Blackness Is Not Site Specific: An Interview with Anna Parisi
Caught in the Act was originally meant to be performed live, but because of Covid-19 restrictions, the video was presented at the virtual closing reception and catalog launch of the Immigrant Artist Biennial at the EFA Project Space in New York City on Saturday, October 24th, 2020. The contributing writer, Natalia Almonte, was the Director of Photography for the project and after its completion she sat down with the artist, Anna Parisi, to discuss the intentions behind the performance, as well as the experience of filming it.
Natalia Almonte (b.1988) is a Brooklyn-based artist and independent curator born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She holds an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons, The New School and an MA in Art History and the Art Market: Modern and Contemporary Art from Christie’s Education. Almonte has participated in group exhibitions in galleries such as Smack Mellon (2020) and Westbeth Gallery (2019) in New York, as well as solo shows in ÁREA: Lugar de Proyectos (2017) and La Guarda Coche (2019) in Puerto Rico. She co-curated an exhibition at the Arnold & Sheila Aronson Galleries (2020) in Manhattan and is also co-curating an exhibition opening at The Real House (2021) in Brooklyn. The artist will be presenting her solo work in Das Schaufenster (2021) in Seattle and has two upcoming residencies in Mexico and France (2021). Almonte was recently nominated for the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship (2021). Her practice questions the authority of language and the power of verbal manipulation, a reality faced by colonial entities that seldom dictate their own story and are subject to the mercy of the empire’s archives. She considers that the subjective testimonial reveals more about the true repercussions of our sociopolitical climate than “official” documentation.
Anna Parisi (b. 1984) is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary visual artist, curator, and writer born in Brazil. She received a BA in Communications and Filmmaking from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons, The New School of Design in New York. Her work has been presented in The United States, Brazil, and Europe. She is the recipient of the Leslie Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship (2020), the Taller Creative Capital (2019), and has been recently nominated for the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship (2021, upcoming). Anna has presented her work at EFA Project Space, [.BOX] Videoart project space Milan, The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The Hunter East Harlem Art Gallery, La Galleria La Mama, UrbanGlass, The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, Smack Mellon, Westbeth Gallery, Artigo Rio, Musée D’Elysee in Lausanne, amongst others. Through her practice, Anna explores ideas around systemic racism, colonialism, and patriarchy with her identity as a context.