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Abstract
This article examines the performance La caída de las campanas by Uruguayan artist, scholar, and activist Hekatherina Delgado to interrogate how, by intervening in public spaces, the piece critiques the pervasiveness of violence within a democratic society. First performed on 8 March 2015, for a two-year period the performance was enacted every time a feminicide occurred in Uruguay. I argue that the performance is a form of artivism which serves a commemorative function while also disrupting conventions associated with rituals of mourning. Through repetition, which is a key formal aspect of the piece, La caída de las campanas dramatizes and articulates the impact of gender violence on society and actively implicates state institutions. Drawing on Diana Taylor’s concept of the “political body” and Ileana Diéguez’s ideas on community, I argue that the performance has the potential to transform participants, audiences, and national and international discourses on gender violence.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project Language Acts and Worldmaking as part of the Open World Research Initiative. The project is funded by the AHRC in the UK under grant number AH/N004655/1. For more information, visit www.languageacts.org.
Notes
1 A title in English is used for an audio recording of the piece available on Soundcloud; “The Fall of the Bells, White Piece for Bronze Bell and Woman in Mourning.”
2 I consulted various sources which show different figures. Gago records 29 feminicides in 2018 and 30 in 2017. Suárez Val records 30 feminicides in 2019, 40 feminicides in 2018, 39 in 2017, 23 in 2016, and 40 in 2015. “El 2018 cierra con 31 femicidios en Uruguay” records 31 feminicides in 2018.
3 For example, in the case of Peru, the violent attack on Cindy Arlette Contreras by her partner sparked the biggest protest in Peru’s history under the slogan Ni Una Menos. See Gelbart. Contreras was named as one of the “BBC 100 Women of 2018” which demonstrates one way in which the Ni Una Menos campaign has gained international recognition.
4 “Normativa” sets out the new law. “En Uruguay contás con una ley” provides a clear and accessible overview. See the IMPO website.
5 For details, see “Hekatherina Delgado.”
6 I saw the performance on 8 March 2019 in the main square in Montevideo, Plaza Independencia, in front of an imposing monument containing the remains of national hero José Gervasio Artigas (1764–1850). As on that occasion, the chosen sites for performance are usually public spaces that are linked to historical or contemporary figures or institutions that represent Uruguay as a democracy. These have included the space in front of government buildings, the entrance to courts and public squares, e.g., Plaza de Cagancha, also known as Plaza Libertad.
7 This is reminiscent of the Marcha del silencio in which people march in silence through the streets of Montevideo and other Uruguayan cities. Since 1996, it has taken place annually on 20 May to commemorate, raise awareness of, and seek information about people who were detained and disappeared during the civic-military dictatorship (1973–85). The lack of words is a strategy to evoke those who no longer have a voice.
8 The concept of “worldmaking” is at the heart of the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project Language Acts and Worldmaking where I have developed this work on performance and activism as a post-doctoral researcher. See website for further information.
9 More information about Suárez Val’s research can be found on the webpage “Helena Suárez Val, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies.”
10 Information taken from Mujeres de Negro Facebook page.
11 In 2017, the piece was awarded funding through a Ministry of Education and Culture scheme. It then received further support from the Instituto Nacional de Artes Escénicas and FiraTárrega, Cataluña. The majority of this information is taken from the information sheet distributed at the end of the performance on 8 March 2019, when I saw the piece performed. Some of it is replicated in the “About” section of the Diez de cada Diez Facebook page.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sophie Stevens
Dr. Sophie Stevens is based at King’s College London where she is a Post-Doctoral Researcher on Language Acts and Worldmaking, an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project which seeks to renew modern languages teaching in the UK. Her current research into theater, performance, and activism in Latin America expands upon work carried out in her PhD thesis, which forms the basis of a forthcoming monograph, Uruguayan Theatre in Translation: Theory and Practice, published by Legenda. She is a member of the Out of the Wings Theater Collective and has presented English translations at the annual Out of the Wings Festival.