Migrant Bodies, Flowing Rituals: The Performance Art of Violeta Luna

This article focuses on one of Violeta Luna's pieces on undocumented migration to the US (Body Parted/Cuerpo Partido 2008), as well as two works dealing with Mexico's current state of emergency: Réquiem por una tierra perdida/Requiem for a Lost Land (2010-2014) and Vírgenes y Diosas/Virgins and Goddesses (2014-2015). In order to explore what these works can tell us about our present, I rely mainly on contemporary expansions of the concept of biopolitics first advanced by Michel Foucault. Additionally, I find a foothold in cultural critics such as Ana Longoni, Rustom Bharucha, and others who have questioned the epistemologies on art and politics prevalent in Western art history. Since context is key for analyzing politically engaged art, I also refer to specific historical events in connection to Luna's pieces.