​ Nuevo Zoologique Mexicano reflects on how the exotic and otherness are configured from the exhibition of the body of the other, the exercise of the gaze, the exercise of power and the superiority of the one who looks.  ​

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How is the exotic used as entertainment and construction of identity?

How does the state exercise power and domination by defining certain practices as identitarian, patriotic and folkloric?

What are the colonialist logics and behaviors that are still embedded in us?

What does the gaze of the “other” or looking at the “other” do about identity?

Is identity constructed and reaffirmed from the exhibition of "that which I am not"?

How is the exoticization of bodies, customs and the colonization of the gaze still being exercised today, in our artistic and cultural context?

How does our actions determine the presence of the police?

Who is the other?

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These are some questions raised by the performance.

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The monstrous and the indigenous set the parameters of normality and racial superiority within the colonial logic of power. The colonizer perceives himself as superior, with the authority to enunciate and define otherness. In this device the figure of the monster is displayed as a representation of the limits of alterity. All monsters, all alterities: The policeman, the dancer and the one who watches. In a role play where we can see that we are in a system in which we move from one role to another.

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Nuevo Zoologique Mexicano oscillates between performance, dance, theatricality and museum exhibition. It cannot be pigeonholed into a single scenic device, rather it works as a power device that in its actions generates a crossroads of meanings and allows reflection on the questions installed on all the bodies that circulate there.

The proposed device distances the folkloric dance by putting it in an exhibition space, a showcase, and allows the viewer to trigger the dancer's dance to see in his expert performance, the exotic and beautiful of his dance. Through the action, a reflection will be generated in the public.

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performance  does not provide answers. It generates questions, provokes contradictions, mirrors identities,  ways of relating, mechanisms and power relations.

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NUEVO ZOOLOGIQUE MEXICANO was born within the framework of the "Diploma in Research Practices, Dance, Choreography and Performance ¿Cómo encender un fósforo?" 2017-2018, in Mexico.  The performance premieres at the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico  CCEMx and at the Museo Universitario del Chopo, in May 2018.