Of all the performances I delivered at
@envisionfestival this year, this one is the crown jewel.
I went into this experience not only as an artist, but as someone returning to my homeland. I was moving through a brand new space while something familiar was being activated and integrated inside of me, and performing in that state was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. There’s a kind of openness that comes with being emotionally expanded - not fragile, but exposed in a different way. In between the performances, excitement, and intensity, there were also these quiet moments where I could feel my nervous system reorganizing itself around an evolving sense of identity.
I first shared the concept behind this piece last November as a work inspired by transformation, change, and rebirth - themes that have followed me throughout my life. The Blue Morpho Butterfly, a national symbol of Costa Rica, became the muse behind it, but at the time I didn’t realize how deeply the piece foreshadowed what I was about to experience. Debuting it at Envision Festival while reconnecting with my lineage, family, and parts of myself I’d spent years at a distance from made the performance feel less like a presentation and more like something I was actively living through in real time.
Lately I’ve been learning how to exist in an ongoing relationship with where I come from. There’s still grief and complexity in it - insecurities around not fluently speaking the language, and things that cannot be rewritten. But I’m beginning to understand that integration means allowing all those different parts of yourself to exist together honestly, and trusting that two seemingly conflicting things can be true at once.
So much love to
@breezeadventures for seeing me, trusting my vision, and helping make this experience possible. To
@chmuramusic for not only embracing performance art in his set, but taking interest in the artists sharing the stage alongside him. To
@alexcinematics for documenting some of my most defining moments, to
@chromatic_flow for creating props that feel like an extension of my soul, and to my dear friends who’ve supported me throughout this wild journey.
Pura Vida 🌴🦋
