Cecilia Bengolea

I am an artist working in performance, video, and sculpture. Using dance as a medium for radical empathy and emotional exchange. I explore the body, individual and collective, as a living, porous sculpture animated by cultural memory, spiritual force, and natural elements. Movement is my language of resilience and transformation, developed through collaboration. My work invents its own sources to erase violence from both personal and social memory. The movements I create have no hierarchy or aggression, making dance inherently political. Since 2005, I have collaborated with dancehall artists including Craig Black Eagle, Bombom Dancehall Queen, and Damion BG.

HOW DOES YOUR SUBMITTED WORK RESPOND TO THE CIRCA 20:25 MANIFESTO?
The work honors dancers’ ability to carry home within and frames dance as resistance, care, and regeneration. Featured are Black Eagle and Overload Skankaz, now economic refugees living far from Jamaica due to hardship and limited opportunities. Their movements preserve the memory of their land, community, and culture. Dancehall becomes a cultural refuge, sustaining identity in exile through rhythm and repetition. Filmed in 2019 during heavy rain on Jamaican roadsides before displacement, the video merges sweat and tropical rain, erasing boundaries between inner and outer worlds. Their raw energy links them to nature, each other, and the choreographies of traffic and birds.

IF AWARDED THE £30,000 CIRCA PRIZE, WHAT 10-MINUTE WORK WOULD YOU CREATE – AND HOW WOULD IT EMBODY THE SPIRIT OF REFUGIA?
If awarded the CIRCA Prize, I would create a 10-minute film following Craig Black Eagle and Oshane Overload’s return to their homeland, tracing lives reshaped by economic displacement. Oshane, awaiting a U.S. visa, is undocumented in Alabama, a place marked by histories of slavery, migration, and survival. Craig now lives in Metz, France, his practice transformed by a new environment. The work explores dance as embodied memory, resistance, and refuge, sustaining origins while shaping new identities in exile. Through micro-movements of resilience and improvised acts of preservation, the film weaves dance, performance, and interviews collected since 2017 into a collaborative narrative.

FOLLOW CECILIA BENGOLEA ON INSTAGRAM

Funding for the CIRCA PRIZE is generated entirely by the #CIRCAECONOMY, a circular model that reinvests proceeds from affordable art sold on CIRCA.ART into new public art commissions, charitable causes, art education and prizes. Since launching in 2020, the initiative has raised over £1 Million, placing artists and communities at the centre of an economy that continually reinvests in the future of art and culture.

The CIRCA PRIZE 2025 winners will be revealed LIVE in Piccadilly Circus on Monday 13 October, with a special 30-minute award ceremony starting at 20:00 BST. Don’t miss it!