Celia Vara
Performance art; corporeal agency; kinesthesia; research-creation; feminism
Celia Vara is a postdoctoral fellow at the Moving Image Research Lab at McGill University. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication (2019) at Concordia University (QC, Canada) and an MA in Gender Studies (2009). Her master thesis (“Feminist Video Art in the 70’s in Spain”) won in 2013 the 1st Prize-Award in Gender and Research (Universitat Jaume I, Spain). She is a psychologist (Bachelor in Psychology, Universidad de Murcia, Spain, 1997), and a visual artist and curator. Her writings and media work have appeared in Journal feral feminisms, Institute for Research on Women (Rutgers University), McGraw Hill Editorial, Art and Identity Policies, Performance Research (Routledge Journal, Taylor and Francis) and Journal of Embodied Research (University of Huddersfield, UK). Her PhD Thesis “Kinesthetic Knowledge and Corporal Agency” was ranked excellent in her oral defense (2018). She explores kinesthesia, movement, kinesthetic empathy and the use of sensorial body in 1970s feminist performance art and its relations with corporeal agency and feminist resistance in the current cultural and political context. Her research interests include corporeal processes of consciousness, perception and agency, and embodied research-creation methodologies.
Ph.D. Communication, Concordia University (2019)
M.A. Gender and Equality, Jaume I University, Spain (2009)
B.A. Psychology, University of Murcia, Spain (1997)
Publications
Verificar la Existencia del Cuerpo: Conocimiento Kinestésico in Dickynson (ed.) Q1 Fine Arts. 2024.
“Embodied and Sensorial Methodologies Researching Performance: Kinesthetic Empathy” in vol.7.2 (forthcoming) Special Issue on “Ecologies of Embodiment”. Journal of Embodied Research. Freely online via Open Library of Humanities. 2024.
Unfolding Sensorial Unknowns. hexagram. reseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures et technologies. 2023.
"Kinesthetic Experience: Emancipatory Corporeal Scores" (Humanities MDPI Special Issue 12(6) “With-In Bodies: Research Assemblages of the Sensory and the Embodied”) Freely online (open Access). 2023.
“Psychological Implicit Motives Construct as an Emergent Fractal Attractor from Intermittent Neurophysiological Responses: Simulation and Entropy-like Characterization”. Martín, M.Á.; Vara, C.; García-Gutiérrez, C. Entropy 2023, 25, 711.
“El cuerpo sensorial en la performance en los años 70: Kinesthesia y Agencia Corporal” in Arte y educación en contextos multidisciplinares (p. 854-869) Freely online (open Access). 2023.
"Tripas de Corazón" [Heart Guts]. REJOINDER. Issue 7, Spring 2022.
"Somatic Ways of Knowing". Performance Research. Volume 26, Issue 1 – On perception, 2021.
"Kinesthetic Empathy as Embodied Research". Performance Research. Volume 26, Issue 2 – On (Un)Knowns, 2021.
"Las partituras corporales de Fina Miralles" [Fina Miralles’ Body Scores] in Faxedas, Ll. Germinal. Sobre l’obra de Fina Miralles. Documenta Universitaria (Girona). 2020.
Co-author (Gámez Fuentes, M.J. and Vara, C.) “Lenguajes y sexismo (SRM007)” in Senent-Vidal, M.J & Téllez Infantes, A. (eds.) Manual de Igualdad Efectiva de Mujeres y Hombres en el Ámbito Público y Privado. Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I. 2021.
"Gleaning Corporeal Knowledge". Art and Identity Policies, 21, 96–119, 2019.
Video and Performance
Somatic Threads. Reencontres Interdisciplinaires. Agora du Coeur des Sciences. Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and hexagram. réseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures et technologies. 2024.
“Pecha Kucha”. Pilot video for a (coming soon) documentary with filmmaker Ivó Vinuesa. 2023.
“Fina Miralles: Embodied Stories” at Poetics+Politics 4 University of California, Santa Cruz. 2019.
"Bridges" (Collaboration in Performance with Alexandra Rodes) at Museo Universitario de Alicante (MUA) (pages 36-39). 2019.
“Tripas de Corazón” at RUTGERS – Institute for Research on Women. 2016.
“Atrezzo Tripas de Corazón by Agustina Martín de la Iglesia”. 2016.
"Bridges" (Collaboration in Performance with Alexandra Rodes). 2013.
"Violeta Esperanza" at feral feminisms and RUTGERS-Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities. 2013.
Curatorial Projects
"Donner corps au corps." Instructions sensorielles pour des déclarations politiques féministes. Groupe Intervention Video (GIV) (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2024.
"Créer de l’espace: experiences kinesthésiques," MO(U)VEMENT(S) – HTMlles 2024 feminist festival of media arts and digital culture organized by Ada X - feminist artist-run centre (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
“Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo: Sensorial instructions for feminist political declarations. Catalonia and the Basque Country” Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.
“Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo: Sensorial instructions for feminist political declarations. Quebec” Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.
“Les recerques de Fina Miralles” Super-8 Film (1973-1976) – Centro Cultural de España en Santo Domingo CCESD (Dominican Republic). 2018. [Youtube]
"I create new spaces. I build paths. I walk through them”. Feminist Media Studio – Communication Studies – Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2017.
Workshops and Embodied Methodologies
“Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo: Sensorial instructions for feminist political declarations. Catalonia and the Basque Country” Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.
“Re-orienting gestures, sensing relationally: a workshop to cultivate kinesthetic empathy”. Uncommon Senses IV: Sensory Ecologies, Economies, and Aesthetics. Centre for Sensory Studies. Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2023.
“Re-orienting Bodies: Unfolding Sensorial Unknowns”. ISEA2022 – International Synmposium on Electronic Art. Barcelona (Catalonia). 2022.
“The body and the researcher”. Uncommon Senses III Conference: Back to the future of the senses. Centre for Sensory Studies. Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2021.
“Arte y feminismo en España y Latinoamérica en los años 70”. Centro Cultural de España en Santo Domingo. Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional al Desarrollo. 2018.
- FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2022-2024
- IVLA Deborah Curtis Artist Fellowship, 2024
- RéQEF Appui Projets Scientifics, 2023-2024
- ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship, Fonds National Suisse (FNS), Université de Lausanne (UNIL), 2017
- Hexagram Research Creation Fellowship, 2016
- Rona and Robert Davis Fellowship, 2016
- Concordia University Merit Scholarship, 2014
- UJI Prize Award Gender and Research - Universitat Jaume I, 2014