The Interior Beauty Salon: Rose Watching - Upcoming Walk and more...

Photo: Nicolás DERE / Ven-ve© 2020 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo

Ven-vé / A Series of Mini-Pilgrimages to Kelly Street Garden, Bronx, NY / Spring-Fall, 2021 / Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo and Guests

Walk 02: The Breaths it Takes Me to Get to You (Slowly) / Sunday, June 27, 1-3 PM
Kelly Street Garden / 924 Kelly Street, Bronx, NY, 10459 / FREE admission / Please wear mask and follow health protocols for Covid-19

For The Breaths it Takes Me to Get to You (Slowly), I invite neighbors to gather at Kelly Street Garden, as I arrive walking from Beck Street, while breathing in and out consciously, for a group session that includes practices such as gentle movement and mindful walking, as well as incorporating some specific breathing exercises from the Breath-Body-Mind™(BBM) program developed by Dr. Patricia Gerbarg and Dr. Richard P. Brown. All of this is to happen outside in the garden, and in the company of plants, flowers and trees. Bring with you a shawl or thin cover (this item is optional).

The practices I will introduce you to can assist with connecting with the Earth, enhancing sleep, kindling calm from within, helping with focus and concentration, and gifting you with readily available tools that you can easily draw on during your day.

With Ven-ve, I am interested in walking as art, but also for healing, and to kindle community and links amongst communities, peoples, organizations and towns as I have done for 20 years. Ven-ve brings awareness to the cycles of life in urban gardens, from germination and silent growth to more growth and harvest; all of this calling us to thanksgiving (as in giving thanks as an ongoing and daily practice).

Ven-ve is presented with funds as part of a regrant program awarded Kelly Street Garden by Kalliopeia Foundation, as an important part of making Kelly Street Garden a spiritual hub and cultural treasure within the Longwood/ South Bronx community.

Chapter 1 Puppy

Andrés Senra Interior Beauty in Motion Fellow 2021
Becoming Other. Building Alliances of Desire and Care on a Trans Species Planet

During his time at The Salon, Andrés Senra presents a series of videos about the possibility of queering identity beyond gender binaries, as well subverting the dual Western value system that separates the human from the non-human. This system of Western knowledge organizes the universe according to taxonomic rules that separate and divide it into artificial/natural, subject/object, mind/body, organic/inorganic, living/non-living, woman/man, human/non-human, human/animal, ability/disability, nature/culture, white/non-white, subject/object, reason/emotion, freedom /necessity, civilized/wild, and so on, assigning positive and negative values in a hierarchical way. Negative values have traditionally been assigned to the feminine, the queer, the animal and the non-white

The video works created for The Interior Beauty Salon question these values that produce otherness and also subvert anthropocentrism as an episteme that places human (white cis hetero men) in a position of hierarchy and dominance over all other beings. Each piece of videoart and videoperformance will be uploaded once a month until December 2021, reflecting on the possibility of building alliances of desire and care with the planet and the beings that inhabit it from the position of the Other.

Upcoming Open Call for Videos: Andrés Senra will also make an open call for artists who would like to contribute to his ideas with video creations that will be presented collectively in an online event in November. Video creations and video performances must reflect on the concept of caring for the planet through practices such as veganism, magic, rituals, feminism, anti-speciesism, queer and anti-racist artivism, and must not last longer than 2 minutes.

To learn more about Andrés engagement with The Salon click HERE

Photo: still from Chapter 1 Puppy  / Courtesy of the artist

Andrés Senra related links: website / IG / Vimeo / Facebook / YouTube

A Q&I Between Laura James and Nicolás

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo: I am elated to get to converse with you, Laura. It is not usual for me to be in dialogue with a guest with whom I can talk about the Caribbean, theology, creativity, and The Bronx in one place! Thank you for the “yes” to this Q&I.

Laura James: Ha! Yes Nicolás, thank you so much for inviting me. I must say, ever since we did that talk together at the Allentown Museum, I've just been that much more impressed with you and your vision. Before that I didn’t know you had such a strong connection to theology and religion, so it was really interesting to learn about those aspects of your work during your talk. So yeah, thank you, I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today.

To read the full Q&I click HERE

Laura James’s related links: website / Instagram / Facebook / Bronx200

Photo: courtesy of Laura James

Coming Up: Linda Mary Montano and Nicolás / Twelve Q&As

Linda Mary Montano is a seminal figure in contemporary performance art and her work since the mid 1960s has been critical in the development of video by, for, and about women. Attempting to dissolve the boundaries between art and life, Montano continues to actively explore her art/life through shared experience, role adoption, and intricate life altering ceremonies, some of which last for seven or more years. Her artwork is starkly autobiographical and often concerned with personal and spiritual transformation. Montano’s influence is wide ranging — she has been feature at museums including The New Museum in New York, MoMA, MOCA San Francisco, and ICA in London. Linda Mary Montano created 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 1984-1998, A 7 Chakra Experience; and ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART. 1998-2019: A FREE ONLINE SCHOOL FOR PERFORMANCE EXPERIMENTATION. Montano has placed over 60 of her videos free on YouTube.

Montano's websites: Archive / Video Data Bank / Fales Library at NYU / Blog / Dorsky Museum / Youtube Channel

Publications: Linda Mary Montano: You Too Are a Performance Artist: Art in Everyday Life / Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties / Art in Everyday Life / The Art and Life Institute Handbook (to download click HERE)

Image depicting Linda Mary Montano reading the Roman Catholic Performance Artist Manifesto outside Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York / Photo Nicolás DERE

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The Interior Beauty Salon was conceived by Nicolás (A.K.A. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo) in 2017 in The Bronx, NY, to serve as a space where that which is not necessarily seen or manifested in tangible ways, is seeded, nurtured and given room to grow safely. This includes processes melding art, ritual, ceremony, rites of passage, and healing. Some of the channels deployed include writing, listening, talking, moving, drawing, journaling, contemplating, meditating, breathing and performing. To read more...

The Salon's website: www.interiorbeautysalon.com / to contact us click here / to join us on Instagram click here / #theinteriorbeautysalon

The Interior Beauty Salon works at the intersection between creativity and healing