Lukas Avendaño

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Stefanie Graul

Lukas Avendaño (born 1977 in Tehuantepec , State of Oaxaca , Mexico) is a Mexican performance artist, actor, dancer and poet, who also became internationally known through his performances. He belongs to the indigenous ethnic group of the Istrian Zapotecs (Binnizá). A peculiarity of this people is the existence of an institutionalized homosexuality . The Binnizá have three social genders: women, effeminate men / muxe '(pronounced musche) and male men. Avendaño belongs to the socially integrated minority of these muxes and addresses their situation in his performances: The muxes, for example, support the mother with housekeeping and are often lovers of mostly married male men (hombres / varones). In the ethnicist discourse of his performances, he integrates nationalistic-Mexican elements as well as questions of modern homosexuality with a western character, so that an interesting hybrid emerges.

Professional background

Avendaño studied anthropology up to the Licienciatura (2010) in the city of Veracruz, capital of the Mexican state of the same name. At the same time he began to occupy himself with modern and folk dance and trained as a dancer for ten years. In addition to his artistic activities, he teaches dance and was cultural attaché in his hometown.

International engagements:

  • 2012 Festival de Danza Mov. Continuo, Bogotá, Colombia; Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Festival Arizona Between Nosotros, Nogales, Mexico; International Festival of Live Networked Performance, Tucson-Phoenix, Arizona, USA
  • 2013 Mak Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, Los Angeles, USA
  • 2015 Men in Dance Festival, New Danza Horizons, Regina, SK., Canada
  • 2016 Endstation Sehnsucht Festival of the Münchner Kammerspiele, Germany; Facultad de Artes ASAB, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, Colombia; Mason Chapel San Francisco, California, USA; Cultural Center La Peña, Berkeley, USA;
  • 2017 Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico; Zürcher Theater Spektakel Zurich, Switzerland; Sala Hiroshima, Barcelona, ​​Spain; Side Show Freaks & Circus Injuns, Chocolate Woman Collective, Toronto, Canada; Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany; Museo de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia
  • 2018 Casa Blanca Theater, University of San Francisco, Quito, Ecuador

Performances

His portfolio so far includes eight performances; another piece is in the works.

  • The farm (El Corral) 2001
  • Madame Gabia 2005
  • The seventh day (Séptimo Día)
  • South Wind (Viento del Sur) 2010
  • Growing space (Cuarto creciente) 2010
  • Requiem for an Alcaraván (Requiem para un Alcaraván) 2012
  • I'm not human, I'm a butterfly (No soy Hombre, soy Mariposa) 2014
  • Homins 2015

Reception in the media (selection)

"In his performance No soy Persona, soy Mariposa (German, I am not a person, I am butterfly ), the performer and anthropologist Lukas Avendaño interprets the word 'butterfly' in all its richness of meaning. Connected in Mexico with homosexuality and queer lifestyles, he creates According to Avendaño, the term 'Mariposa' is a border 'between us, who we openly admit to be butterflies' and those who don't, but it is also one of the characteristics of this living being to fly across geographical and perhaps social or political demarcation lines In No soy Persona, soy Mariposa , Lukas Avendaño becomes an exhibitionist, showing his body, the codes of desire - always carried by the desire to involve his viewers and turn them into accomplices, lovers and / or voyeurs in a (sic) game do."

In the article The Third Gender of the Binnizá Between Globalization and Ethnicity - Hybrid Identities? the photographer Stefanie Graul, who did her doctorate in postcolonial and gender studies on the gender relations of the Binnizá, mentions Avendaño as follows: "Lukas Avendaño depicts the androgynous beauty of muxe'tum in his performances, for example in a female costume, but with a bare male upper body He also uses the metaphor of the 'Berelele' - a tame wild bird that dies in captivity if kept alone - to criticize the practice that muxe 'are not allowed to have long-term partnerships. " In the performance Requiem for an Alcaraván , the artist addresses the muxes' longing for a stable partnership or a husband (marido). Dressed in the traditional costume of the Istrian women, which also became known in the West through Frida Kahlo, he incorporates the typical life stages of the women wrongly described as matriarchal on the isthmus and, as a male bride, criticizes the restrictive gender norms of his society.

The Californian La Peña cultural center writes: "His cross-dressing performance interweaves ritual dances with autobiographical passages and actions that involve audience members, in order to challenge the widely held view of a gay-friendly indigenous culture and point towards the existence of lives that negotiate pain and loneliness with self-affirming pride. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theater Kampnagel Hamburg: Lukas Avendaño: Requiem for an Alcaraván . In: Theater Kampnagel Hamburg . ( kampnagel.de [accessed April 7, 2018]).
  2. ↑ The conflict of recognition among the three sexes of the Binnizá . ISBN 978-3-8316-4630-2 ( utzverlag.de [accessed April 7, 2018]).
  3. ↑ The third gender of the Binnizá between globalization and ethnicity. Retrieved April 7, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Stefanie Graul: The conflict of recognition among the three sexes of the Binnizá . Ed .: Herbert Utz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8316-4630-2 ( utzverlag.de [accessed April 7, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Lukas Avendaño - Zapotec Muxe & Contemporary Performer from Oaxaca - La Peña Cultural Center . In: La Peña Cultural Center . ( lapena.org [accessed April 7, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Avendaño, Luke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mexican performance artist, actor, dancer and poet
DATE OF BIRTH 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Tehuantepec , Oaxaca State , Mexico