooklyn Jumbies and Jarana Beat), Brooklyn, New York (2015)[3]
Harlem Art Factory Festival (public street performance in collaboration with the Brooklyn
Jumbies), Harlem, New York La Repatriació n de Julia Pastrana (exhibition), Festival
Internacional Cervantino, Museo Iconográ fico del Quijote, Guanajuato (2013)[3]
A Flower for Julia (international call to send a flower to be placed on Julia's grave the day of
her burial in Mexico), Sinaloa de Leyva, México (2012)[3]
Intervention: Wall Street (public street performance in collaboration with the Brooklyn
Jumbies), Financial District, New York Zancudos, Zanqueros en Zaachila (public street
performance in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies and los Zancudos de Zaachila),
Oaxaca, México (2011)[3]
Among Tender Roots (exhibition), Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper
Arts, IL (2010)[3]
Jumbies Fort Worth! (performance and outreach program in collaboration with the
Brooklyn Jumbies and Amphibian Stage Productions), Fort Worth, TX (2009)[3]
Jumbies! (performance and outreach program in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies
and Amphibian Stage Productions), The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX (2008)[3]
Selected group exhibitions[edit]
Day of the Dead (concert in collaboration with Apparatjik, Concha Buika and Void), Bergen
International Music Festival, Norway Ejercicios exploratorios II: Creadoras contemporá neas
en la colecció n MACG, Museo Alvar y Carrillo Gil, México City (2016)[24][25]
The Quixotic Days and Errant Nights of the Knight Errant Don Quijote (character design),
Amphibian Stage Production, Fort Worth, TX. ( [26]
Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL; El Museo del Barrio,
New York, NY; Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY; Studio Museum Harlem, New York, NY.
(2015) [27][28]
Social Paper: Hand Papermaking in the Context of Socially Engaged Art, Center for Book and
Paper Arts, Columbia College Chicago, IL FOCO14, Festival de las Artes ARC, Coquimbo,
Chile 59 (2015)[3]
X Bienal Monterrey, FEMSA, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Monterrey, México Invitational:
Twenty Jurors, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Il Second Generation, Columbia College
Chicago, Chicago, Il (2012)[3]
Mujeres detrá s de la lente: 100 añ os de creació n fotográ fica en México, CECUT, Tijuana,
México (2011)[3]
AIO: Art in the Open Philadelphia, Schuylkill Banks Park, Philadelphia, PA Ciudadanas
(collaboration with the Museo de Mujeres Artistas Mexicanas), Museo Universitario del
Chopo, Mexico City (2010)[3]
Hecho en casa: Una aproximació n a las prá cticas objetuales en el arte mexicano
contemporá neo, Museo de Arte Moderno. México City The Muhheakantuk in Focus, Wave
Hill, Bronx, NY The Art of Personal Adornment, Inez and Milton Shaver Gallery, The Dahl
Arts Center, Rapid City, SD (2009)[3]
Cardinal Points (Puntos Cardinales): A Survey of Contemporary Latino and Latin American
Art from the Sprint Nextel Art Collection, Itinerant exhibition, USA (2007-2009)[3]
Selected awards, grants, and honors[edit]
Miembro del Sistema Nacional para Creadores, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes,
CONACULTA, México (2015–18)[3]
Artist in Residence, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (2016)[3]
Women in the Arts Award, Celebrating the Genius of Women, Orlando, FL (2016)[3]
The Current Fellow, Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria (2015)[3]
Honorary Fellow, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies (LACIS), University of
Wisconsin, Madison (2015)[3]
Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2015)
[3]
Segundo Concurso de Fotografía Contemporá nea de México, Photography Award,
Fundació n Mexicana de Cine y Artes, A.C., México (2013)[3]
Selection Committee, Visual Arts Grants, Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte, FONCA-
CONACULTA, México (2013)[3]
Advisory Board, Museos Vivos, México (2013)[3]
Residency, Interdisciplinary Arts Department and Columbia College Chicago Center for
Book and Paper, IL (2012)[3]
Advisory Council, Artistic Dreams International, New York, NY (2011)[3]
Miembro del Sistema Nacional para Creadores, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes,
CONACULTA, MX (2010–13)[3]
Robin Fund Residency, Center for Book & Paper / Interdisciplinary Arts Dept., Columbia
College, Chicago, IL (2010)[3]
References[edit]

^ a b "Laura Anderson Barbata". www.gardnermuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-03-24.

^ "A remarkable 19th-century woman gets a true champion in an interactive play about
beauty". star-telegram. Retrieved 2019-03-24.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq
ar as at au av "LAURA ANDERSON BARBATA: Collaborations Beyond Borders" (PDF). Center
for Women in the Arts and Humanities.

^ a b "Laura Anderson Barbata – Ruiz-Healy Art". Retrieved 2019-03-24.

^ a b c d "Laura Anderson Barbata". Laura Anderson Barbata. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ a b c "Terremoto | Intervenció n: Índigo". Terremoto. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ "Laura Anderson Barbata talks about her work". Colecció n Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
2019-01-31. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ "Laura Anderson Barbata". ARTE AMAZONIA provides a global voice through art for the
indigenous cultures of the Amazon. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ Cotter, Holland (2007-09-07). "Jumbie Camp - Laura Anderson Barbata - Art - Review".
The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ Brooks, Katherine (2014-08-11). "Welcome To The Magical World Of International Stilt-

Walkers". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ a b "An Artist Repatriates the Body of Julia Pastrana, an Indigenous Mexican Woman
Exhibited as a "Freak"". Hyperallergic. 2018-01-19. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ "Ugly truths: Work-in-progress talk performance examines the life of Julia Pastrana".
Brooklyn Paper. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
^ a b "Bibliography, Artistic and Scholarly Production · Julia Pastrana Online".
juliapastranaonline.com. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ Wilson, Charles (2013-02-11). "Julia Pastrana, Who Died in 1860, to Be Buried in Mexico".
The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ "Julia Pastrana's Long Journey Home: A Conversation With Laura Anderson Barbata". The
Order of the Good Death. 2017-12-21. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

^ a b The eye of the beholder : Julia Pastrana's long journey home. Anderson, Laura, 1958-,
Bondeson, Jan,, Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie,, Kester, Grant H.,, Má rquez-Grant, Nicholas,
1976-, Lovejoy, Bess. Seattle. 2017. ISBN 9780692762189. OCLC 961003807.{{cite book}}:
CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)

^ "Laura Anderson Barbata". www.gardnermuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-03-27.

^ "Artist brings indigenous rituals, costumes and stilt walkers to contemporary urban
environments". WHYY. Retrieved 2019-03-27.

^ Web (2018-07-31). "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum celebrates final Neighborhood

Night with block party featuring Brooklyn Jumbies August 9". Sampan.org. Retrieved 2019-
03-27.

^ "A remarkable 19th-century woman gets a true champion in an interactive play about
beauty". star-telegram. Retrieved 2019-03-27.

^ Elias, UN Photo/Manuel (2017-06-08). "Performance Piece Marking World Oceans Day".

United Nations Photo. Retrieved 2019-03-27.

^ Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21). "Press Release".{{cite web}}: CS1

maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

^ "Transcommunality: Laura Anderson Barbata, Collaboration Beyond Borders".

www.rollins.edu. 2016. Retrieved 2019-03-27.

^ "Day of the Dead | magne f archive". 20 May 2016. Retrieved 2019-03-27.

^ "Apparatjik to perform at Bergen International Festival in June". a-ha live. Retrieved 2019-
03-27.

^ Liner, Elaine (2015-07-14). "Amphibian Stage's Quixotic Days Tilts at the Windmills of
Your Mind". Dallas Observer. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
^ "Caribbean: Crossroads of the World". The New York Times. 2015-08-23. ISSN 0362-4331.
Retrieved 2019-03-27.

^ "Caribbean: Crossroads of the World at PAMM". www.mutualart.com. Retrieved 2019-03-

27.

External links[edit]
Official Website
Intervention: Wall Street - Laura Anderson Barbata and the Brooklyn Jumbies
Authority control databases International
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