Bodies and presences. Strategies of temporal insubordination in contemporary performance 

Mauricio Barría Jara

Abstract

Presence is a category that is radically linked to a way of thinking temporality, and in this sense a certain way of understanding what is present. Our current experience of time is determined, like much of our daily life, by the productivist logic of the late capitalism. Under this perspective, time becomes a scarce commodity that must enter into an economy of efficiency and control. The acceleration of time, the desire for immediacy and the search for instantaneity shape our new ways of experiencing the world. Performance as a scenic practice proposes a reflection on time and in some cases proposes to insubordinate the modes of production of presence marked by acceleration and the efficient rationalization of time. In this talk, we will review some performance strategies that, in my opinion, generate a resistance to the dominant modes of temporality, that is, a counter-temporal production of presence. For example, some actions of Regina José Galindo and Cecilia Vicuña.

Bio

Playwright and researcher in theatre and performance. PhD in Philosophy with a mention in Aesthetics and Art Theory from the University of Chile.Associate professor of the Department of Theatre of the same University. He has published “Intermitencias. Ensayos sobre teatro performance y visualidad” (2014); “Escenas políticas: panoramas situados, nociones desplazadas. Teatro entre revueltas 2006-2019” (2022) co-authored with Iván Insunza. In 2021 he made the sound documentary“De Luanda a Lumbanga” about the Afro-descendant tribal people of Chile.