{"id":4230,"date":"2025-04-30T14:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T12:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/?p=4230"},"modified":"2025-09-10T07:43:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T05:43:49","slug":"carnival-elements-as-licensed-transgression-in-colonia-dignidad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/?p=4230","title":{"rendered":"IFTR Cologne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prof. Grzegorz Zi\u00f3\u0142kowski delivered a paper\u00a0\u201cCarnival elements as licensed transgression in Colonia Dignidad, a sinister German enclave in Chile\u201d at the annual conference of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), which took place in Cologne (K\u00f6ln), Germany, from 9 to 13 June 2025, entitled <i>Performing Carnival: Ekstasis, Subversion, Metamorphosis<\/i>. <a href=\"https:\/\/site.pheedloop.com\/event\/iftr2025\/speakers\/SPEBXUGMUIQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The paper is one of the results of the author\u2019s research project titled \u201cThe Performative Realm of \u2018Colonia Dignidad,\u2019 a German Enclave in Chile, in Historical and Political Contexts\u201d (<em>Performatywna strefa <\/em><em>\u201eKolonii Godno<\/em><em>\u015bci\u201d, niemieckiej enklawy w Chile, w kontek\u015bcie historycznym i politycznym<\/em>), financed by grant no. <a href=\"https:\/\/projekty.ncn.gov.pl\/en\/index.php?projekt_id=539544\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2021\/43\/B\/HS2\/00360<\/a> from the National Science Centre (<em>Narodowe Centrum Nauki<\/em>, NCN) under its OPUS 22 Programme.<\/p>\n<p><em>Abstract<\/em>:\u00a0Performative practices were an integral part of the complex activities of <em>Colonia Dignidad<\/em>, a pseudo-religious community that originated in North Rhine-Westphalia and operated in Chile from the early 1960s. For decades, it systematically committed numerous crimes and violated human rights. Through various public performances, including acrobatic displays and music concerts, the colony\u2019s manipulative leader, Paul Sch\u00e4fer, and his inner circle successfully cultivated the image of an orderly group focused on charity work, undoubtedly one of the key factors which enabled the group\u2019s longevity and staying power. However, the community\u2019s performative activities were directed not only outwards but also inwards. The latter in some cases resorted to the carnival tradition with its poetics of abundance, surprise and transgression, as well as astonishing metamorphoses, elaborate disguises and an upside-down world. This may seem paradoxical in a place where rank-and-file settlers suffered pervasive oppression, were subjected to constant surveillance, and were brought into line with beatings, electroshocks and psychotropic drugs. The paper will argue that transgressive elements in the colony\u2019s inner performances were in fact licensed by those in power, and by allowing them to occur, group and individual energies were controlled in yet another way. This argument will be illustrated by two examples set in a historical context: an early performance of a demonstrative drowning of Santa Claus in the Perquilauqu\u00e9n river (1962?); and a performance (previously unmentioned in the literature on the subject) staged by young female colonists impersonating the area\u2019s indigenous inhabitants, the Mapuche, shortly after Sch\u00e4fer\u2019s escape to Argentina (1997?).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prof. Grzegorz Zi\u00f3\u0142kowski delivered a paper\u00a0\u201cCarnival elements as licensed transgression in Colonia Dignidad, a sinister German enclave in Chile\u201d at the annual conference of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), which took place in Cologne (K\u00f6ln), Germany, from 9 to 13 June 2025, entitled Performing Carnival: Ekstasis, Subversion, Metamorphosis. Website The paper is one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4435,"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions\/4435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}