The Emancipating Opera

NOME exhibits Voluspa Jarpa’s video The Emancipating Opera (2019), which was originally presented in her solo exhibition at the Chilean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2019. Written by Jarpa in collaboration with the sociologist Alberto Mayol, the film gives a unique format to the historical disputes between hegemonic and subordinated subjectivities. The Emancipating Opera takes up the musical form of the cantata and uses this genre from European musical history to create a narrative about power and emancipation. In the piece, voices come together to sing about the hegemonic psyche of European and US patriarchal colonizers and the subaltern psyche of marginalized social classes. Two protagonists mediate between these poles: the “arriero,” a traditional Chilean muleteer, and the transsexual singer and actress Daniela Vega. In Jarpa’s video, indigenous culture is contrasted with colonialist writings that sought to legitimize the subjugation of non-Western cultures with their discourse of devaluation.