Oasis de la impunidad

Synopsis

Eight bodies move across the stage in mysterious convulsions. They march, train and celebrate, but it is unclear whether their movements express suffering or joy, pride or fear. Together they form the Police Corps, a mechanical and convulsive body made up of strictly disciplined bodies. They are being trained to be violent with themselves and with others, and what is inscribed in the body permeates all levels of being and life. Maintaining order is imperative, but the violence required to do so provokes a physical reaction in the bodies of its victims, whose emotions always threaten to overflow and cause a dangerous explosion. Police, victims and fantastic figures of evil come together in an abstract museum space for a disturbing carnival in which not all fronts are clear.

Inspired by the social outbreak, the social revolt that swept through the streets of Santiago de Chile on 18 October 2019 and filled Plaza Dignidad, Marco Layera and his company Teatro La Re-sentida undertake a choreographic reflection on the nature of violence that, in Chile, has locked the police and the citizens in a permanent dialectic. This examination of the systemic and individual motivations of violence focuses, in particular, on the side of those who exercise it. What connects individual conviction and forced discipline? Who pulls the strings behind the scenes? How can the aggression of the victims be unleashed? And: Who can be held accountable in the oasis of impunity? Six actors, two dancers and a living sculpture embark on a search for answers.

Director’s Note

We do not intend, nor do we think, to transfer territorially and symbolically what happens on the street to a stage. Taking literally what happens there or reproducing the semiotic and semantic resources seems to us aesthetically and ethically inappropriate. Similarly, attending a theatre performance should not lead to a demobilisation of street protests.

The public is not invited to witness what happens on the street. Conversely, the performative power of what happens outside challenges us as creators and also puts us in crisis. It requires our art to reinvent itself in order to be a participant and collaborator in this social process, inviting us as artists to take a step into the unknown and the uncertain, to lose ourselves and to put ourselves in constant danger. Oasis de la Impunidad (Oasis of Impunity) is an artistic essay that owes nothing to reality, but is absolutely committed to it.

Marco Layera