Citizenship Performance and Urban Social Space in Bogotá, 1985-2015
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Confronting Violence: Citizenship Performance and Urban Social Space in Bogotá, 1985-2015 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Geoffrey Eugene Wilson B.A., M.F.A. Graduate Program in Theatre The Ohio State University 2019 Dissertation Committee Ana Elena Puga, D.F.A., Advisor Jennifer Schlueter, Ph.D. Shilarna Stokes, Ph.D. Copyrighted by Geoffrey Eugene Wilson 2019 Abstract This dissertation combines performance analysis, cultural materialism, and theory on urban social space to develop a theory of citizenship performance. I analyze three performances that occurred in public spaces in Bogotá, Colombia each of which responds to violence resulting from Colombia’s long civil war and challenges dominant notions of who belongs to the cultural community, as well as how the community behaves collectively. I argue that citizenship performances respond to violence within Colombian culture in three ways: first, they remap community behavior by modelling alternative modes of public moral comportment; second, they destabilize and recode the symbolic languages of the cultural community; third, they assert the cultural citizenship of marginalized communities by presencing their lives, struggles, and histories in public social space. The first chapter analyzes a performance project by Bogotá’s alternative theatre company Mapa Teatro, that maps out the social histories of the former barrio Santa Inés, also known as El Cartucho. Beginning in 2001, Mapa Teatro began work on a series of performances and installations which documented the demolition of the barrio, culminating in a multimedia production called Witness to the Ruins, a citizenship performance that staged the lives of the former residents of Santa Inés on the rubble of the barrio itself, before it was transformed and gentrified into the Parque Tercer Milenio (Third Millennium Park). Because Witness asserts the ii cultural citizenship of a marginalized community – a community literally removed from the center of the city – it exemplifies performance that re-positions citizenship within urban public space. While Mapa Teatro’s work re-maps the city and re-places the lives of marginalized citizens, the second chapter examines urban artist DjLu’s project Juegasiempre, (Always Play), which scrutinizes the ubiquity of the tools of war and dismantles complacent acceptance of violence in the urban landscape. DjLu and other urban artists engage in citizenship performances by (re)covering the visual landscape in ways that question the symbols and institutions that make up Bogotano culture, especially when painting in daylight while being observed by the public. My third chapter investigates the annual Día del Trabajo (Workers’ Day) march on the central Carrera Séptima, which constitutes a citizenship performance shaped by ghosts of the violent past that illuminates the lives and struggles of working-class citizens and victims of institutional violence, staking a citizenship claim for marginalized communities. My investigation of Mapa Teatro, DjLu, and the Workers’ Day march illuminates citizenship performance from three perspectives: through the work of artists who engage with and question the construction and destruction of urban social space, through the work of artists who alter the visual aesthetic of urban social space, and through performances shaped by the history and architecture of urban social space itself. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank first and foremost my advisor, Ana Elena Puga, without whose tireless advice and encouragement this would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Jennifer Schlueter and Shilarna Stokes, for their comments and advice on this project and throughout my time at OSU. Many of the faculty at this university have helped to shape my research and practice as an artist/scholar, and for that I am indebted to Joe Brandesky, Stratos Constantinidis, Lesley Ferris, Jill Galvan, Beth Kattelman, Paloma Martinez-Cruz, Debra Moddelmog, and Jeanine Thompson. There are perhaps too many fellow students to name, but there are some who have challenged me to think differently and I would be remiss not to mention Shelby Brewster, Elizabeth Harelik Falter, Karie Miller, Chelsea Phillips, Charlesanne Rabensburg, Francesca Spedalieri, Josh Truett, and Elizabeth Wellman. I would also like to acknowledge those academic colleagues with whom I have engaged outside of the OSU community, especially Jorge Huerta, Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, Noe Montez, Alex Ripp, Marcos Steuernagel, Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento, Brenda Werth, Anna White- Nockelby, Patricia Ybarra. Finally, none of this would have been possible without love and support of my family, Meaghan, Emily, Sam, Paul, and Jojo. iv Vita Indiana University M.F.A. in Acting .............................................................................2004 Drew University B.A. double major in Theatre and Philosophy ...................................1997 Teaching Experience The Ohio State University Graduate Teaching Associate ................................... 2013-2016 Drew University Visiting Lecturer ................................................................................2004 Indiana University Associate Instructor............................................................... 2000-2002 Actors’ Equity Performances Actors’ Theatre of Colombus, Richard III (Richard) ....................................................2015 Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Twelfth Night (Sebastian) .....................................2009 Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey The Triumph of Love (Prince Agis) .....................2005 New Stage Theatre Three Days of Rain (Walker/Ned) .................................................2005 12 Miles West Fit to be Tied (Arloc) .............................................................................2004 Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey A Midwinter Night’s Dream (Demetrius) ............2002 Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Enrico IV (Carlo di Nolli) ....................................2002 v Directing Experience The Ohio State University Macbeth (Director) .............................................................2016 Actors’ Theatre of Columbus All the Great Books(abridged) (Director) ......................2015 Actors’ Theatre of Columbus The Hound of the Baskervilles (Director) ......................2014 The Ohio State University The House of the Spirits (Fight Choreographer) .................2014 The Ohio State University aPOEtheosis (Assistant Director) .......................................2013 The Ohio State University Marat/Sade (Assistant Director/ Fight Choreographer) .....2012 Publications Book review of Clowning as Social Performance in Colombia: Ridicule and Resistance by Barnaby King. Modern Drama. Spring 2018. “Mockus, Mapa Teatro, and Modos de hacer.” Latin American Theatre Review. Spring 2016. Book review of La representación de la Conquista en el Teatro Latinoamericano de los Siglos XX y XXI. Ed. Verena Dolle. Latin American Theatre Review. Spring 2016. Fields of Study Major Field: Theatre vi Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Citizenship .................................................................................................................... 11 Urban Social Space ....................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2. Mapa Teatro, Mockus, and Modos de hacer ................................................... 30 Mockus and Mapa Teatro ............................................................................................. 38 El Cartucho ................................................................................................................... 41 Mapa Teatro and Project Prometheus ........................................................................... 47 Run-Throughs and The Cleaning of the Stables of Augeas .......................................... 54 Witness to the Ruins ..................................................................................................... 60 Mockus .......................................................................................................................... 66 vii Third Millennium Park as Non-Place ........................................................................... 72 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 75 Chapter 3. DjLu and Urban Imaginaries: Performance in the Urban Public Sphere ........ 80 Death of a Grafitero ...................................................................................................... 80 Challenging the Urban Imaginary ................................................................................