Argentina

1. In Ana Vivaldi’s work with the Argentinian theatre company, Teatro en Sepia (TeS), her findings have been integrated in a collaborative dialogue that involved the reconstruction of the trajectory of the company through a narrative of their plays, leading to a document that can function as an institutional presentation and a press release.

2. Vivaldi’s findings about Indigenous and Afro commonalities and interconnections also led directly to the facilitation of an exchange between TeS and a Mapuche theatre company, Teatro el Katango (TEK), about the shared and specific experiences of invisibility and erasure of their communities. This exchange resulted in the creation of short plays involving TeS and Teatro el Katango about themes of colonization, dislocation, land loss and urban dwelling in pandemic conditions. The previously unplanned participation of an Afrodescendant company in a play that was considered to focus on Indigeneity and colonialism acts as a reminder of the intertwined histories of slavery and Indigenous land dispossession. The plays have a street art format that produces an irruption into public space to challenge the Europeanness of urban spaces that erase and hide the histories of Indigenous dispossession and genocide.

3. In Argentina, the occasion of the Día Nacional de los Afroargentinos y la Cultura Afro (8 Nov 2022) was used to show the play No es país para negras, II, presented by Teatro en Sepia. This was followed by a debate on structural racism, which featured special guest Lorena Cañuqueo, a CARLA project Research Assistant and member of Teatro Mapuche El Katango. These performances were covered by press articles citing CARLA (July and November 2022). A participant said: “It widened my horizons greatly and gave me conceptual tools … a seed was planted for the future”.

4. Vivaldi’s findings have been used by the Argentinian art collective Identidad Marrón in the production of didactic material on Marrón (“brown”) visual art and identities in Argentina. The material, written and designed by the collective, uses research data to produce educational material for cultural institutions and schools in the form of a book, Marrones Escriben, published in early 2022 with CARLA project funds. A second edition of this book (1000 copies) was produced by Identidad Marrón in 2022, and launched in various places, including Hamburg and Granada, Spain. Audience members said: “It made me question things I’ve taken as natural all my life”. A film, Traspasar las puertas de cristal, produced by Identidad Marrón for the CARLA online exhibition, has been screened in various locations in Argentina, including in an event about Discursos del Odio y Producción Visual Antirracista, organized with Chola Contracultural, a Peruvian indigenous women’s filmmaking collective.

5. Vivaldi conducted research on audience reception of an exhibition, What Do Museums Need to Learn?, curated by Identidad Marrón and Poetas Villeres. The exhibition took place in the national museum, Palais de Glace, and reflected on the multiple forms of representation of brown bodies in Argentine art that explicitly silences the voices of these bodies. The research findings were presented in a report which has generated useful information for the artists about public interpretations of the exhibit. The report has also been useful for the authorities of the museum.

6. Vivaldi visited Argentina in December 2022 during which time she supported CARLA artists Teatro en Sepia, Teatro El Katango and the Identidad Marrón collective. She helped organise and spoke at an event, “El Antirracismo y el artivismo como respuesta a los discursos del odio” (Anti-racism and artivism as a response to hate speech), with Identidad Marrón and other collectives (Chola Contravisual and Plagio Cultural), 6 December (https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17955525707485697/).

7. In March 2023, CARLA funding allowed Teatro en Sepia and Teatro El Katango to mount a performance in Buenos Aires at the Museo Histórico Sarmiento on 19 May 2023, as part of the Museum’s exhibition, Sin pedestal. Racismo científico en la escultura del siglo XIX (Without a Pedestal: Scientific Racism in 19th-Century Sculpture). The performance comprised three scenes from a play in progress, Ñiküfnaqkechi waria (Silence in the City), led by TEK, but involving TES actors (https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18049741684431408/). The funds also supported the development of a production led by Teatro en Sepia with TEK actors called Fuego Amigo, which debuted on 9 Nov 2023.

8. In August 2023, in Argentina the ground-breaking judgement was handed down in a criminal case of violence with aggravating circumstances of racial hatred against “brown” (marrón) people. In its analysis of local forms of racism, the court ruling made reference to the book, Marrones Escriben, produced by Identidad Marrón, which the CARLA project helped to fund and edit.