(De) Colonial Reconquista

(De) Colonial Reconquista is a performance that took place in various spaces in the city of San Juan, including the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. In that instance, the artist invited a specific group of women to participate as extractivists of a body-territory. Each one drew a letter of the word COLONIA [COLONY] on the artist's back and they proceeded to sign a contract that grants them the copyright on the part of her body that contains the letter, as buyers of land. The word was then tattooed on her skin to make the possession permanent. Based on this work, we can build new discourses on the control of women's bodies in a colonized territory. The final action, in the exterior garden of the MAC, is both a recognition and an act of rebellion against coloniality and the control-possession of feminized bodies.

Photography by: Luis Alcalá del Olmo/GFR Media
Video: Arnaldo Rodríguez Bagué

Community of women:
Marisel Robles Gutiérrez
Rosa Janer Aponte
Soraya Serra Collazo
Yma Ríos Orlandi
Olga Orraca Paredes
Angelí Vélez
Awilda Sterling-Duprey

Tattoo artist:
Lidiette Del Valle