Drag performances in the northwest region of Argentina: Bartolina Xixa’s audiovisual production

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze Bartolina Xixa’s artistic work by studying two of her audiovisual productions: Ramita seca. La colonialidad permanente (Dry Twig. Permanent Coloniality) from 2019 and CARTA para cualquier cuerpo blanco que se atreva a leerla (LETTER for Any White Body That Dares to Read It) from 2019 as well. This article is located as part of the preparation of a mapping of the current drag scenes. It seeks to explore the particularities introduced by Xixa’s micropoetics, who lives in the northwest of Argentina, in relation with the dominant drag scene that can be represented by the Drag Queen Argentina National Election, held since 2000 in San Miguel de Tucumán. For this, Xixa's practices will be approached from a comparative perspective. Likewise, it will be evaluated what historical links can be proposed between Xixa’s productions and other artistic manifestations, considering their territoriality and their practices as radicant. It will be found that the disruptive potential of Xixa's performances, especially when studying them in comparison with the prevailing drag scene, must be thought of as heir to other previous artistic manifestations in order to restore it as part of a dissident sex-gender genealogy.