Ana Sánchez-Colberg is a Puerto Rican artist working internationally with a base in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She has been awarded Fellowships by the Swedish Research Council, Arts Council of Englad, British Council amongst others. She has also been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Award in 2016 and the recipient of the highly coveted MAP Funding (USA) award in 2019, and multiple other awards and recognitions.
Sánchez-Colberg’s trajectory begins in choreography and dance. She established Theatre enCorps in 1989 and elaborated a track record of award-winning works created and performed in over forty cities world-wide. The work as part of Theatre enCorps can be seen at www.theatreencorpscollectif.com
Since 2016 she moves fully into non-stage multidisciplinary works based on experimentation with generative compositional rules. The works defy categorization as they bring together elements of fine and visual art, audio composition, movement, photography and film, live documentation in works that question the relationship between art institutions, the ‘art-object’ and the subjects involved in the creation and reception.
Her current works falls within the scope of the film essay, self-reflective and self-referential works that blur the lines between fiction and nonfiction. Among these, Love Letters to Ana (2020) was selected for inclusion in the exhibition Coantivirus curated by NY20+ Nongyuan Culture in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. From there it moved to be part of the permanent collection of the channel Six Minutes Past Nine. It was also an Official selection of Miami ScreenDance Festival in January 2021. The video series is a collaborations between nine international artists during the nine-week period of 'heavy lockdown' in the city of Athens. Ana is the lead artist who invited artists in 'lockdown cities' (from Seoul to Beijing, to Bangkok, Rome, Milan, San Antonio, to name some) to send her an audio 'love letter'. This love letter was used as an audio-score to 'go on a walk' (a poetic slightly ironic variation on the museum audio walk) in the conditions of 'containment'. The letters serve as a cross-border reflection on the shared and distinct conditions of 'lockdown' as well as an exercise in 'recuperation' amidst the loss.
13 Variables [Now we are no longer who we were then- A dialogue with Jean Cocteau] was an Official Selection of Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF, 2020) with both 'in person' and website screening. It is also an Official Selection of Miami ScreenDance Festival 2022 and an Official Selection of the Berlin International Art Film Festival.
Most recently the short film 13.13.13 Archaeology of a City has been recognized internationally, winner at the Berlin Indie Film Festival, Lift-Off Sessions 2022, Official selection of Niagara Shorts, and Semi-Finalist at Florida Shorts Festival, among others. The essay film condenses in 13 minutes 13 months, during the period of heavy lock-down in the city of Athens, May 2020-April 2021, intertwined with the artist's journal writings of 13 years whilst living and working in the city. A reflection on loss, death,, life and redemption.