Performance, Parque Nacional, Bogotá, 2019-2020

Continuum I is a coproduction with the Goethe Institut Bogotá and la Red Comunitaria Trans (Trans Community Network)
A project by: Daniela Maldonado, Paula Gempeler, Tomás Espinosa in collaboration with Red Comunitaria Trans
Performers: Valeria López, Bárbara Sanchez, Franchesca Caballero, Nini Palomino, Natalia Bernal, Daniela Maldonado
Direction/Concept: Tomas Espinosa
Photography: Juan David Cortés

Continuum is a term that defines the gradual transitions from one state to another without causing abrupt changes. This term can provide us with a first step towards understanding the violence and discrimination that people with a different sexual orientation or gender identity live with in the context of the armed conflict in Colombia. The stigmas that are projected onto this group of people create living conditions in which there is an abundance of violence. These, in turn, generate a spiral of violence that is almost impossible to break.
This continuum is clearly evident in the lives of those who have had to flee their territories because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Violence causes displacement, and this is ultimately the cause of renewed violence, as the process of escaping and assimilating to a new territory generates further struggle.

In several workshops and with the final performance “Continuum” wants to reflect and understand that violence. It explores how the social structures and the actors of the armed conflict exercise their domination over the trans community and over people with other sexual orientations and gender identities. To do this, “Continuum” uses food as a means to trigger memories. Food chosen by the participants becomes a metaphor for concrete memories. The projection of memory onto food allows them to approach their personal past in order to be able to talk about it. This exercise does not want to victimize, on the contrary, it wants to create a space where we can begin to understand all the ingredients that make up the violence against their communities. Also to understand the pain of being considered different.