Post-materialidad en los Andes: espacios performativos andinos en Yuyachkani

Abstract:In this article, I analyze one-actor plays, Adiós Ayacucho (1990) and Rosa Cuchillo (2002), written and performed by the collective Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani. I propose that in both plays non-human elements in collaboration with the human bodies on stage develop a memory-healing process to overcome the trauma produced by the Internal Conflict that occurred in Peru from 1980 to 2000. Both pieces present the story of a dead body that returns to the living world in order to accomplish a mission. In Adiós Ayacucho, Alfonso Canepa returns to find and recover his missing corpse, while, in Rosa Cuchillo, Rosa is looking for her missing son. However, these missions cannot be accomplished without the intervention of non-human elements that work in collaboration with the play’s protagonists. This article examines the role of space as a sum of non-human elements that intervene in the processes of memory in dialogue with the notion of yanantin, which, in Andean cosmology, denotes an equilibrium between dualisms that maintains the order and existence of all human and nonhuman life. Further influencing my reflections on the presence of the nonhuman in these performances, I consider Jane Bennett’s notion of actant and Tara Daly’s concept of Andean plurality. My analysis of these spaces offers a new perspective on Peruvian politics and theatre by privileging Andean forms of knowledges as a way to decolonize and understand memory and history.