O Embalo do filho morto: mulheres negras e a necropolítica no processo de criação da performance Giustizia, non Pietà

Abstract

This article exhibits the process of creating the performance entitled Giustizia, non Pietà (2019), part of the doctoral thesis entitled Memories of a Black Feminine Body: Poetic Narratives, Ancestry, and Creative Processes held in the Post-Graduate Program in Performing Arts – PPGAC- UFBA. The research is based on the poetic making through performance, and seeks to traverse the subjectivities found in different narratives of black women's life experiences in the Brazilian context, as well as in autobiographical fragments of the author. Such narratives are evoked in fragments of stories that work as triggers for artistic creation. From a decolonial perspective, it is supported by black feminist epistemology by valuing experience, knowledge, and the wisdom that derives from them. The creation process of Giustizia, non Pietà problematizes the institutionalized genocide that transforms black bodies into abject ones. In the scene, a black mother slowly and silently cradles her dead child. Her pose and her body in a performance state revisit the figure of Pietà, a well-known motif in Christian art.