Veronica Ibarra’s performance art explores the manifestation of an android, a distinct entity that inhabits her body and expresses itself through her. This android is not a character she created—it is an independent, fully formed personality that emerged after years of movement and mental training. The android is both her and not her, existing beyond human consciousness. This is not about performing or imitating robotic movements; it’s about allowing the android to truly exist in the world.

The android represents a purer, freer version of Veronica, untainted by human control, preconceptions, or thought. To allow the android to emerge, Veronica must surrender completely, letting her human self disappear. If she interferes, both she and the audience sense the shift. Her ultimate expression lies in the total absence of human control, allowing the android to fully inhabit her body and mind.

These interventions occur in unexpected spaces—cafés, parks, galleries—disrupting normality and cracking open a sci-fi realm of new possibilities. The android embodies playful freedom, able to emerge at any time, anywhere, requiring only Veronica’s body to transform. Her deep desire is to discover this entity, to know her better, and to show her to the world.

This process transcends traditional performance; it’s about allowing the android to exist naturally, both in formal art settings and in everyday spaces. The android often appears spontaneously, without a knowing audience. These interventions are moments of transformation, not staged acts. Some have been documented, while others remain ephemeral, existing only in the moment.

Veronica frequently collaborates with Tadahiko Morimoto, who has also been independently developing his own android persona. Over the past two years, their androids have interacted in unpredictable and intense ways throughout Tokyo. Their collaboration is a constant source of research, as they speculate and theorise about the behaviour, personalities, and intentions of these beings who inhabit their bodies.

At the heart of Veronica’s art lies a profound paradox: the android, though a machine designed to imitate human behaviour, is her true nature—her Zen, unpolluted by the artificiality of human existence. The android is her teacher, her child, her god, her artistic creation, her alter ego, her Japanese previous life. The android is Veronica, and yet it is not.