Art as a participant in Memories
creative experience of Núcleo Creativo CC in Chile
A meeting with Daniela Contreras-López and Edison Cájas (Núcleo Creativo CC, Chile), led by Prof. Grzegorz Ziółkowski (Institute of Film, Media and Audiovisual Arts)
14 November 2025 (Friday), 9:45–11:15 am
Theatre Studio, Collegium Maius, 10 Fredry str., Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, entrance from the library hall, Kowalczyka lane (behind Collegium Maius)
A week before the meeting, on 7 November 2025 (Friday) at 9:45 am, a video theatre performance by Núcleo Creativo CC titled Baviera (2021, 41’) will be presented in the Theatre Studio with an introduction by Prof. Ziółkowski.
Description: Baviera explores the concept of evil associated with the system of repression and punishment established in Colonia Dignidad. It is, at the same time, a stage play that combines theatre and cinema to propose a shared reflection on this system.
Synopsis: A girl is treated at the Colonia Dignidad hospital, a compound in southern Chile led by Paul Schäfer, and begins to be held captive to continue treatments that cure illnesses she no longer has. The drugs she is given keep her in a permanent state of hallucination and chaos. The girl is forced to learn German and is illegally adopted by a German family. Lost in a maze of unanswered questions, she tries to reconstruct her reality.
Núcleo Creativo CC is a duo established in 2017 by Edison Cájas and Daniela Contreras-López to explore, along with other artists and contributors, scenic devices by mixing cinema and theatre resources with audience participation. Their artistic work combines interdisciplinary research to explore the Chilean dictatorship (1973–90) and its effects on the current society, crossing stories based on their personal lives with events occurred in Chile in recent years, as a way to bring a present reflection to the social sphere. Their method consists of conceiving the scenic pieces as a cinematographic assembly, in which the theatrical elements are developed according to the mechanics of cinema.
Edison Cájas is a Chilean filmmaker, theater director, and graduate in Philosophy. He has directed six fiction short films and a feature documentary premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. His work focuses on Chile’s historical memory, exploring the connections between trauma, truth, and representation. As a filmmaker, he has directed and coordinated several audiovisual memory archives dedicated to survivors of extermination camps and torture centers in Chile, including the Villa Grimaldi Oral Archive, Colonia Dignidad, and the Borgoño Archive. His work seeks to confront violence and disappearance through an ethics of image and memory.
Daniela Contreras-López is a Chilean performing artist whose work spans directing and acting, both in film and theatre. Her practice stems from a drive to explore memory, human rights and the traces of dictatorship in present-day Chile, articulating theatrical and cinematographic languages in hybrid and collaborative devices.
The artists’ visit to Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań is funded by the Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio de Chile (MINCAP).
Proyecto Financiado por el Fondo Nacional de Fomento y Desarrollo de las Artes Escénicas, CONVOCATORIA 2025.
The meeting is one of the results of Prof. Grzegorz Ziółkowski’s research project titled “The Performative Realm of ‘Colonia Dignidad,’ a German Enclave in Chile, in Historical and Political Contexts” (Performatywna strefa „Kolonii Godności”, niemieckiej enklawy w Chile, w kontekście historycznym i politycznym), financed by grant no. 2021/43/B/HS2/00360 from the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki, NCN) under its OPUS 22 Programme.