Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa: Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace)

Featuring a dazzling array of prints, drawings, costumes, sculpture, video, and a performance, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa's Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace) (2020) addresses the political and personal histories of Guatemala's long civil war (1960–96). Building on Ramírez-Figueroa's research on Latin American theater, Lugar de Consuelo is inspired by the history of the revolutionary play El Corazón del espantapájaros (Heart of the Scarecrow), written by the playwright Hugo Carrillo in 1962. During the civil war, Guatemala's government violently repressed a student production of the play. Years later, Ramírez-Figueroa learned about this from his uncle, who participated in that production as an actor. The artist's research, drawn mostly from oral accounts, resulted in etchings, drawings, and costumes that reimagine the events surrounding its censorship. An installation of Ramírez-Figueroa's costumes and props, as well as watercolor sketches and a film of a prior performance, staged at the Universidad Popular de Guatemala, where the censored production took place, will be on view in the Kravis Studio. The exhibition will culminate in the first New York performances of Lugar de Consuelo. Based on the five characters from Carillo's work—an oligarch, a president, a soldier, a priest, and a scarecrow—the new script, written in collaboration with poet Wingston González, imagines a new, mythical narrative. Performances will be presented in English and Spanish.