Concealment of the face in social protests. Performances, affects and politics

Abstract

Throughout time, the mask has been a fundamental semiotic device in social protest and artistic practices, and it is considered a versatile figure that expresses a double identity: the one that it hides and the one that it shows. In today’s digital society, the concealment of the face through masks and make-up has become a symbol of protest facial recognition that exercises biopolitical control of faces. The objective of this work is to analyze, from a sociosemiotic perspective in connection with the theory of affects and performance studies, the construction of aesthetic-political meanings that emerge from the concealment of faces in two actions of artistic activism in Argentina: “8M, Women’s Day”, action of the ContraArte collective in the streets of Córdoba, and “Radio funo vol. 7 portraits” of the FUNO group in the city of Buenos Aires. Said analysis will be carried out on the images of both interventions that are published on the social network Facebook. The research results show how the masks used in both experiences configure signs of collective resistance that activate affections in the public space as policy of dissent.