How the Dramaturgical Practice of Chilean Contemporary Circus is Evolving and Adapting to the Different National Scenarios: The case of 'Je tirerais pour toi', by Collectif Merkén

Abstract

The following article focuses on the dramaturgical process developed in contemporary circus by analysing the piece Je tirerais pour toi by the company Collectif Merkén, performed by the Chilean artist Pamela Pantoja. A theoretical and reflexive analysis is carried out on how the dramaturgical connection is shaped through its contextual and/or territorial limits with the Chilean circus scene.

The central hypothesis of the article argues the transition from a fragmented dramaturgy to an authored dramaturgy based on stage practice, which has rectified the dramaturgical discourse of circus with extended practices of an identity nature to hybrid practices influenced by the postdramatic, underpinned by the principles of the search for dramaturgical limits.

We believe that this hybridisation is reshaping the identity directly linked to an area of ideological and social creation to later converge in aesthetic and dramaturgical reflections that embrace the current state of contemporary circus.

Moreover, Pamela Pantoja develops her show based on the narrative of the Chilean dictatorship and circus, specifically in aerial silk and hair hanging. The piece emerged out of the need to dialogue with her past and seeks to question the “pact of silence” that has hung over Chile since 11 September 1973. She does so through research and archives based on concepts and questionings of the family, the Chilean identity and the legacy of the coup in Chile: censorship and the apology for violence.