Bodies of Others

Available in English for the first time, The Bodies of Others investigates, through a series of close readings of several theatrical and film productions in Europe and South America, the relationship between “representation” (including theatrical representation) and ethics (defined as an ongoing relational negotiation, as opposed to a set of universal moral laws).

The main concepts are exposed through a comparative analysis of historical processes, political actions and artistic works from different periods.

Thus, the dialogue between the film La carrose d'or by Jean Renoir (1952) and Rosa Cuchillo by Yuyachkani (2006) serves to address the problem of the multiple meanings of representation. The dialogue between the play El Señor Galíndez by Eduardo Pavlovsky (1973), the performance The Conquest of America by Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis (1989) and the novel 2666 (2004) by Roberto Bolaño allows the concept of an ‘ethic of the body’ to be addressed.

Other key concepts such as identity, care, cruelty, violence, memory and testimony are considered through investigation of work such as Angelica Liddel’s theatre pieces, Rabih Mroué and Lina Majdalanie’s performances, Albertina Carri, Basilio Martín Patino and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films, and Mapa Teatro’s trans-disciplinary creations.

José A. Sánchez (author) is Professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts and head of the Art History department at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. He is also director of the research group Artea (www.arte-a.org) and author of books, such as Brecht and Expressionism (1992), Dramaturgies of Images (1994), Practising the Real (2007), and curator and director of different projects such as Jerusalem Show (Palestine, 2011) or The Words of Others (Los Angeles, EEUU, 2017).

David Sánchez Cano (translator) has published numerous articles in English, German, and Spanish on the topics of festivals, historical dance, photography, and film. He is co-author of a book on the art and architecture of Madrid as well as co-editor of another on ambiguity in Spanish art. For the Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon he has written over 150 biographical articles on Spanish photographers. He now works as a translator and independent scholar.