Disrupting narratives of gender violence: Hekatherina Delgado and performing La caída de las campanas in Uruguay

This article examines the performance La caída de las campanas by Uruguayan artist, scholar, and activist Hekatherina Delgado to interrogate how, by intervening in public spaces, the piece critiques the pervasiveness of violence within a democratic society. First performed on 8 March 2015, for a two-year period the performance was enacted every time a feminicide occurred in Uruguay. I argue that the performance is a form of artivism which serves a commemorative function while also disrupting conventions associated with rituals of mourning. Through repetition, which is a key formal aspect of the piece, La caída de las campanas dramatizes and articulates the impact of gender violence on society and actively implicates state institutions. Drawing on Diana Taylor’s concept of the “political body” and Ileana Diéguez’s ideas on community, I argue that the performance has the potential to transform participants, audiences, and national and international discourses on gender violence.