Treinta Años en un Tren is a short film created virtually by Natalia and Jeannelle as a visual and audio exchange during the 2020 Pandemic. The short film combines sounds and visuals created during live instagram and Facebook sessions, rescored everytime using elements of water, trains, and carribean drums. The surrealist visuals are paired with our contrastingly different experiences and memories of Latin America, imagining trains going through islands and floating fish in the sky. Collaboratively, Jeannelle and Natalia work as Las Raras, an experimental synthesis collective aiming to awaken a transcendent consciousness.
Jeannelle Ramirez is an Austin-based multimedia artist and ethnomusicologist. Her foggy, ambient soundscapes are composed from densely textured layers of found sounds and synthesized melodies that evoke a cyclical stasis. Theory and praxis are in constant dialogue through her work as an artist-scholar, with recent electro-acoustic works like “Oceanography” exploring migration and heritage through live-processed sound and video. Since completing formal musical training as a vocalist at NYC’s New School for Jazz, she has continually moved towards more experimental modes of creative practice. In 2019, she founded Future Traditions Festival as a platform for Latinx artists to explore intersections between experimental multimedia and traditional music and dance. She is also a founding member of Las Raras, a Latina experimental audio-visual artist collective. As part of Las Raras she has performed at various events hosted by Me Mer Mo Monday, COTFG, Cheer Up Charlies, and the Museum of Human Achievement.
Natalia Rocafuerte is a Mexican-American new media artist, filmmaker and community organizer creating work on perception, analog technology, and spatial identity. Born in Cuidad del Carmen, Campeche to a pianist and ballerina, Rocafuerte was encouraged to expand her techniques in visual art from an early age. Rocafuerte was part of the 2018 Young Latinx Artists exhibit highlighting immigrant and Latinx artists at the Mexic-Arte Museum as well as being awarded a performance grant from Jolt Texas. She is also a recent fellow for the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Mentorship program and current artist in residency for The Line – Big Medium Residency. “