Gomez-Pena's Negotiating Performance

Reading the Gomez-Pena piece regarding cultural performance and the movements of multi-cultural art I was struck by several of his points. One of the first things he said that really stuck with me was his ideas regarding culture and what that means. He says "We must realize that all cultures are open systems in constant process of transformation, redefinition, and re-contextualization. What we need is dialogue." I really like this idea that all cultures are in a constant state of flux, in the art and performance world we tend to label and classify things. Chicano art, Latino art, African art...culture becomes a definition. We regard it as a stable, unchanging, structured entity- it is the way that we define what we are seeing. The problem with this is just what Gomez-Pena points out, there is no modern culture that is unchanging. There is no way to define a culture, it is composed of too many parts and too many peoples to create a single defining aspect that we use as a label. The only way we will ever be able to "create a dialogue" is if we stop this arbitrary labeling and naming. It is human nature to categorize the things that we encounter but especially in the art world we need to create a multi-cultural/multi-national language that can be used without the judgments and standards imposed by a labeling something as from a specific culture or country. While this is obviously easier said than done I think that something like this has to start with the artists themselves. I often notice in the works that we read written by performers and artists that they tend to lay blame on their audience. They attack the public for labeling them, for not understanding them, for being ignorant. They blame the group as a whole for imposing a label upon them but in reality a lot of times the artists themselves creates their own classification. They self-identify in a certain way and they create art in that same vein. I liked Pena's point that we must create a new language and a new way of making art that will stop this from happening. If we can find a way to create an in-between of sorts, we might actually be able to separate our art from labels and allow it to be seen purely and completely.