Mario José Barrantes Espinoza

Let me introduce myself. My name is Mario (San José, 1991), I’m a Costa Rican-Nicaraguan artist based in Brussels. I studied theatre and dance at the National University of Costa Rica. In 2016 I graduated from the Training Cycle at P.A.R.T.S. Two years later I concluded the Research Studios program under the direction of Bojana Cvejić and Alain Franco. Currently I continue to develop projects as an independent artist. My practice focuses mainly on the articulation of dance, text and voice through the re-appropriation of audiovisual materials found in pop culture and mainstream media. Some of my work include “[A SEQUENCE III]”, created within the context of Bâtard Festival (BE-NL, 2018), and my graduation work “Drift (I)” —in collaboration with Thomas Bîrzan— which was selected for Aerowaves Dance Across Europe in 2019. The proposal for my next project, “El cantar del playo or... a song is a rose is a thorn”, was awarded the Roel Verniers prize (BE, 2020) for “creative ideas and new performing talent”. A project in which, through the use of melodrama, songs and visual poems, I intend to activate both the exploration of (queer) sexuality as well as the widespread circulation of "plancha" music in Costa Rica.