Body in resistance, reflections on the body in reality, on the street and on the stage

Mujeres by Paz Errázuriz, Somos + by Mujeres por la Vida and Cuerpo by Rodrigo Pérez

Abstract

This paper consists of an analysis of the body in 3 examples from the period of dictatorship and post-dictatorship in Chile, the photographic work Mujeres by Paz Errázuriz, the demonstration Somos + organized by the group Mujeres por la Vida and the theater play Cuerpo by Rodrigo Pérez. The objective is to investigate their affiliations, proposing that the three cases lead to a notion of a body that resists and supports absent bodies. In this way, each object is problematized through a performative, rhizomatic and postdramatic gaze, respectively, considering various authors. In the analysis of Mujeres, the semiotic thinking of Héctor Ponce and María José Contreras is considered for a reading with a gender perspective and the body as a political element is explored in depth, adding the vision of Andrea Soto Calderón and Elizabeth Grosz. With regard to Somos +, a dialogue is held with Amílcar Borges about the collective and the sociopolitical with the observation by Andrés Grumann and Francisco González. Finally, for Cuerpo, the historiographical and performative function of the body is addressed based on the reflections of Milena Grass and Nancy Nicholls, thus understanding the present and absent bodies.