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On the other side of the river, a parallel narrative to the 2018 feminist marchas in Santiago de Chile
- Source: Art & the Public Sphere, Volume 12, Issue Latin-American Performance, Activism and Public Space, Apr 2023, p. 77 - 94
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- 15 Oct 2022
- 23 Mar 2023
- 06 Nov 2024
Abstract
What could be the place of men and masculinity in recent social and feminist movements? Regarding the works Precipitar (2019) and Ante(s)jardín (2018–22) by the Chilean artist Sebastián Preece, this article observes some artistic practices that are capable of contributing, from alternative expressions to hegemonic masculinity, new critical thoughts and perspectives on gender and performance studies. Far from the city’s physical space where the 2018 feminist marchas and manifestations took place in Santiago de Chile, Preece dedicated himself to sweeping an abandoned warehouse and observing for five years how through natural light and water, it began to generate, among that rubble, a garden. In this way of working, a clue seems to emerge to subvert what the Argentinean anthropologist Rita Segato calls the ‘mandate of masculinity’ in the sense that he turned that shed into a safe place to display the emotions that the mandate restrains men from feeling in public and propose an art form of masculine action that is silent and subtle in its interventions.