ISSUE Project Room celebrates the 20th Anniversary of its Artists-In-Residence (AIR) program throughout 2026 with performances by current residents and returning alumni. This anniversary season highlights AIRs whose work reflects the ongoing evolution of a much broader community of experimental artists who have helped shape ISSUE for over twenty years.
Friday, February 27th at 8pm, ISSUE presents Entornos, a new work for prepared cello by 2026 Artist-In-Residence rocío sánchez. Traveling from Ensenada, Baja California, across the border into San Diego, sánchez traces the acoustic, cultural, and ecological resonances of the US-México Borderlands. Informed by the writings of Gloria Anzaldúa and ideas of queer ecology, Entornos understands geography as contested and continuously becoming. For their first commission, soft, kalimba-like tones and static, roaring wails—produced through cello and manipulated VHS tape—fill ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Pl. theater, weaving together sound, place and memory.
Notes from rocío sánchez on Entornos:
My hometown is part of the Borderland, a city located in the northeast of México; and I was born a few kilometers north of that. This has expanded my opportunities by granting me two nationalities. I did the journey across the border many times growing up, and during my last year of undergraduate studies it became a weekly commute, since I worked and took cello lessons in San Diego. As I am writing this piece, I follow the footsteps of writers like Gloria Anzaldúa, whose book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) explores what it means to be from, and to live in the Borderlands, while celebrating culture and identity.
because to live in Borderland is to have la identidad que nunca dejas de construir
an identity you are never finished building,
por qué transito de un lugar a otro,
because I flow between one place and another,
por que yo soy de aquí y de allá
because I am half and half-both woman and a man, neither-a new gender
rocío sánchez is a Mexican cellist, composer, improviser, and educator whose work bridges composition, field recordings, virtual animation, and collage. Their music explores the rich sonority of the cello, aiming to expand the instrument’s color by preparing it with recycled materials. Their work has been presented at Klangspuren Festival (AT), the Darmstadt Summer Courses (DE), Red Ecología Acústica México (MX), Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC RPI), Carnegie Hall, Roulette Intermedium, the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, and The P.I.T. (Property Is Theft, NYC), among others. They have also been a visiting artist at the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California San Diego where they have premiered solo and ensemble programs. sánchez received a BM from UABC México and a MM from SUNY Purchase College. They divide their practice between New York City and Mexico, focusing on performer-composer approaches and cello pedagogy.
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