Abstract
Candice Amich investigates the powerful and affecting body art of Guatemalan Regina José Galindo, which arose in the aftermath of Guatemala’s bloody civil war. Arguing that postdictatorial states throughout Latin America convened truth commissions to consolidate neoliberal governance, Amich shows how Galindo’s pain-filled performances deny the consensus, catharsis, and staging of victimhood of the testimonial form. Galindo’s excruciating performances respond corporeally to neoliberalism’s ‘gendered economies of violence’, linking the misogynistic violence of the maquiladora industry to the state’s genocidal targeting of the Maya Ixil population. Amich analyses five precarious works, including Galindo’s most widely circulated piece, ¿Quién puede borrar las huellas? (Who can erase the traces? 2003), in which the artist leaves footprints of human blood on the steps of the capital.
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Works Cited
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Amich, C. (2017). The Limits of Witness: Regina José Galindo and Neoliberalism’s Gendered Economies of Violence. In: Diamond, E., Varney, D., Amich, C. (eds) Performance, Feminism and Affect in Neoliberal Times. Contemporary Performance InterActions. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59810-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59810-3_8
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