More than an interdisciplinary artist, I consider myself an interdisciplinary dancer. From collage, design, fashion, writing and video-performance I grapple with questions that arise in movement processes. My body of work, or my body work, is born from reflections on the relationship between masculinity and race in the Caribbean. I seek to bring face to face identities that in Afro-Caribbean societies are in constant antagonism: being queer and being Black. My work not only questions generalized notions of gender, but also opens new horizons of hope to those who witness it, as they are confronted with its possibilities.
My art is a megaphone that amplifies the voice of my identity and my community. Through images I look for answers to questions that might have arisen while walking through the city or moving on the dancefloor. Usually these inquiries begin in one medium and find answers in another. This feedback between different media creates bridges between my various practices, and opens the way to continue addressing my questions from new perspectives. It's why themes like race, gender, and the city have been so present in my work since my formative years. I take advantage of each medium and its qualities as a juncture to revisit pertinent concerns that affect me and my communities. Each piece is an opportunity to embrace, and put into dialogue, the parts of myself that the world has not wanted to recognize.
bio
Edrimael Delgado Reyes (him/her) 1995. Black and interdisciplinary dancer. His parents exposed him to the arts from an early age, being La Liga de Arte and the Children's Choir of the Puerto Rico’s Music Conservatory his first spaces of artistic training. He graduated from the Visual Arts Central High School of Santurce, where he obtained his concentration in Painting. In his current work, through collage, video and performance, he proposes reconciliation between queer and Afro-Caribbean identities, working with issues of gender and race.
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Edrimael has a bachelor's degree in Urban and Performance Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. Since 2014 he has trained with different schools and dance companies; including Ballets de San Juan, the Cuban Contemporary Dance Company and the ANDANZA school. He also collaborated with PISO project from 2016-20, this being the platform that nourished his political vision of the movement. He has had the opportunity to present his work in multiple cultural spaces around the Caribbean and the United States, such as the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (NY), the DuSable BlackHistory Museum in Chicago, Luis A. Ferré Fine Artes Center in Santurce and the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts in St. Croix, USVI.
His most recent work, Juegos de Cariño, was commissioned as part of the Puerto Rico Negro exhibition at the Puerto Rico's Museum of Contemporary Art. At the moment, he is member of the International House of Elle, directed by ICON Stanley DeVaughn, and director of LaBoriVogue; platform he founded in 2020 for the development and education of Ballroom culture in Puerto Rico, and from which he helps provide spaces of liberation for the LGBTQ+ communities on the island.