Violeta Luna : Requiem for a Lost Land

Violeta Luna is a performance artist and activist whose work explores the relationship between theater, performance art, and community engagement. She uses her body as a territory for questioning and commenting on socio-political phenomena. Luna obtained her graduate degree in Acting from the Centro Universitario de Teatro (UNAM) and La Casa del Teatro. She is currently an associate artist in performance collectives La Pocha Nostra and Secos and Mojados.

The 8th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute sought to examine the broad intersections between urban space, performance and political/artistic action in the Americas. From the critical poetics of body art to the occupation of public space by social movements, the event invited participants to explore the borders, identities and practices through which subjectivities, hegemonies and counter-hegemonies are constructed in the spaces of the city and beyond. Requiem for a Lost Land is a performative intervention that uses ritual to remember the murders committed during 'The War on Drugs' implemented by the Mexican government. Requiem uses performance as a coroner's knife to open the discourse of death put forth by those in power under the guise of 'national security.'