Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Diego Perez La Cruz.
Hi Juan Diego, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I’m Juan Diego Perez la Cruz, a Venezuelan architect, artist, and teacher. During the student protest in 2017, I decided to leave the country after seeing my physical integrity compromised; being a university professor on several occasions; and expressed with my artwork critics and complete disagreement with the Nicolas Maduro regime that today destroys Venezuela.
I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I worked as an artist studio and residency program coordinator for the Contemporary Art Museum of La Boca MARCO. I had the opportunity to work with more than 35 young artists and create or strengthen the different cultural networks of the arts district. A program that was a reference in the cultural growth of the area until the beginning of the pandemic, but continuing a program with artists from different parts of the world became highly complicated.
During my time in Argentina, the tension in my country Venezuela continued to grow. With the entry of the new government in Argentina, I only saw how it strengthened the dictatorship of my country, making common procedures such as passport renewal a task that could take at least 1 year and also be pointed out as a traitor in the embassy. Faced with this situation and to escape this ideological persecution. I decided to move with my family to the United States at the end of 2020
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a difficult situation to overcome being in Venezuela. It was constantly physically attacked by the context, lack of food, and poor quality of services such as electricity, water, health, and safety, among other more direct and violent actions that have shaped the way I work and I currently develop as an artist.
I had had different experiences as a traveling artist in art residencies in Buenos Aires, Mexico, and Iceland, but this time it was different. Being in Argentina was the first time I had been separated from my family and friends for so long. There was no plan to return; being in the United States, I have been able to breathe with a little more tranquility and rethink several projects, having a new field to understand and a different culture to adapt to.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I see my work as a diary that reflects the situations I have faced, so each one has a different emotional weight. Using an open or abstract narrative on occasions where a free interpretation is sought, the medium I use is photography, video, and installation where I can introduce to my world the people who observe.
One of the ways to integrate me into Minnesota culture was to generate creative networks. I am currently developing the brand Raiz plataforma, creating a publication and workshop focusing on the professionalization of young Latino or migrant artists, specifically from their art portfolio, to generate spaces for reflection, criticism, and promotion of artists who got difficulties accessing other educations institutions. september 15 is the program’s public presentation at springboard for the arts.
Raiz PLataforma also works on Promoting and giving new space to Venezuelan artists who suffer the humanitarian, social, and educational crises from the same government.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
It has been a time for introspection and critical thinking, During this times i got really focus on my work and goals, During the covid crisis I developed a photo performance work called: exercises of latency/communism kill more than a virus, and reflected on how being in Venezuela had implemented more punitive ways to control populations through state violence criteria . It wasn´t strange that I could not leave my home at any time or on a schedule, that I could not circulate freely in my neighborhood, the limited my interactions with family and friends was a daily task in Venezuela for years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Yg5eak1-0
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perez.la.cruz/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PerezlaCruz
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