Resumo

IWAMA, Kasumi. Feminist rebel creativity. Weaving collectivity through reclaiming the body, and the appropriation of the performance “un violador en tu camino” by LasTesis collective. La ventana [online]. 2022, vol.6, n.55, pp.337-369.  Epub 21-Fev-2022. ISSN 1405-9436.  https://doi.org/10.32870/lv.v6i55.7351.

This article is a work in progress of a research on feminist art activism in South America with a focus on the performative work Un violador en tu camino (A rapist in your path) by the Chilean collective LasTesis, and is part of my master’s thesis research for the MA in Cultural Studies at the Andina Simón Bolívar University, Ecuador. Due to the rebellious nature against patriarchal violence, the video rapidly went viral in a very short time, after which we began to see numerous women’s groups and feminist collectives around the world reprising it in their locations around the world. The cultural, social and political dimensions of this performance reveals an interesting overlap and interrelation between art and activism, as it created new forms of communication of feminist activism through the power of artistic creation, by way of the audiovisual media that circulates through the Internet and social networks.

In this article I dedicate attention to the use of the body in relation to the concept of poner el cuerpo (putting the body) and how the body is a political battleground in performance as well as art activism. Based on the collective’s declaration of working from the micro-politics to move macro-politics, I highlight how the use of the body as an aesthetic, combined with social networks and appropriation, has generated a global solidarity which wove an underground fabric of feminists, contributing to macro movements. Finally, I address the concept of rebel creativity, introduced by the Bolivian collective Mujeres Creando, to propose that art and creativity are not necessarily at the service of social movements, but rather complement and strengthen them by creating other powerful realities and subjectivities that question the truth imposed by hegemonic powers.

Palavras-chave : body; performance; creativity; feminism; appropriation; art activism.