Estereotipos, activismo y subversión de género en el performance mexicano

Résumé

This thesis explores the themes and social circumstances that inspire contemporary Mexican performance art. Since the emergence of this new expressive form in the mid-twentieth century, performance art - live art, action art or non-objectual art - has been characterized by the importance of the artist's presence and experience, using his own body as a support for the work. and in search of the transgression of the established. This work delves into the historical origin of gender stereotypes, the way they have been configured in the collective memory and their influence on current Mexican society. Faced with these causes, action art artists will adopt openly activist positions to rebel against dominant political and social values. Based on the contextualization of performance that emerged in Europe and the United States, this thesis studies its development in Mexico, where it acquires a clearly differentiating character due to its historical and political heritage. We have chosen two historical moments as the most influential in the Mexican collective memory: the Spanish colonization and the Mexican Revolution, both events have fostered very defined behavioral models which will have an important representation in the activist actions of performative art. Methodology The conceptual basis of this research oscillates between the so-called Cultural Studies, whose arguments are constituted through the relationship of different disciplines such as history, sociology, critical theory, politics, literary theory, cinema or cultural anthropology and, on the other hand, by the Gender Studies, in its facets of analysis of the positions of power that objectify women, the cultural constructions of sexual identity or the visibility of generic options outside of heteronormativity. On the other hand, we have completed our analysis through other disciplines that intersect, such is the art criticism, the dance or our own experience in curatorial matters. We have used all of them to explore from a new point of view the origin, evolution and present of activist and gender performance in Mexico. Objectives The objective of this research is the study of performance art as a conceptual creation to make visible, denounce or deconstruct the stereotypes that have been shaping the Mexican collective imagination, an imaginary characterized mainly by identity, racist, sexist, gender, violence or death issues. This work delves into the origins that have given rise to this problematic and how it has been analyzed in a historical, literary, theoretical, political or socio-economic way. Mexican performative art is inspired by these paradigms to create awareness about the issues that move citizens while proposing new ways of understanding the body. Conclusions We can affirm that the first origin of performance is political and social disenchantment, a discomfort that will cause a break in the different traditional forms of art. For its part, the Mexican performance art will be deeply influenced by the different stereotypes built by the historical tradition and by power. Its artists will use these stereotypes to combat them and give them a new meaning. The Mexican Revolution would mark the development of a nationalist cultural hegemony, likewise the colonizing process will permeate its theories and its vestige on the performance art themed . On the other hand, Mexican action art is characterized by its activism in the face of gender identities imposed by tradition. Gender subversion, represented by post-porn actions, has endowed action art made in Mexico with a unique singularity. Finally, we can conclude by stating that activism in the face of stereotypes and gender subversion are the elements that most characterize current Mexican performance art. KEYWORDS: Mexico / Performance art / Art action / Live art / Stereotypes / Activism / Gender / Identity / Memory / Decolonial aesthetics / Representations