Azul Caroline Duque (she/her) was born and raised in between the Andes mountain-ranges and the pacific coast of Colombia, and is currently a settler in Coast-Salish territories (colonially known as Vancouver). She is a member of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective and her artistic practice involves working with embodied sound(ing) as a tool for re-membering ourselves out of our collective denials. These explorations are informed by her experiences as a death doula and a mime. She is also learning about how to walk the path of relating to music as a living entity and teacher as opposed to a product to be consumed or exploited. She is the producer of the ‘En Cuidado da terra’ podcast series, a conversation with Indigenous Elders on the paradoxes of sustainability; and is currently producing the “Towards Eldering” podcast series, a decolonial lens on maturity in times of collective infantilization.
Primary Recipient Awards
During this residency, the 12 catalyst artists, who are active in the arts sector in Canada and internationally, will collaboratively reflect on how art can help us to “stay with the trouble” and face the complexities of our current times: to not turn our back to the turmoil of difficult things, while remaining grounded and attentive to what it means to be human within a wider web of relations.
Drawing from their multi-disciplinary practices which include theatre, puppetry, dance, music, clowning and visual arts, the artists are working on how to activate different modes of feeling, thinking, relating and acting as forces of social change that may open up not-yet-imaginable possibilities for co-existence in the future.
Nurturing decolonial relationalities between North and South
This project emerged from conversations with the Indigenous network Teia da 5 curas, where they expressed the importance of having spaces for Indigenous communities across the continent join in conversation, ceremony, and relationship-building on their own terms in order to strategize how to face the asymmetrical violences of our global crises. We will bring three Indigenous women from the Pitaguary community to be special guests at the Indigenous-led “Decolonizing/Indigenizing Climate Action” gathering organized by the Hollyhock Leadership Institute, and then will travel to the Natosi Okahn Sundance of the Kainai Nation to participate in ceremony, medicine sharing and relationship building.
