Answering the Call of Post-Dictatorship. Historicity, Performance and Politics of the Body between Emilio García Wehbi and the Periférico de Objetos

Abstract

In dialogue with the contemporary theoretical vindication of anachronism as an antidote for positivist historicism, this paper explores Emilio García Wehbi’s performance and theatrical pieces; their relationship with the production of his former group Periférico de Objetos, in order to study the implications of incorporating the scenic body into a complex and fractured conception of art’s temporality.

As “post-dictatorship” becomes established as a retroactive effect of the production of historicity through the split time of the work, de-synchronization appears as a political act challenging State biopolitics. The creation of a theory on the relationship between language and the body best suited for this scenic outcome allows us also to address some current notional struggles and to advocate a concept of montage as a way towards understanding how different times, bodies and subjects are articulated, notwithstanding their heterogeneousness.