Nelly Richard discusses the use of the human body as a support for a work of art. She refers to two art actions beginning in 1975. One of them was El perchero by Carlos Leppe; in the other, Raúl Zurita burned his face, photographed it, and used the photograph as the cover illustration for his book Purgatorio (Purgatory, 1980). These actions represent two different ways to use the body, either as a “sacrificial zone” by inflicting pain of some kind (which tends to be more closely related to literature), or as a “mimetic zone” that involves the simulation of situations, which is specifically associated with theatricality. Sexuality was a vector that was addressed in both zones. The text analyzes a series of actions presented by Leppe, Zurita, and Diamela Eltit, which made clear that the human body is a space that has not been encoded by discourse.   

“Rhetoric of the Body” is a chapter in Margins and Institutions. Art in Chile Since 1973, the book by the cultural critic Nelly Richard (b. 1948), published in Australia (1986), which was essential in consolidating her reading of the group of artists she referred to as the Escena de Avanzada. The year after it was published, the book was the subject of a seminar held in Chile that sought to review art production in a series of chapters: “Ellipsis and Metaphor;” “The Photographic Condition;” “The Scene of Writing;” “The Dimension of Social Exteriority in the Production of Art;” “Rhetoric of the Body” [See the following in the ICAA Digital Archive (doc. no. 744815)]; “The Displacement of Supports and the Eradication of the Boundaries between Genres;” “The Problematic of Latin American Art;” and “History and Memories,” in addition to the chapter mentioned here.

Escena de Avanzada was the name that Nelly Richard coined to refer to a number of neo-avant-garde artists and practices that challenged art, its forms of production, and its context in a country governed by a military dictatorship. The movement came to represent the progressive “scene” of an unofficial art that sought to foster both a critical awareness and a commitment to resistance. The main art practices of the time therefore focused on works that could challenge the dominant culture’s artistic discourse. Richard’s approach led to a debate that addressed art, politics, and society from a range of different perspectives.  

In this text Richard suggests that performance works got their start in Chile with the actions presented by the artist Carlos Leppe (1952–2015) and the poet Raúl Zurita (b. 1950). Though the author attempts to outline the genealogy of this trend, the book is focused on a group of Chilean works and artists. In Richard’s view, there is no need to speak about performance, since she is mainly interested in the idea of using the body as a support for works of art. This idea is broader in scope than the ephemeral events of traditional performance—making video, photography, and publishing the chosen media for presenting actions of this kind.