Joliz Dela Peña &
Oscar Robertson

Joliz Dela Peña is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist from the Philippines, currently based in Tiohtià:ke. Intimate connection to memories, identity, and diaspora are recurring themes in Dela Pena’s practice. Through performance and installations, she pursues to relive reality, explore its complexities, and translate invisible tension into various visual and tactile qualities. Through collaborating with composer Oscar Robertson, she aims to intertwine sound and visual art to explore potentialities and limitations of corporeal endurance to better express and disseminate propagations from the stemming interactions.

Photo: Joliz Dela Peña performing She Cut Her Own Belly Open. Photo by Nicolas Biaux.

She Cut Her Own Belly Open

Performance

This performance art piece is a commentary on the romanticization of marginalized people’s resilience and perseverance in overcoming biased systemic conditions. It alludes to the collective yet not monolithic experiences of people of color, immigrants and marginalized people of being constantly tokenized. Through the traditional practice of serenade, this piece reveals the societal gaze that undermines the voices of marginalized people during a crisis by praising their resilience. It considers how this applause only shifts the focus away from the real task at hand: looking for solutions and initiating change.

Performance Schedule, starting at Rochford Square:

  • 5:00-7:00 pm: A loop around downtown Charlottetown. The performance will go west on Kent Street and continue on south on West Street, east on Richmond Street and through Connaught Square, continuing north on Queen towards the Confederation Centre of the Arts. They will make their way up St. George Street, and back on Kent where they will return to Rochford Square.

  • 9:00-11:00 pm: A loop around Victoria Park. Going west on Kent, the performance will continue to Brighton Road. They will continue along to Victoria Park Roadway, where they will walk along the waterway and back towards the entrance of Victoria Park and to Rochford Square.