Documentation

Context and Artistic Process

Conceived for public space, the production relocated Boal’s prison from the theatre to one of Argentina’s most symbolically charged civic sites: the square facing the Palace of Justice. The location became an active dramaturgical element, collapsing the distance between fiction and political reality while inviting passersby to encounter the performance unexpectedly.

The staging approached the prison as a mutable theatrical environment where every scenic element could shift meaning. Wooden pipes became prison bars, barricades, rifles and torture devices; projected images of inquisitorial violence connected historical persecution with contemporary state repression; and the coexistence of Gregorian chant, tango and Brazilian musical references dissolved temporal boundaries, suggesting that mechanisms of violence continually reappear across different historical contexts.

The visual language emphasized vulnerability and dehumanization through exposed bodies, symbolic costumes and oversized sculptural figures, including the monumental puppet of Torquemada, transforming oppression into a tangible physical presence within the public space.

As a Performer, I was part of an ensemble that navigated the work’s highly physical staging, where collective presence, movement and spatial composition became central vehicles for constructing the political and emotional landscape of the performance.