Artists

Mexico

Sofía Fernández Díaz-Sofía Gabriel

20.05.24 14.06.24

Sofía Fernández Díaz & Sofía Gabriel are a collective duo of Mexican artists both living in the United States. They came to ´ace to do an iteration of their work ciclos. ciclos is an ongoing performance project that invites the audience to listen, observe, and experience the flow of improvisation along with materials, tools and the performers. An ode to the moon that celebrates life, changes, and process. A dialogue with intuition and symbolism that leaves traces on a canvas, resulting in paintings created in motion. An immersive performance of gestures, ancestral traditions, natural materials, and tools.

Sofía Fernández Díaz is a multidisciplinary artist from Mexico City whose process is fueled by her knowledge of ancient and modern techniques, combining experimentation, intuition, and play to discover unexpected commonalities between unrelated materials like beeswax, fibers, natural dyes and more.

Sofía Gabriel is formally trained in dance. During her MA in Arts Administration and Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she began to deconstruct her practice by using the liminality and freedom of performance to explore the relationships between movement, language and politics. Her current practice uses facilitation, performance, organizing, and curation as tools for feminist resistance. Currently, she is a performer with the Space Movement Project, and artist in residence at High Concept Labs, Chicago.

ARTISTS STATEMENT

ciclos is a live action that invites the audience to listen, observe and experience the flow of improvisation. It presents an intuitive dialogue with materials found in Buenos Aires, grana cochinilla and handmade tools. An ode to the moon that celebrates femininity, life, change and process through a combination of gestures and ancestral traditions.

BIO
Sofía Fernández Díaz (1990)
Sofía Gabriel (1991)
Both born in Mexico, both living and working in Chicago, USA

EDUCATION
Sofía Fernández Díaz:
2022 | MFA in Fiber and Material Studies. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
2020 | Postgraduate in Visual Anthropology. Latir, CIESAS. CDMX
2013 | BFA in Painting and Printimaking. Academy of Art University, San Francisco, USA

Sofía Gabriel:
2021 | MA in Arts Admonistration & Policy. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
2014 | BA in Cultural Studies and Management. Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico

EXHIBITIONS, DANCE & PERFORMANCE
Sofía Fernández Díaz:
2022 | Sintiendo despacio. UNAM. Chicago, USA
2020 | Simbiosis. La Señora. Poco a Poco. Oaxaca, Mexico
2015 | Novedad en la diferencia. La casita. CDMX, Mexico
2014 | Sumis. El Tercer Lugar. CDMX, Mexico
2013 | Multiplicity. The Cannery. San Francisco, USA

Sofía Gabriel:
2023 | The Space Movement Project (performer). Chicago. USA
2023 | High Concept Labs (artist in residence). Chicago. USA
2023 | Contemporary Release. The Rooted Space, Chicago. USA
2020 | Extreme Bodies In Performance (with Roberto Sifuentes). School Of The Art Institute, Chicago, USA
2021 | Performance As Resistance (with Maria Gaspar). School Of The Art Institute, Chicago, USA

Related Activities

Exhibitions

ciclos
Sofía Fernández Díaz & Sofía Gabriel

12.06.24 12.06.24

During ´aceNITE on the 12th of June, Sofía Fernández Díaz and Sofía Gabriel presented for the public of Buenos Aires the second iteration of their project ciclos. ciclos is a live performance that invites the public to listen, observe and experience the flow of improvisation through an intuitive dialogue with Grana Cochinilla, materials found in Buenos Aires, and handmade tools. An ode to the moon that celebrates femininity, life, change and process through a combination of gestures and ancestral traditions.

The pigments were made by the artists, and included materials such as Grana Cochinilla, Yerba Mate, charcoal, graphite, earth, bamboo, plumerillos ‘nubes en el suelo’, palm, crystals, seeds, rusted metals, wood, lime, cane, thread, hair, and palo santo.

´aceNITE

City Pulse
Artists in dialogue

12.06.24 12.06.24

To close the May-June residency period, we presented the work of our residents at the ´ace studio. This exhibition brought together five artists (two working as a collective and one artist invited as part of the exhibition programme Semillero 2023) who, through their work, explored the tensions and complexities of our contemporary existence, who have immersed themselves in the pulse of the city, drawing from its urban landscape, its waste, and its sounds, materials and inspirations for their work.

Thomas Macie (USA) invites us to see the beauty in the discarded and the broken. Through his process of collecting waste and torn posters from the streets of Buenos Aires, he challenges the aesthetic value of what we consider useless. His work confronts us with our own craving for consumption and the transience of the satisfaction we seek in the material. He questions whether it is possible to find solace in what is abandoned, transforming rubbish into a mirror of our insatiable desires.

Through their piece ciclos, the collective formed by Sofía Fernández Díaz and Sofía Gabriel (Mexico-USA) creates a live performance that connects the public with the flow of improvisation and ancestral traditions. Using natural materials and handmade tools, their work is a celebration of femininity, life and change. The gestures and materials, from Grana Cochinilla to rusted metals, form an ode to the moon, highlighting the processes and cycles of nature.

María Villanueva (Argentina) uses the metaphor of the human body as a microcosm to explore internal systems and their reflection on the outside. Through ceramics, textiles and paintings, she creates an Atlas of the Body, a cartography that reveals human landscapes and desolate territories. Her work is a practice of healing and reflection, where the hidden becomes visible and the internal is projected outwards.

Lis Sundberg explores sound as a universal language that unites stories, emotions and traditions. Inspired by experiences in Berlin, China and her Quaker roots, her work is an invitation for audience participation to create a collaborative soundscape. In this piece, sound becomes a medium to explore solidarity and interconnectedness, building networks of roots that amplify the stories of all.

In addition, we present to the public the mural by Marian Calle (Argentina), artist in residence Palimpsesto de Pintura Mural thanks to a grant from Fundación´ace.

Together, these works invite the audience to reflect on the interconnectedness of our human experiences, the beauty in the everyday and the discarded, and the constant search for meaning in an ever-changing world. This exhibition is a celebration of the diversity of perspectives and a call to question what we take for granted, opening up space for new ways of seeing and hearing our surroundings.

Proyecto´ace
Artist-in-Residence International Program

View map

International Airport

Ministro Pistarini- Ezeiza (EZE)
Buenos Aires
45' to 60' trip

Domestic Airport

Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
Buenos Aires

Buses

38, 39, 41, 42, 59, 63, 65, 67, 68, 151, 152, 161, 184, 194 and 168 (stop in the front door)

Subway/Metro

D Line (Green)
Olleros Station (4 blocks, 4')

Train

Mitre Line (either to Leon Suarez or Mitre)
Colegiales Station (1 block, 1')

The Latin America's Paris

Buenos Aires is Argentine Republic's capital city. With 15,000,000 inhabitants, it is one of the largest cities in Latin America and one of the 10 most populous urban centers in the world. Its cosmopolitan and urban character vibrates to the rhythm of a great cultural offer that includes monuments, churches, museums, art galleries, opera, music and theaters; squares, parks and gardens with old groves; characteristic neighborhoods; large shopping centers and fairs. Here we also find a very good lodging facilities, with accommodation ranging from hostels to five-star hotels of the main international chains. Buenos Aires also show off about its variety of restaurants with all the cuisines of the world, as well as to have cafes and flower kiosks on every corner.

A neighborhood founded on the Jesuit farms in the 17th century

We are located in Colegiales neighborhood where the tree-lined streets, some of which still have their original cobblestones, invite you to walk. Although the apartment buildings advance, low houses still predominate. It is a district of the city where about 20 TV production companies, design studios, artist workshops and the Rock&Pop radio have been located. The neighborhood also has six squares, one of which pays homage to Mafalda, the Flea Market, shops, restaurants and cafes like its neighboring Barrios de Palermo and Belgrano, with which it limits.

Proyecto´ace
Artist-in-Residence International Program

Open Call #1
Residencies 2025
Deadline 
January 31st, 2025

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