Historia Crítica

Hist. Crit. | eISSN 1900-6152 | ISSN 0121-1617

Art, Politics and Transnational Networks: La Mama Theater Café in New York and Bogota, 1961-1972

No. 55 (2015-01-01)
  • Paulo César León Palacios
https://doi.org/10.7440/histcrit55.2015.06

Abstract

The article analyzes a transnational network of artistas that involved El Café Teatro La Mama, one of the main experimental theaters of New York, and its Bogota subsidiary, from 1961 to 1972. Three main lines make it possible to narrate the establishment, development and rupture of said network: the theater as a cultural practice, the relation between avant-garde art and politics, and the emotional dimension of the process. The main conclusion of this research is that there has been a prolific correspondence of ideas around some paradigms of contemporary vanguard theater but, at the same time, an ambivalence between artistic romanticism and political values.

Keywords: La Mama Theater, cultural practices, political relations, contemporary art, transnational networks