Whomever is not ready for the party is not ready for the war: life impulses versus politics of death

Abstract

This article is the result of the project of creation-research “Laboratory of latin american theatricalities: party and war”, coordinated by the teachers of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú since August of 2023. With more than twenty participants, the theoretical-practical space transformed into an opportunity to research the common principles between the festivities and the popular stuggles in Latin America. Examples of this are the action and self organization in community, the claim for memory and justice through extended symbolic operations, the takeover of public spaces, the irreverence against normative schemes and the constant state of playfulness. Furthermore, we think and experience the party and its drive for life as a fight and a resistance against colonial mortality systems that for more than five hundred years have tried to wipe off the map any and all vestiges of dissident bodies, knowledge and memories that are considered discardable by the power structures. The party, as the fight, demands an urgent and collective body that, with the potency and affirmation of its existence, chases away the politics of death and disenchantment of the Southern Cone. In our lab, we invent collectively devices and games capable of intertwining these two instances, establishing a dialogue between their principles and, in this way, through stage explorations, coral images are constructed, capableof underlining in the retina of memory the idea and practice that “we are alive despite of death”.