Dr. Pelican

Juan Pablo A. Sanchez King
25 jul 2024
5 Min. de lectura

Actualizado: 18 dic 2024

Artist Statement

My art-science work is founded on cultural-biology and living systems theory, specifically the biology of desires. Human desires bring forward emotions, actions and behaviours. Emotional systems are at the epicenter of the human experience.

I believe in the transformative power of play and storytelling and art-science should facilitate self-liberation processes to heal. Alleviating constraining interpretations that give presence to suffering and social burden.

I do experimental art as research method to understand how individuals, organizations and communities may start a self-liberation process toward the recognition of our true nature and spontaneous well-being. My intention is to bring forward intuition and regain our deep connection to the natural world.

Synapsis 2013

Projection of drawings in a 4 x 6 x 4 mts room

Digital drawing and Relational Art Performance

Galeria Delirium, Mazatlán, Sinaloa

I play and invite to play. Facilitating the inner experiences of the psyche. I understand art as an aesthetic experience that happens within. According to each observer’s mind-body interactions. My language is a dance evoking and provoking to unveil the subtlety of the invisible, the mystery of the unconscious. Throught this language interpreters may reconstitute themselves. Generative experiences of well-being. That may transform the observer by expanding sensitivities and sense of belonging.

Mexican Ethics Code

Live art and book

Testimonials from the interpretation of the meaning of the book 2011-2024

18 x 25 x 3.5 cm

Open urban provocations 2o11

Aviso en papel bond 27.94 x 21.59 cm

May 2011 - June 2012

Tijuana, Baja California, México.

My work is focused on the intersection between live art, spirituality, neuro-psico-biology and social transformation. I believe that awarerness and reflection on bodily sensations, emotions and desires reconstitute and integrate the human psyche, therefore a path toward self-liberation and integraty.

Social Transformation Portal

Acto de bio-psico magia

Marzo-Mayo 2022 Festival Amo La Paz

Galería Alive, La Paz, BCS, México.

Influenced by Alejandro Jodorowsky, my attempt is to design bio-pyscho-magic experiences that bypass the unconscious bringing new insights, human connectedness and awareness that deconstruct the normosis of our postmodern culture.

Here follows three imbricated projects that are representative of my work.

The Biology of Will.

Habituation and conformity with the status quo stabilizes peoples emotional systems. Longings and deepest veiled desires constitute potential energy that is constricted over time due the operation of emotional contradictions that inhibit action. Energy seems to be unavailable constrained by the psyche and stuck due to one or more emotional contradictions. It is through two linguistics operations and reflection that longings may be transformed into desires, producing entropy in the living system. Through a harmless and simple self-guided exercise participants’ are able to integrate their psyche and overcome the paradoxical nature of their own emotions that may be constricted due to frustration, resignation or resentment. The intra-psychic effect of art unifies emotions, body, and mind, recreating the sense of oneness and interconnectedness. Furthermore, the realm of imagination and the symbolic language evoked during the transformational ritual, opens possibilities to create a structural changes in participants emotional systems. This changes can go from an ephemeral transformation, to continuing cultural transformation process inspired by Animal archetypes and a continuing reflection process including mind-body interactions. In summary the performance constitutes a self-liberating process driven by participant's biology of will.

2. Animalia: Live Art platform as means for self-liberation.

For the last 4 years I have experimented with performance art to analyze and explain bio-pyscho-cultural phenomenons. In pararell I have been doing intervention research focused on emotional well-being and mental health. My research is founded on Maturana's cultural-biology, and a systemic emotional framework that I developed. To produce data and test generative mechanisms, I had created a transformational game practice entitled Animalia. Animalia is a transformational game that enhances intuition through emotional expression and the embodiment of desires represented by Animals.

Honoring Maturana 2021

Live Art Memorial to Honor Humberto Maturana's Legacy

www.honoringmaturana.org

Animalia is a recursive and endless serious game that brings forward a world on its own. However is not a new world, it is the world of my ancestors the Mexicas and the Mayas. I have been iniciated in this spiritual world following the sacred path of the Jaguar. A path whitout fear nor enemies.

Ceremonia Animalia-Oceloyotl 2023

Performance de arte relacional

Tepoztlán, Morelos

Animalia was presented at Harvard Divinity School April 2024.

Revisiting Mexico's Ancient Spiritual Traditions: A Path to Inspire Modern Life and Overcome Colonialism and Patriarchy

Our current historical moment demands awareness and compassion to deliberately transform ourselves from the extractive, exploiting and aggressive nature of colonialism in favor of kindness, equality, and inclusiveness. In accordance, we believe that Mexico’s Ancient Nahual Spirituality — a pre-colonial complex belief system rooted in a sacred relationship with nature— can serve as a guide. Nahual’s philosophy, alive in today’s Mexican contemporary culture, has survived 300 years of Spaniard domination that turned Mexico into a predominant catholic country. Beyond syncretism, Nahual spirituality thrived through the oral tradition. Abuelas transmitted from one generation to the next a belief system deeply intertwined with the history and cosmology of indigenous groups such as Olmecas, Mexicas and Mayas. This millennial spirituality has been preserved through a myriad of rituals, such as Cacao and Temazcal Ceremonies, Plant healing, Spiritual Animals, etc. Nahuales now guide new generations on alternative ways to embrace peace, compassion, courage and the will to reclaim the authority to lead a peaceful and loving cultural transformation. Due the pre-colonial nature of Nahualism, it honors values that are in opposition to the European patriarchal mindset that lead to Colonialism; e.g. abundance and a sacred relationship with nature versus scarcity, extraction and exploitation; unity among masculine and feminine, and the veneration of feminine (Tonanzin) versus domination and hierarchy above feminine. Ometeotl, God and Goddess of duality, embodies oneness and interconnectedness, representing the interplay and balance between opposing forces, such as light and darkness, life and death, creation and destruction. This duality is seen as the driving force behind the cosmos. Ceremonies invoking and honoring Ometeotl aim to maintain harmony, seek guidance, express gratitude for the blessings of life. For example, during the Nahual Seven Directions Blessing, participants offer gratitude, prayers, and intentions for the specific energies associated with each direction. Ollin (East) invoques clarity and insight; Cuauhtli (West), guidance through life's changes and personal growth; Coatl (South), is linked to the element of fire and represents passion, creativity, and the vitality of life; Cipactli (North), represents stability, wisdom, and abundance; North invokes for grounding, strength, and prosperity; Ihuan Ahuitzotl (Heaven), represents the spiritual realm and the connection to the divine; Tlaltecuhtli (Earth), symbolizes the physical world and the nurturing energy of Mother Earth. Finally, Tonalli (Human Hearth) represents the inner world, emotions, and the sacred center of the individual.