Speaker Series Intersectionality from the Americas | Performance by colectivo Ayllu | Where are the secret messages from our ancestors?

This event forms part of the speaker series Intersectionality from the Americas: Theories, Processes, Approaches, Practices, taking place throughout the winter semester 2024/25. Supported by the ScienceCampus and organised by Anne Brüske with Minerva Peinador, Barbara Aranda and Joanna Moszczyńska of DIMAS, this series will feature talks, a workshop and an artistic performance. Find the flyer about the speaker series here. More details about the series can be found here.

While the performance on 13 February will be held in English, the artist talk on 14 February will be in Spanish with supporting materials in English.

Where are the secret messages from our ancestors?

Colectivo Ayllu is an artistic-political collective founded by migrants, people of color, and queer and gender-sexual dissidents from former Spanish colonies. Through their work, the group critiques white supremacy and the European colonial heteronormative ideology. The Latin American artists and researchers of the collective combine anti-racist and decolonial perspectives, creating actions that merge text and artistic practice.

Their work serves as a safe space for migrant bodies and sexual dissidents who challenge and dismantle conventional codes of gender, sexuality, and race.The collective, described as a "chosen family" founded in 2017, represents a diverse array of territories and contexts from Abya Yala, the indigenous name for the Americas:

• Alex Aguirre Sánchez, born in Quito, Ecuador
• Leticia/Kimy Rojas Miranda, born in Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Francisco Godoy Vega, born in Santiago, Chile
• Lucrecia Masson, born in Ombucta, Argentina
• Iki Yos Piña Narváez, born in Caracas, Venezuela

Abstract in English/language of the perfomance:

We propose a journey back and forth through the cosmographies of winds and waters. To uncover these messages within and beyond our bodies is to step into ancestral time, to immerse ourselves in its spiral. This performance is a poetic and spatial intervention—a gesture of love for our departed, for the lands and the seas, all of whom have been deeply wounded by Western modernity. In this act, we embrace them.

Abstract in Spanish:

Proponemos ir y volver a través de las cosmografías de los vientos y las aguas. Encontrar estos mensajes en y más allá de nuestros cuerpos es entrar en el tiempo ancestral que implica entrar en su espiral. Esta performance es una intervención poética y espacial para crear mensajes de amor a nuestras muertas, las tierras y los mares, quienes han sido profundamente maltratadas por la modernidad occidental y en este gesto abrazamos.

Join Colectivo Ayllu for their performance on 13 February at 18:00 or for the artist talk on 14 February at 10:00, where they not only bring compelling artistic perspectives to the stage but also ignite critical discussions on racism, migration, and sexual diversity.