The politics of public space: “Un espacio liberado” under the big top

Abstract

This essay explores the proclamation of a “liberated space” as deployed by artists and activists of the NUDEC, Nuevo Nuevo Circo (New New Circus) in Caracas. Operating from a former bullring, these artists collectively interpret and define their terms for liberation, in part through an anti-bullfighting campaign centered on humanism as a political assertion in a venue for the arts. By examining the work of NUDEC in relation to the politics of public space during the first decade of the twenty-first century, certain parallels can be drawn between the New New Circus and the nation.