Blinking Intermittence of Constraint: Performativity, Scale, and Impact

Blinking Intermittence of Constraint: Performativity, Scale, and Impact brings together presentations by Juf (Beatriz Ortega Botas and Leto Ybarra), Amber Jamilla Musser, and Malik Nashad Sharpe that explore the relationships between movement and constriction by modeling ways of mobilizing sonic, bodily, and textual remarks within wider narratives on systems of coercion. This event is curated by PS Ph.D. Candidate, Blanca Ulloa

Through talks, readings, and performances, the presentations reflect on the negotiation between minor and excessive modes of expression that manifest as different performance tactics and conceptualisms that are capable of operating at different scales. By way of these disparate operations, the event considers a fundamental relationship between affectation and constricted forms of movement and it further delves into the ways in which this interplay is produced by the tensions between the regulatory functions of the present and the impact of the aesthetic experimentation of movement for counterpublics. Through such incisions, we will also examine the dynamics between boundlessness and presentness, and between scenes of minimalism and maximalism that are elaborated in their investigations.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, the Center for Research and Study, and the Department of Performance Studies.

BIOS:

Juf is an independent space and publisher based in Madrid that explores the relationships between poetry, art, theatricality, and desire. Curated by Bea Ortega Botas and Leto Ybarra, Juf’s program is interested in thinking along with different scriptural economies; permutations of sound, rhythm, and tone; theatrical resistances to realism and various grammars and architectures linked to rhetoric, deception, ventriloquism, drag, or saturation in order to contest official narratives and vacuums. Originally publishing a series of online PDFs in which artists and poets were invited to dialogue about a specific theme, over time Juf has continued evolving with the organization of poetry events, exhibitions, performances, and talks. 

Leto Ybarra is a poet, artist, and co-founder of the art and poetry project Juf in Madrid. Her work has been shown and recited at Basel Social Club (Basel, 2023) The Ryder (Madrid), Gasworks (London), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Cordova (Barcelona) or Haus Wien (Vienna), among others. In 2021, she published Fantasmita eres pegamento (little Ghosty you’re glue) with Caniche Editorial.

Beatriz Ortega Botas is an artist and curator. She is co-founder of the art and poetry project Juf in Madrid and part of the curatorial platform Yaby. She has been the editor of the online journal _AH. Some of her recent curatorial and artistic projects have been shown at Systema (Marseille, France), Fundación Joan Miró (Barcelona, Spain), CA2M (Madrid, Spain), and Vleeshal (Middelburg, The Netherlands). 

Amber Jamilla Musser writes and researches at the intersections of race, sexuality, and aesthetics. In addition to writing art reviews for The Brooklyn Rail, she teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has published widely in queer studies, black feminism, psychoanalysis, and critical theory. She is the author of Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism (NYU Press, 2014), Sensual Excess: Queer Femininity and Brown Jouissance (NYU Press, 2018), and Between Shadows and Noise: Sensation, Situatedness, and the Undisciplined (Duke University Press, 2024). Her collaborative projects include co-editing Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies (NYU Press, 2021); special issues of Signs: A Journal of Feminist Theory on "Care and Its Complexities" and ASAP Journal on "Queer Form;" and the series Elements in Feminism and Critical Theory for Cambridge University Press. 

Malik Nashad Sharpe is an award-winning choreographer and movement director known for his provocative and formally engaging performance works that address themes of violence, alienation, horror, melancholia, and the horizon. He frequently choreographs underneath his alias, Marikiscrycrycry. He has received commissions and shown his work at venues and festivals across the U.K., Europe, and Canada, and is currently an Associate Artist at The Place and a studio resident of Somerset House Studios. He has held artistic residencies at Sadlers Wells, Barbican, Performance Situation Room, Dance4, Duckie, and Tate Modern. He holds a BA in Experimental Dance with highest honours from Williams College and a certificate in Contemporary Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance, where he won the Simone Michele Prize for Outstanding Choreography. In 2019, he was named a Rising Star in Dance by Attitude Magazine and in 2022, he was featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his unique and pervasive choreographic achievements. He currently lives in London and is a guest professor in dance and performance at the Stockholm University of Arts in Sweden.

Blanca Ulloa is a performer and writer from Madrid. She lives in New York where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Performance Studies at New York University. She has recently presented her work at La Casa Encendida (Madrid) and Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Madrid), and she has received grants and awards from Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), the Fulbright Program, and the Botín Foundation.