Book Launch: ‘Touched Bodies: The Performative Turn in Latin American Art’
- Time and Date
- 00:00, 01 Oct 2019
- Venue
Live Art Development Agency, The Garrett Centre, 117 Mansford Street, London, E2 6LX
- Price
- Free, but please RSVP.
What is the role of pleasure and pain in the politics of art? In Touched Bodies Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra approaches this question as she examines the flourishing of live and intermedial performance in Latin America during times of authoritarianism and its significance during transitions to democracy. The book attests to a performative turn in Latin American art during the 1980s that, changed the ways in which we perceive art and understand its role in society.
Based on original documents and innovative readings, her book brings politics and ethics to the discussion of artistic developments during the “long 1980s”. She describes the rise of performance art in the context of feminism, HIV-activism, and human right movements, taking a close look at the work of Diamela Eltit and Raúl Zurita from Chile, León Ferrari and Liliana Maresca from Argentina, and Marcos Kurtycz, the No Grupo art collective, and Proceso Pentágono from Mexico.
Please join us for an event to mark the UK launch of Touched Bodies with Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra, the writer Carlos Fonseca, and a performance by the dancer and artist Margarita Zafrilla in collaboration with Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra.
“An astute and moving book, Touched Bodies gives account of the transition from an aesthetics of representation to an aesthetics of embodiment and bodily vulnerability in Latin American art of the 1980s. A contribution to aesthetic theory as much as to the history of art, Touched Bodies extends our understanding of performance-based art in relationship to practices of vulnerability, dissensus, and cross-temporal performativity.”
Rebecca Schneider, author of Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment
Touched Bodies is available on Unbound and will be onsale at a specially discounted price at the launch.
Latest events
Dangerous Border Crossers: performingborders x La Pocha Nostra
02 Aug 2024
performingborders invites you to delve with them into LADA Study Room’s resources around borders and performances
Read moreLa Pocha Nostra in London: 100 Ways to Cross the Border
09 Jul 2024
Join us for the film screening with a special performative introduction from Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Balitrónica, followed by drinks.
Read moreThe extraordinary Pocha Nostra: A deep dive into LADA’s archive with Ansuman Biswas
05 Jul 2024
Join us for a deep dive into LADA’s archive led by artist Ansuman Biswas.
Read moreLa Pocha Nostra’s Live Art Laboratory: An artistic reflection on radical pedagogy
02 Jul 2024
An online event presenting Ria Righteous’s reflections on La Pocha Nostra’s 2015 12-day intensive cross-cultural workshop in Athens.
Read moreLADA Screens: Lucy Sheen – Online Screening
29 Jun 2024 - 26 Jul 2024
An online screening of ‘Abandoned Adopted Here‘ by Lucy Sheen.
Read moreLADA Screens: Lucy Sheen
28 Jun 2024
An in-person screening of ‘Abandoned Adopted Here‘ by Lucy Sheen.
Read moreWhen Earth Speaks: A Dirty Ensemble
08 Jun 2024
When Earth Speaks: A Dirty Ensemble by Live Art in Rural UK artist Miranda Whall, is a collaboration between humans and the earth, exploring the intersection between the arts and sciences
Read moreA Long Table on Fragility, Festivals, Funding and other F-words… One Year On
07 Jun 2024
Please join us for the last Long Table event.
Read more