Mario José Barrantes Espinoza (b. 1991) is a Costa Rican-Nicaraguan artist based in Brussels. He studied theatre and dance at the National University of Costa Rica before moving to Belgium, where he graduated from the Training Cycle and Research Studios of P.A.R.T.S, under the supervision of Bojana Cvejić and Alain Franco.
His interest in vocal practices, text and audiovisual material has resulted in collaborations with artists such as François Chaignaud, The Subs, Michiel Vandevelde and Eszter Salamon. Currently he is developing projects as an independent artist. His work primarily consists of a combination of dance, text and voice, whereby he reappropriates audiovisual content from pop culture and mainstream media. His realized work includes [A SEQUENCE III], created for the Bâtard Festival in 2018; and Drift (I) – in collaboration with Thomas Bîrzan – selected for Aerowaves Dance Across Europe in 2019.
In 2020, the proposal for his next project, El cantar del playo or... a song is a rose is a thorn, was awarded the Roel Verniers Prize of Het Theaterfestival for its "creative ideas and new stage talent".
