David de Rozas
California/Spain | film/video/new media
Artist in Residence Program 2020—2021
Artist Statement
I’m a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker; my projects involve historical and geographical investigations. I’m interested in revisiting and relocating the past between the tensions of colonization and decolonization, wherein memory reaffirms and informs action across the intermingled past-present-future. Throughout my practice, I aim to find new grounds of possibility, meaning, and truth. My cinema merges hybrid forms of experimental documentary and fiction. My work expands over film and art curation, education, and cultural production where conceptual and formal experimentation align with critical pedagogy.
While at Headlands
While at Headlands, I’m hoping to complete The Blessings of the Mystery. This new feature film presents a labyrinth of stories spanning environmental memories of Far West Texas. The film aims to present a new account of the region’s ongoing troubled histories of colonization, migration, and ecological precarity, by combining collaborative and experimental documentary, harrowing oral histories, reenactments, archival research, and 16mm found footage. This film is a collaboration with visual artist Carolina Caycedo and has been supported by Ballroom Marfa, the VIA Art Fund, Kevin Sherman, and the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation.
