Alexandra TÁLAMO

(NSW)

Alex Tálamo is a performance artist whose work is a close examination of her Australian colonial context. She explores cultural constructions of national identity through autobiographical research that incorporates family history, postmemory and contemporary mythology. Her most recent work, 30,000 Steps, re-enacts the walking protests of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina as a durational performance lasting twelve hours. The project recognises the 30,000 Argentinians that were 'disappeared' by the 1976-1983 military government and places this in relation to the process of colonisation that ‘disappears’ cultural difference in Australia, using her experiences as second-generation migrant. It acknowledges the continuation of disappearance that is imprinted in the body – from her loss of language, to the anglicisation of her name, to the stories of disappearance her father told so often that they became her own memories.

Alex studied at VCA, completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance Creation (2012) and UNSW, completing an Honours program in Performance Studies (2017). She was part of Australia Council for the Arts’ Cultural Leaders of the Future mentorship program (2011) and the Emerging Cultural Leaders program at Footscray Community Arts Centre (2016). She’s been a recipient of several grant programs including the Ian Potter Foundation and Art Start (2013) to develop her practice through international mentorships (UK, CAN, FRA). Her work has been shown as part of the Venice International Performance Art Week: Prologue I (2017), Performance Studies international (2016), Art + Activism month at FCAC (2016), and Metanoia’s Live Works program (2015).