Poner el cuerpo – Making spaces public

Abstract

In this exposition, I expand the notions and practices of collective body-action intervention (dance, performance, happenings, etc.) as a method to strengthen embodied knowledge, an instigation to engage in restorative encounters, and an invitation to intervene and disrupt political biases of (public) spaces. These methodologies propose alternatives for knowledge exchange/production beyond hegemonic, Eurocentric education. In parallel, I reflect on my own practice and the anti-patriarchal and decolonial feminist political basis of the collectives of which I am part. We work with strategies and methodologies inspired by feminisms from the Global South, such as taking care of others as a practice that puts aside the patriarchal capitalist model of life that mainly separates, individualizes, prioritizes, and promotes competition and exploitation. We promote exchange, cooperation, and interdependence. I reflect on how these encounters summon the festive memory of our territories and the resilience of our* wounds. Emotions of the bodies and the resistances will trigger our rituals in Abya Yala**, the flows and drifts will make this poetic-affective encounter, as will the skin itself. ___ *We: Here I refer to collectivity in a broad sense in each case: We as the collectives I am part of, we as women (cis, trans, nonbinary), we as immigrants, we as bipoc, etc **Abya Yala: Self-determined name for the territories in the global south named "America" as a result of the colonizing process.