
Artist-in-Garden: Amelia Uzategui Bonilla & Daniela Zambrano
September 2023
Amelia Uzategui Bonilla and Daniela Zambrano researched the concepts of cultural and spiritual restitution during their residency at HELLERAU. Through practices such as dance, music, gardening, cooking and crafts, they sought to connect to their indigenous Quechua heritage and seek forms of response to the colonial collections of objects. In HELLERAU they wrote, danced and explored performative forms of protest, also in relation to the current anti-colonial, queer, feminist, anti-fascist and pro-indigenous movements in Peru, their common homeland.
Biography

Photo: Robbie Sweeny
Amelia Uzategui Bonilla explores anti-racist and abolitionist pedagogy from the perspective of a dancer, artist and teacher, with a focus on decolonial, migrant and queer perspectives. Born in Peru and raised in California, she studied dance at the Juilliard School and contemporary dance pedagogy in Frankfurt and has been working with international educational organizations, companies and projects since 2007. In addition to teaching and curating, she is involved in political art-making and activist projects on empowerment, solidarity and social justice in the USA, Peru and Germany.
Biography

Photo Daniela Zambrano
Daniela Zambrano Almidón (Lima, 1993) is a Quechua researcher and interdisciplinary artist with a focus on Andean economic, technological and relational processes as well as decolonization and memory. Daniela's work includes agricultural and relational art, performance, textile, video, installation and artistic mediation and has been leading the intercultural art project “Tejiendo Caminos” since 2014. Daniela has presented works at the “Singapore Biennale 2022”, the “Karachi Biennale Trust 2024” and the “Biennale für Freiburg 2025”, among others.