Mobilization, criticism and resistance

the case of Colectivo Acciones de Arte (C.A.D.A.) in Chile

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze the background and aesthetic-political legacy of the Colectivo Acciones de Arte (C.A.D.A.) in Chile between 1979 and 1985, in dialogue with the cycle of mobilizations known as the Jornadas de Protesta Nacional (1983–1986). It is argued, on the basis of three premises, that artistic intervention can channel social discontent by providing it with a shared language and imaginaries; that the contestation of public space constitutes a condition of possibility both for protest and for cultural action under dictatorship; and that the interdisciplinary nature of the collective shapes an expressive proposal capable of affecting both the creative subject and the citizen as recipient. Methodologically, a focused reading is proposed of some of the most significant actions carried out by C.A.D.A. during those years, with attention to their procedures, media, and modes of public circulation. In this way, the article examines how these interventions configured alternative forms of enunciation, conceived to circulate publicly and resonate with the imaginaries of resistance that emerged under censorship and state violence. The theoretical framework brings together discussions on the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde (Bürger, Neustadt) with philosophical notions such as “negative dialectics” (Adorno) and “critique” (Foucault), in order to understand the cultural and political efficacy of these practices in the construction of imaginaries of resistance.