Elyla

Elyla (Chontales, 1989) is a performance artist, researcher and activist from Central America, Nicaragua. Their work deals with creating resistance to colonial, imperialist, and western ideologies around the construction of identity politics and nation-state cultural narratives, specifically as it relates to mestizaje, queerness (cochoneidad), and indigenous ancestry. Elyla has recently presented their work at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Adriano Pedrosa and the Toronto Art Biennale, Canada, among others. Elyla is committed to research how decolonial reflections can lead to a community based anti-colonial artistic praxis in Mesoamerica. The artist coined the term barro-mestiza to take distance from the traditional and colonial understanding of mestizaje during their ongoing process of decolonization. Their work is part of the permanent collection at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, TBA21 Collection, the Ortiz-Gurdian Art Foundation, KADIST video art collection and private collectors around the world. Their work has been shown through-out Latin America, North America, Canada, Europe, Asia. Elyla currently lives and works between Masaya, Nicaragua and Basel, Switzerland pursuing a Master of Arts at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW.

Filmography

Una Oración para Acompañar la Muerte/Prayer for Tending Death (2024, short)

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