Memoria : presencia y representación (demostración de trabajo) = Memory : presence and representation (work demonstration)

'Memory: Presence and Representation' was a work demonstration presented by Peru's Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, as a part of the 7th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, held in August of 2009 in Bogotá, Colombia, under the title 'Staging Citizenship: Cultural Rights in the Americas.' This 10-day event brought together activism, scholarship, and art around the themes of legacies, memories, struggles, and frontiers of citizenship. In this work demonstration, the members of the collective share their processes of creation with an audience that performs as a witness of the group's own history. Througout this performance composition method demonstration, there is an exploration of various stages of this collective's past performances; in doing this, the performers are engendering a new moment in the development of the group's proposals. Past, present, and future converge in the performers's bodies - a corporeality that mirrors the past and possibilites of Peruvian history, and stages a rehearsal of the future. Since 1971, Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani has been working at the forefront of theatrical experimentation, political performance, and collective creation. 'Yuyachkani' is a Quechua word that means 'I am thinking, I am remembering.' Under this name, the theater group has devoted itself to the collective exploration of embodied social memory, particularly in relation to questions of ethnicity, violence, and memory in Peru. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics