Art+Gender+Culture

I attended the Art, Gender, and Conflict session on March 4^th. Patricia Ariza is one of the founders of Festival de las Mujeres, or Festival of Women. She is a political activist, actress, dramaturg and performance artist in Colombia that deals with social conflict, inequality, poverty, and patriarchy, through the perspective of women. Some of her work relates to the military confrontation between the government and the population for 50 years. More that 4 million people have been displaced from their homes. Most of them are women. In 1966, Patricia created the cultural house, Teatro Candelaria, as an alternative outlet in activism. They perform at least once a month as a group. One of the videos that we saw was a performance about “los desaparecidos,” or the disappeared. They placed pictures of loved ones all over the city to remind others of the military’s brutal actions in search for power.

One thing that I found interesting is that she caters to each of the locations by having local women tell their stories in the “Paz Hare la,” a play-on-words that literally means runway, but has the meaning of “Making Peace”. She doesn’t have a static troupe that travels to different parts of Columbia. That way no show is the same and she empowers women wherever she goes.

This session relates to the power of women and their ability to take power back from oppressive parties. In Columbia, she usually holds meetings and performances in plazas. She explained that she believes that these places, made of cement, represent power and masculinity, and she takes back power by performing in the spaces. This is specifically targeted at the military, which, in itself, is a very masculine environment.