Ongoing applied artistic research project with iSaBeL Espinoza Hidrobo

In their artistic research on indigenous communities in northern Ecuador, iSaAc Espinoza Hidrobo and Roman Jungblut explore practices of resistance, forms of hospitality, embodied knowledge, and ingrained prejudices. In this context, Espinoza Hidrobo and Jungblut start from their own embodied contradictions: while iSaAc, as a transgender and queer person with non-Western roots who was nonetheless socialized in Western religiosity, finds themselves today as part of the German art elite, Roman, through friendship and self-questioning, transforms into iSaAc’s ally. The engagement with their own roots and similar religious influences becomes a point of commonality, negotiated through temporary occupation and sharing of spaces and bodies (through movement, music, or objects).

Their collaborative work navigates between microcosms and macrocosms, discourse and self-identity. Considering the historical dominance of Western culture, they probe how knowledge transmission occurs and is preserved across different influences using dance, movement, and dedicated exploration. This extends to examining terms influenced by Western epistemology, such as “worldview,” contrasting with an open, ambiguous “world perception” that avoids universalizing communal developments. Performances and happenings intensify this discourse through varied bodily practices, focusing on how Western society can equitably embrace embodied, situational, and contradictory knowledge forms alongside ingrained ones.

Their artistic endeavors unavoidably embed personal encounters with tokenism within Western cultural institutions, manifesting at times discursively or ironically as seemingly sacred objects or Western-themed costumes. This provides room for collective reflection on self-placement.

Their productions physically manifest decolonial border thinking. They treat ambiguity and border thinking as positive moments for inquiry and resistance, utilizing artistic experimentation for the reclamation of inscribed religiosity. Notably, the project pays homage to enduring resistance and unwavering strength of indigenous women and transgender individuals against colonial powers. Emerging from profound research, these islands symbolize aspirations and offer techniques to rebalance societal systems through micro-level practices, without pursuing uniformity.