Luis Guenel

Luis Guenel and his group Teatro Niño Proletario have created one of those shows that was alive for more than ten years. "El Otro“ – based on a photo essay of Paz Errázuriz – mixed and matched languages, forms, styles, methods, processes. Non-normative bodies and thoughts, non-conventional durations, atypical rhythms and much more, are all part of the formal repertoire of not only this show, but can be read as a symptom for his whole work. Unravelling and chewing slowly on questions around identity, memory, history – private, personal as well as territorial – the work pinpoints crucial contemporary issues, such as the sovereignty of interpretation or the idea of political environments being automatically ones of exploitation and accumulation. Yet it never forgets one thing: the human being and its fragility is at the centre of everything that can be perceived, experienced, lived. 

Luis Guenel has not only been creating and touring successfully, but also twisted his take on arts locally, when he invented the Performing Arts Festival Cielos del Infinito in his home region of Chilean Patagonia in 2007. Not in the centres but in the peripheries lies the future of the performing arts, probably, maybe. This step was a logical consequence of his engagement with the marginalised, people as well as stories and landscapes. His unique language and approach promise to foster beautiful projects and show new ways and ideas on how to collaborate internationally next to, or better in addition to, the centres and the capitals. Currently he co-directs the collective CUERPO SUR with Ébana Garín.