UTSA hosts Sept. 29 lecture by artist, filmmaker Laura Varela

By James M. Benavides
Public Affairs Specialist

(Sept. 24, 2009)–The UTSA Mexican-American studies program will host a lecture by artist and filmmaker Laura Varela at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 29 in the Frio Street Building Sam Riklin Auditorium (1.407) at the UTSA Downtown Campus.

Free and open to the public, Varela will speak on the controversial art installation “Enligh-Tents: Reconquering the Alamo Through Art” that she created with German artist Vaago Weiland for San Antonio’s 2009 Luminaria arts festival.

The art installation was the first instance of a Chicana artist creating a site-specific public art installation at the Alamo. It combined more than 50 teepee-like structures on Alamo Plaza with projected images of native peoples on the Alamo’s façade. The installation was intended as a commentary on the effects of European cultures on the native cultures of Texas.

Varela and Weiland said the goal of the piece was to contrast the Alamo, a Spanish mission, which they contend, is a fortification, with the tents of native peoples. According to the artists, the native peoples’ sense of security comes from a sense of community. On her Web site, Varela says, “We don’t need defensive fortification to feel secure or connected with other life-giving energy.”

The lecture will focus on the process for getting approval for the installation and commentary on the politics that banned public art on the Alamo grounds. The presentation will include a screening of images from the historic and controversial installation.

A multimedia artist and San Antonio-based documentary filmmaker, Varela’s work as a storyteller is shaped by growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. Her work navigates between ideological, cultural, linguistic and physical borders through the use of film and contemporary art installations.

For more information, contact Marie Miranda, UTSA associate professor of bicultural-bilingual studies, at .