The feminist collective Lashesis.
Two of the main artistic groups in the Chile of the revolts, the feminist collective Lastesis and Delight Lab, which screened their work on the streets in the peak weeks of the outbreak, released new pieces in 2021, again with strong political content.
They do it at the Santiago a Mil International Festival, the South American theater festival, which has started in Chile and will run until January 24, in face-to-face and digital format, given the health crisis.
Lashesis, whose performance
The rapist is you
became a world anthem against sexual violence and machismo, returns to collaborative work and feminist theories, this time to reflect on the right to appear in public space for women, dissidents, migrants or undocumented persons.
“It is difficult for artists to be indifferent to the situation we live in: institutional, historical, street, gender violence.
It is difficult to imagine a work that appeals to reflection and emotions, which is not related to what is happening, which is very strong ”, reflect Lashesis, who ask not to be individualized when citing them: everything they say represents their collective.
On the phone from the city where they all live, Valparaíso, about 100 kilometers from Santiago de Chile, they explain that they prefer collaborative work, because it is a political position.
Not only will the four members of the group be on stage, but about 80 people.
Their voices and reflections will join the basic structure of this piece, called
Resistance or the vindication of a collective right
.
As in the performance that made them enter the list of 100 influencers of 2019, according to
Time
magazine
, Lastesis once again use feminist theories for their works, which they put into practice through performance and sound, textile and visual resources.
Si
El violador eres tú
was based on the work of the Argentine activist Rita Segato and on a critical look at the way the media deal with sexual violence against women, in her new work she uses texts by Judith Butler (on the precariousness and the lives that, in some way, are considered disposable by some), by Paul B. Preciado (who reflects on the control mechanisms towards bodies) and by María Lugones (who puts colonization in tension, from a perspective of gender).
It is their third work, but, unlike the one that made them world famous, this work is half an hour long and not just two minutes.
“We put at the service of events our methodology or artifacts, everything that leaves a trace and verification of what happens.
It is the art and the trade, which is not only in the galleries ”, says Lastesis, who analyze the Chilean political process, strongly marked by the constituent process.
“If the most structural problems do not change, it is very difficult for us to see a future with notable differences.
And the political class, the monopoly of violence and everything that constitutes this system, continues to be very violent.
Symbolically, materially.
There are things that have to change beyond the Constitution ”, comments this group made up of Daffne Valdés and Sibila Sotomayor –both from the world of theater–, Paula Cometa –designer and history teacher– and Lea Cáceres –clothes designer–.
They have an ambitious plan for 2021: get a house to found a feminist school of arts and crafts in Valparaíso.
Thesis break into the public space and without permission, as has been done by another of the groups that are in this edition of the Santiago a Mil International Festival, Delight Lab. Made up of the brothers Octavio and Andrea Gana –artist and designer, respectively–, they perform lighting interventions in public and natural spaces.
The viralization of their work has made them a symbol of the Chilean riots, because they projected words, images and poetry not only in buildings at the epicenter of the protests in Santiago de Chile, but also in the vicinity of places such as the Government Palace, The coin.
"We use a language with demands from a third world country with technologies from a first world country", explains Octavio Gana.
Although they started working in 2009, their work soon became known.
They projected the face of the young Mapuche murdered in 2018, Camilo Catrillanca, with a verse by Raúl Zurita in his honor: "May his face cover the horizon."
After the social unrest that exploded on October 18, 2019, Delight Lab marked a milestone by projecting the word Dignity, the central word that marked the protests for greater equality.
Once the pandemic was declared in Chile, last May they screened: Hunger.
Many times they have used the Telefónica building, located at the epicenter of the demonstrations, in a work that sometimes makes them uncomfortable.
In recent months, they have suffered counter-demonstrations: lights projected from other buildings that seek to censor their work.
“We are not interested in elite art, neither the gallery nor the collectors.
Art must continue to take over public spaces and gain space from advertising, which is obsolete.
Humanity needs art, poetry and criticism from the arts to take on a relevant role for the changes that are coming ”, reflects the designer.
At the 28th edition of the Santiago a Mil International Festival, one of the most important in the region, Delight Lab presents Spirit of Water, where the Gana brothers reflect on the ancestral importance of the natural asset and the need for its use and ownership to be one of the central issues of a new Constitution.