In partnership with the Seattle Art Museum, MadArt hosted Alejandro Guzmán and his family of nGangulero “performance sculptures”. These sculptures were designed to move from MadArt Studio into spaces around Seattle as part of events connected to Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, an exhibition on view at the Seattle Art Museum.

Guzmán’s sculptures retained an active life as catalysts, which aimed to generate unexpected exchanges in the realm of everyday public spaces. These “creative misunderstandings” examined human interaction through abstracted forms, ritualized actions, and the participants’ emotional and intellectual responses through the lens of their own personal histories and traditions. Guzmán directed the choreography and special effects for each of the performances, and oversaw the involvement of artists, families, and allies who gathered together to create the larger activation.

In the Seattle Art Museum, Guzmán’s The Fatalist was also on display in the Jacob Lawrence Gallery as part of the Disguise exhibition. He installed this sculpture along with a tapestry derived from his residency in Guatemala and a wall of preparatory drawings.