Corpus Delecti

The most comprehensive volume on performance art from the Americas to have appeared in English, Corpus Delecti is a unique collection of historical and critical studies of contemporary Latin performance. Drawing on live art from the 1960s to the present day, these fascinating essays explore the impact of Latin American politics, popular culture and syncretic religions on Latin performance. Including contributions by artists as well as scholars, Fusco's collection bridges the theory/practice divide and discusses a wide variety of genres. Among them are: * body art * carpa * vaudeville * staged political protest * tropicalist musical comedies * contemporary Venezuelan performance art * the Chicano Art movement * queer Latino performance The essays demonstrate how specific social and historical contexts have shaped Latin American performance. They also show how those factors have affected the choices artists make, and how their work draw upon and respond to their environment.

Coco Fusco is a New York based interdisciplinary artist and writer and the author of English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas (1995). She is currently Assistant Professor at Tyler School of Art.

List of illustrations, Introduction: Latin American Performance and the Reconquista of Civil Space, Part I Heterotopic, Homoerotic, Hyper-Exotic Cabarets The Melodramatic Seductions of Eva Perón, Part II Ritualizing the Body Politic Henny-Penny Piano Destruction Concert, Part III Stepping Toward An Oppositional Public Sphere Sunday, July 25, 1965, Index