The relational ontology of earth-body art: decolonial approaches to gender and territoriality in Latin American contemporary performance.

The present research draws on the “earth-body art” genre to investigate ecological and political dimensions of human and more-than-human relationalities in the practice of three Latin American contemporary performance artists while addressing issues of gender and territory from a posthuman perspective. To this end, the research analyzes the production and reception of three artworks: “Silueta Series” (1978) by Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta (b. 1948, Havana; d. 1985, New York), “Tierra/Earth” (2013) by Guatemalan artist Regina Galindo (b. 1974, Guatemala City), and “Soterramento/Burial” (2017) by Brazilian artist Jota Mombaça (b.1991, Natal). Despite their historical differences, all three performances share a common principle: the use of the female body in acts of “mutual entanglement” (Barad, 2007) and “communality” (Escobar, 2018) with the earth and their territories. By invoking the inseparability of humans and “more-than-humans” (De La Cadena, 2010) present in various Latin American indigenous “cosmopolitics” (Stengers, 2005), these performances enact struggles of “political ontology” (Blaser, 2013). In so doing, they demonstrate their potential to challenge not only the western ontology of separation of “Humanity” from “Nature” but also the “coloniality of power” (Quijano, 2000) and “modern colonial patriarchy” (Segato, 2015) that oppresses both women and nature in Latin America.

The present research articulates decolonial approaches to ecological feminism and cultural geographies in a critical dialogue with western philosophies and traditional conceptions of gender, territory, and nature. It questions how “earth-body art” reflects on, negotiates with, and enacts indigenous cosmovisions and pluriversal politics, where the body, the earth, and the territory are perceived as inseparable entities. To that, it addresses a series of sub-questions: What are the forms of performing the body and the earth as inseparable, and why is the concept of body-territory fundamental to it? What functions do the body and the earth have in acts of mutual entanglement and communality between humans and more-than-humans? How do these performances subvert the meanings attached to the categories of women and nature via the questioning of modern western ontologies? And what are the implications of this subversion for a political and ecological understanding of performance?

In thinking about these questions, this research explores the ecological stance of performative acts of unlearning the western ontologies of separation that have shaped our bodies as individuals and the earth as inner matter. Further, it seeks to develop a decolonial genealogy of earth-body art practices, linking the historical context of Cuban-American Ana Mendieta with contemporary Latin American artists. Finally, it investigates the political dimension of earth-body art as a form of colonial resistance rooted in indigenous ontologies.