How Chilean performance collective Las Tesis is growing a global feminist movement
By Canela Laude-Arce
First performed in 2019,
“Un violador en tu camino” has since been translated into more than 50 languages around the world to protest against the global systemic nature of sexual violence against women.
First performed in 2019, “Un violador en tu camino” has since been translated into more than 50 languages around the world to protest against the global systemic nature of sexual violence against women.
Las Tesis is an interdisciplinary feminist collective formed in Valparaíso, a city along the Chilean coast. The four members of the collective are Daffne Valdés Vargas, Paula Cometa Stange, Lea Cáceres Díaz and Sibila Sotomayor Van Rysseghem.
At the core of Las Tesis’ art is feminist theory.While rooted in academia, in order to make their work accessible to many, Las Tesis reproduce one key idea in many different forms: text, dramaturgy, sound, textile.
The words of “Un violador en tu camino” (A rapist in your path), which chant: “And it wasn’t my fault, or where I was, or how I dressed”, address the reality of victim-blaming in cases of sexual violence that occur both in the media and in public discourse.
How Chilean performance collective Las Tesis is growing a global feminist movement