“Ruinas” Film Screenings at the Institute for Contemporary Art

Alicia Díaz, associate professor of dance, and Patricia Herrera, professor of theatre, screen their films bagazo/bagasse and guardianas del dolor/guardians of sorrows from ruinas/ruins, a four-part film installation created within the ruins of Central Aguirre, an abandoned sugar mill in Salinas, Puerto Rico.

The screenings are part of New Spiritualities Film as Ritual. The program brings together films in conversation with the ICA’s current exhibition Ayida, exploring themes of spirituality, syncretism, ritual, and migration. 

ruinas/ruins is a collaborative project involving movement artists, musicians, visual artists, and community members. Through performance, sound, ritual, and site-responsive practices, the films engage the histories of colonial capitalism, extraction, and Afro-Boricua labor, while also attending to memory, resistance, and collective presence. The works treat the ruins not as remnants of the past, but as living archives that continue to shape bodies, land, and imagination.

This free event is at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Doors open at 5 p.m. This event was rescheduled from January 29 due to inclement weather. Please note: The program is for mature audiences. Some works contain nudity and sexual content.