Naufus Ramirez Figueroa | Artists

Artists Naufus Ramirez Figueroa

Children’s Tears Laid Out To Dry

September 7, 2007 to October 13, 2007
Exhibition
Children's Tears Laid Out to Dry continues Naufús Figueroa's exploration into the troubled history of his birthplace, translated through the poetry of Québécois author Anne Hébert. In her work Hébert often describes terror stricken and unhappy children. For Figueroa her poetry reflects the mournfulness of children during the Guatemalan Civil War, where the children of activists and guerrillas would be kidnapped to be killed or adopted out to military families in an attempt to destroy the "bad seed". Vancouver based artist, Barry Doupe collaborates in this installation with a series of animations.

May 9, 2002
Performance
In 1954 the elected government of Guatemala was overthrown by a coup encouraged by the United Fruit Company in collusion with the CIA. Ramirez-Figueroa uses this as a starting point for his performance that mines Guatemalan history and the Broadway musical. This minimalist dance musical without words or music derives inspiration from Elsa Miranda, Disney Cartoons and political speeches to explore aspects of Latin American history.

February 22, 2018 to April 21, 2018
Book Launch, Exhibition, Publication
Requiem for Mirrors and Tigers is a series of six documented video performances by Guatemalan artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa. This series documents interrelated performances and were produced for the camera. Commissioned by the Corpus Network and produced in association with If I Can't Dance, Amsterdam the series features the artist working both in solo performances and with an ensemble in an ethereal and captivating series of performances. For Requiem, Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa developed a cycle of new performance works. Across the punctuated moments of the cycle, Ramirez-Figueroa used his body and direct action to perform a series of images related to the history of the Guatemalan Civil War. Approaching the Civil War from a personal position, he has softened this images through abstraction and humour, while attempting to use the intensity of the performance schedule to push beyond the immense force of the collective and inscribed memory of the war's history. Beyond the live performances, the cycle of works form a collective of videos.