Skip to main content

Book Launch: ‘Touched Bodies: The Performative Turn in Latin American Art’

What is the role of pleasure and pain in the politics of art? In Touched Bodies Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra approaches this question as she examines the flourishing of live and intermedial performance in Latin America during times of authoritarianism and its significance during transitions to democracy.  The book attests to a performative turn in Latin American art during the 1980s that, changed the ways in which we perceive art and understand its role in society.

Based on original documents and innovative readings, her book brings politics and ethics to the discussion of artistic developments during the “long 1980s”. She describes the rise of performance art in the context of feminism, HIV-activism, and human right movements, taking a close look at the work of Diamela Eltit and Raúl Zurita from Chile, León Ferrari and Liliana Maresca from Argentina, and Marcos Kurtycz, the No Grupo art collective, and Proceso Pentágono from Mexico.

Please join us for an event to mark the UK launch of Touched Bodies with Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra, the writer Carlos Fonseca, and a performance by the dancer and artist Margarita Zafrilla in collaboration with Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra.

“An astute and moving book, Touched Bodies gives account of the transition from an aesthetics of representation to an aesthetics of embodiment and bodily vulnerability in Latin American art of the 1980s. A contribution to aesthetic theory as much as to the history of art, Touched Bodies extends our understanding of performance-based art in relationship to practices of vulnerability, dissensus, and cross-temporal performativity.”
Rebecca Schneider, author of Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment

Touched Bodies is available on Unbound and will be onsale at a specially discounted price at the launch.

Latest events

Daniel Oliver & Access All Areas Artists – Passion Play

01 Aug 2025

Join us on Friday 1 August at 7pm for an evening of performances from Access All Areas artists Bruno De Ceita Pedro, Jacob Dean, Claire Dunbar, and George Webb.

Read more

POSTPONED – Making Performance at Home: A Workshop by Elana Binysh

31 Jul 2025

Join us for Making performance at home: Imagination and the domestic space, a 3-hour online workshop for people who spend a lot of time at home.

Read more

Live Art Mixers: Queer Craft Potluck with Marlborough Productions & Raze Collective

23 Jul 2025

Join us for the first Live Art Mixer, specifically intended for queer and trans creatives.

Read more

B Is for Blood: Nastja Säde Rönkkö in Conversation With Gemma Rolls-Bentley

16 Jul 2025

Join us for an evening with Nastja Säde Rönkkö in conversation with Gemma Rolls-Bentley, discussing Nastja’s artistic journey from Live Art to film, and the visceral language of their work.

Read more

Something Other Live: On Elasticity

14 Jul 2025

Join us for a curated series of performances, screenings and sound pieces to launch and celebrate Something Other’s thirteenth chapter.

Read more

Unfixed Archives: Holders of Liveness – Podcast Launch

27 Jun 2025

Join us for an evening of conversation to mark the release of the third episode of Unfixed Archives entitled ‘Holders of Liveness’.

Read more

Lara Habib Kobeissi: In Conversation

11 Jun 2025

LADA is partnering with Shubbak Festival 2025 to present Lara Habib Kobeissi’s Nazar, a one-to-one VR performance that engages all five senses in a transformative ritual rooted in protection practices from Southern Lebanon.

Read more

Lara Habib Kobeissi – Nazar (نَظَر)

06 Jun 2025 - 15 Jun 2025

LADA is partnering with Shubbak Festival 2025 to present Lara Habib Kobeissi’s Nazar, a one-to-one VR performance that engages all five senses in a transformative ritual rooted in protection practices from Southern Lebanon.

Read more

Donation

£