Elyla, currently based in Masaya, reinterprets folk traditions to disrupt our relationships with them and the power structures they represent. Elyla’s video performance, Torita- encuetada (2023), an anticolonial ceremony, explores liberation from the colonial yoke through a fire ritual rooted in a Nicaraguan cultural practice called toro encuetado. Serving as a poignant act of political remembrance, the ritual dance, or mitote, calls for a return to earth-honouring practices and for the decolonisation of the mestizaje of sexual and gender-diverse identities in Mesoamerica. Collaborating with Nicaraguan filmmaker Milton Guillén and with music by Susy Shock and Luigi Bridges, the filmed ritual delves into the encounter of ancestral corpodivinities from Nicaragua’s Pacific region, inviting viewers to witness the intersections of culture, anticolonial artistic praxis, and the sacred. Committed to challenging societal norms, Elyla transforms the cochón (queer) utopia into a revolutionary artistic practice of the now. The performance is dedicated in honour of Indigenous Mangue- Chorotega cultural leaders and guardians of ancestral knowledge, Gustavo Herrera and Cristian Ruiz (1977–2022), the artist’s friends, collaborators, and guides.
This is the first time the work of Elyla is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Sofía Shaula Reeser-del Rio
