La Pocha Nostra

To whom it may concern:

La Pocha Nostra is an organization comprising over 30 performance artists from different communities and countries, all interested in live art and transnational collaboration.

For over 10 years we have been associated with the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) in different capacities, as collaborators with CPR in creating the Museum of Fetishised Identities performance with local artists and MA students, as well as presenting our performance work in Aberystwyth, lecturing and presenting, and writing for the well established CPR led Performance Research journal.

It was during these residencies and collaborations that we were first given the opportunity to develop our pedagogical process, engage in innumerable ongoing collaborations with UK-based artists, and expand our international community.

After our exposure to these programs, La Pocha began a series of nomadic performance workshops first in Wales (CPR), and then travelling to across the globe to Mexico City, London (Live Arts Development Agency), Tucuman (Argentina), Barcelona, and the Canary Islands.

In 2005 we decided to consolidate all these experiences and opened a “performance summer school” in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. Artists from as far away as the US, Canada, the UK, Spain, Holland, Germany, Australia, and Peru came to collaborate with indigenous Oaxacans working in experimental art forms. The “Pocha summer school” has become an amazing artistic and anthropological experiment--how do artists from different countries and races spanning three generations, from every imaginable artistic background, begin to negotiate a common ground? Again, performance art provided the answer by becoming the connective tissue and lingua franca for our temporary community.

CPR performs multiple roles for the international live arts community. It is a think tank, a laboratory, an archive and a gathering place. Most importantly a place where artists are given the freedom to experiment outside the normal context of their work, to make links with other artists, students, academics and the public and to review and develop their own practice whilst sharing their methodology with an eclectic group of workshop participants.

The idea that CPR might be forced to close its doors to the public arts community due to funding cuts is extremely alarming to many networks of live artists in both continents. We energetically raise our voices in hopes that the Welsh Arts Council (ACW) understands that to jeopardize CPR's existence directly affects Wales’ artistic relations with many countries and will have a severe impact on Wales’ cultural standing throughout the world.

Sincerely yours,

La Pocha Nostra
San Francisco California, USA

Guillermo Gómez-Peña Mexico/USA
Roberto Sifuentes Mexico/USA
Michele Ceballos Columbia/USA
Violeta Luna Mexico/USA
Rachel Rogers UK