La ChicaScratch

Choreography & Performance Art

Pau(la) Chaves Bonilla (she-they) (COL/NL) aka as La ChicaScratch is a choreographer, performance artist, educator and queer grassroots organiser. Their artistic research investigates social phenomena in a journalistic way -censorship and resistance, gender issues, the commodification of art and social movements in neoliberal societies- and transforms these findings into performances, video, writings or installations. Their works often portray landscapes mixing elements of speculative imagination, social critique and magic realism.

They studied at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) and at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. Their works have been presented at Moving Futures Festival (Amsterdam), Theater Aan Zee (Oostende), My Wild Flag Festival - MDT Moderna Dansteatern (Stockholm), Theater Spektakel (Zürich), Impulstanz (Vienna), Productiehuis TR (Rotterdam), Het Hem (Zaandam), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Kondenz Festival (Belgrade), S.P.I.T. Festival - TQ Tanzquartier (Vienna), Framer Framed (Amsterdam) and Seki Sano (Bogotá), among others. In 2020 Chaves Bonilla co-founded Papaya Kuir, a grassroots lesbotransfeminist collective led by Latinx trans and queer migrants/refugees.

Their practice vindicates culture, art and somatics as technologies to counter and alleviate the harm inflicted by hegemonic power structures and as platforms with the potential to spark transformation on both personal and collective spheres.