Luisa Ungar is a participating artist in our fall program Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor (2015).

Her work This rabbit looks to the left: Chocolate Scrying is a performative gathering created with artist Milena Bonilla where guests are invited to drink chocolate and take part in a public scrying. Hot chocolate leaves the stains necessary for images to turn into visions, and for conversation to pursue specific questions. The inapprehensible character of the liquid plays on fears, affections and expectations, as well as with the idea that there is a future and there was a past.

Another work included in the exhibition is Clapping backwards, a demonstrative lecture by Ungar and her invited guest. They will present their research on relationships between public space and animality. It follows up on the studies called Spontaneous innovation for future deception (SIFFD) developed in various zoos around the world since the 1940’s. On this occasion, the invited animal behavior specialist will focus on the way in which certain local wild species have adapted themselves to staged environments.

Luisa Ungar (b. 1976, Bogota, Colombia) practice explores how social and cultural norms are constructed and institutionalised through language. Her recent work deals with narratives involving animality and the non-human. Looking at mechanisms and thought process that question ways in which western history is constructed, she often seeks to re-connect archived or academic material into everyday popular use. Her varied projects range from zoo visit guides to educational projects, using performance, installation, drawing and text. Luisa’s work has been shown at CA2M Madrid, Marrakesh and Mercosul Biennal, Museo de arte Banco de República Bogotá, among other venues; she has been co editor of publication projects such as DISDISDIS (On vampires and other forms of conviviality), and Proyecto Asterisco. She received an MFA from Sandberg Institute (NL) and has been a resident at Gasworks (UK), and Resó (IT). Ungar lives and works in Amsterdam and since 2013 has been making collaborative work with Milena Bonilla.