In the text “Invitación al sacrificio” [An Invitation to Sacrifice], commentator Alejandro Torres discusses the poetic quality of the staging and production in the work of the Mapa Teatro collective directed by Colombian artist Rolf Abderhalden. Torres describes the references to Greek and Roman mythology in A la mesa [To the Table]—a project that the collective presented in 1998 at a restaurant in the Cerro de Monserrate section of Bogotá—as metaphors for the current situation in Colombia. Torres asserts that the work of the collective as a whole, and of Abderhalden, is characterized by the use of elements taken from performance art, audiovisual media, and installation. Torres connects the installations created by Abderhalden that year (1998)—among them Dormitorio [Bedroom], Maridaje de un sueño y vigilia [Coupling of Sleep and Wakefulness], Camino y ascensión al sueño [Road and Ascent to Dream]—with the works created by the collective, specifically Casa tomada [House Taken Over] (1987), De mortibus (1990), Horacio [Horatio] (1993), Orestea ex machina (1995), and Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes [A Very Old Man with Huge Wings] (1996). In Torres’s view, Mapa Teatro’s bold interdisciplinary approach forges a unique artistic language that combines video, installation, performance art, and theater.

The origin of the text “Invitación al sacrificio” is an interview by journalist Alejandro Torres with artist Rolf Abderhalden (b. 1956) about his works A la mesa and Dormitorio (both from 1998). Torres discusses the experimental language developed by the Mapa Teatro collective and by Abderhalden, referring to the artist’s statements in the interview that reinforce his analysis. The document provides a critical vision of theater narratives, the use of space and theatrical staging (which, in the work discussed here, combines aspects of the museum, theater, performance art, and spaces of daily life), the recursive use of materials, the presence or allusion to the body as a form of expression, and exhibition logic. On the basis of these crucial elements in Mapa Teatro’s language, Torres theorizes about experimental Colombian art. 

Founded in 1984, Mapa Teatro is an experimental art collective coordinated by Heidi Abderhalden (b. 1962) and her brother Rolf. Their interdisciplinary approach combines theater, performance art, installation, and new media. By means of interdisciplinary projects, the collective, whose concerns are akin to those of the Ecole Française des Arts Vivants, has developed a visual language that has had great impact on the Colombian cultural scene. Projects like Horacio (1993), Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes (1996), C’undua (2001–3), De mortibus (1990), Casa tomada (1987), and Ricardo III [Richard III] (2000) entail a critical stance on the social situation and the artistic traditions in Colombia.  

Since the mid-nineties, Rolf Aberderhalden has participated in national artistic events of great importance to the Bogotá art scene. He studied art therapy at the École d’Hautes Études Sociaux et Pédagogiques in Lausanne, Switzerland, and did postgraduate work in theater at Jacques Lecoq’s École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris. In 1997, Aberderhald—in conjunction with Colombian artists Clemencia Echeverri (b. 1950) and Trixi Alina (b. 1950)—exhibited the work Camino [Road] at the Galería Espacio Vacío in the context of the creative and research project La mirada. Along with Dormitorio (1998) and Y lo demás es silencio [And the Rest Is Silence] (1999), Camino (1997–98) forms a triptych that addresses respectively the three states experienced by the individual: old age, childhood, and adultood. Domitorio was awarded first prize at the Sixth Bienal de Arte of Bogotá (1998) held at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogotá. A more recent work entitled Sanatorio de la Capilla de Indios [Sanatorium of the Indians’ Chapel] was part of the Fortieth Salón Nacional de Artistas (2006).